Back by popular demand

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Alright, So I guess it is time for another post. Pictures forthcoming. We'll start with the rest of the course.

Most of the course has been a lot of common sense stuff they have to teach you anyways however we did get to do some fun things like practising with the life rafts and immersion suits. To do this, we went to a pool and had to jump in and tread water for 15 minutes. We weren't allowed to just wear a bathing suit and had to wear normal clothes since that would probably be the case in a real emergency. After that we practised using life-preservers as well as how to swim out of an area of burning oil slick. Then we practised using life rafts and immersion suits.

The firefighting was pretty standard. We were taught how to use all the equipment including the Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA). They taught us how to identify and diffuse flashover's and backdrafts as well as a lot of the basics of firefighting. It also included identifying the proper extinguisher for each type of fire. The practical portion involved a search and rescue operation as well as actually using the extinguishers and hoses. With the search and rescue, they had us suit up and then proceeded to blindfold us to simulate smoke. We then proceeded to search a bunch of rooms looking for a victim. Once we found him we had to drag him out. This was done in teams of two. It's a lot more complicated then it seems though since you have to be watching for holes in the floor which you can't see as well as make sure you don't get lost. I got quizzed by both the firefighting instructor as well as the people who run the school about whether I have worked on boats before or anything like that. Apparently I really impressed them with my leadership ability. Veerle said I'd make a good Captain one day.

Other than that we haven't done much. We spent Sunday at the beach since nothing was open. Monday I went running around handing out my resume to all the different agencies and yesterday was an island wide holiday so once again everything was closed. We spent the morning sitting outside practicing knots and then went to the beach/reef to do some snorkeling.

I'll post some pictures soon.

Neil

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Comments

[Mom]

Ah the vicarious life style -loving it
Great pics and text Neil, appears you are pretty well prepared for an event we hope never happens. It must have been almost unbearably hot in the survival suits. By the way I wonder why the Netherland Antillies had Nov. 11 as a holiday. Canada had a pretty important role in events in Holland just before that date.

[Greenwood]

Yeah they were pretty hot. I opened mine up and let water in however when i got out of the pool i was walking around in my own personal swimming pool. Really heavy. Apparently the 11th was when St. Maarten was discovered.

[Jen]

ARRRRRR
Hi Neil, glad to hear things are working out for you. Now comes the time of waiting. Keep your spirits up work will come with the boat show and Dec. There will be lots of work then. If you have any questions call PEHJL2244 skype or email. Love to talk to you. Best of luck.