Survival at sea Course

[jonnyboy]

Guys

 

Did a survival at sea course yesterday for my job (work paid for it )

 

It was a brilliant insight to what can go wrong at sea, and whilst it didnt directly deal with Kayaks, i got to task the instructor about flares etc. He said that mini flares are pretty useless in an emergency situation and what we should all be carrying are "day and night" flares. These are a two ended effort with an orange smoke flare on one end and night flare on the other. they are about 20 quid i think.

 

He also didnt think much of the 50N PFD's either, saying that you have to be a strong swimmer to survive in one and if you are injured, and cant swim, you'll probably drown. 150N minimum was his recommendation, which obviously takes you into th erealms of the crewsaver type (work also gave me one of these ) They are auto inflate (not much good on the yak) or manual inflate. I can see problems with both of these. That said, dont yak do an 80N PFD?

 

anyway just a bit of food for thought

[s2vto]

Interesting reading especially as I cannot swim very far!

 

Dont think I will buy mini flares now either

 

thanks, good info

 

where do u work btw?

[blobby]

Not good news knowing that I have a set of pretty useless flares in the pocket of my pretty useless PFD

 

And with my pretty useless transducer boot things are definitely not looking up

Edited January 19, 2007 by blobby

[jonnyboy]

Interesting reading especially as I cannot swim very far!

 

Dont think I will buy mini flares now either

 

thanks, good info

 

where do u work btw?

I work for an agency of DEFRA called Cefas, its the Centre for Environment Aquaculture and Fisheries Science, in Weymouth, my job is to travel al over the UK inspecting fish and shellfish farms, so i get to go to sea a little bit, hence the course!! Its a top job becasue i get to talk about fish all day long and get offered fishing in places that you just dont ever get offered fishing, Cant accept any of it though as it could be ssen as a bribe, bugger

[s2vto]

I work for an agency of DEFRA called Cefas, its the Centre for Environment Aquaculture and Fisheries Science, in Weymouth, my job is to travel al over the UK inspecting fish and shellfish farms, so i get to go to sea a little bit, hence the course!! Its a top job becasue i get to talk about fish all day long and get offered fishing in places that you just dont ever get offered fishing, Cant accept any of it though as it could be ssen as a bribe, bugger

 

I was going to apply for a similar job in Pembrokeshire!

 

Sounds interesting

[overrun]

Interesting reading especially as I cannot swim very far!

 

Dont think I will buy mini flares now either

 

thanks, good info

 

where do u work btw?

 

Don't think any of us will swim very far in a dry suit, best I can hope for is to float and delay hypothermia.

[maidstonemike]

I am a strong swimmer,and can swim a mile or two non stop in the pool. However, it doesn't count for much at sea. The cold, waves, tides etc will weaken the strongest swimmer. Best be safe and cautious than dead.

[YakDiver]

I've just checked my PFD ...yes 50N, but I was pleased to see that my CO2 manual one is rated at 150N, so I think I will wear that one more often, I bought it for summer use to begin with, I have never liked the fishing vest type with all the pockets as one tends to fill them up with bits and bobs and if you got ditch it could hamper your entry back into the kayak, just thinking this would also happen if one was using a proper life jacket, I think I will have to try mine out .....very soon just to see if I can get back in without too much trouble.

It was interesting to know about the "mini flares are pretty useless in an emergency situation"

so why do they sell them !!! I need some more so I will look out for those two ended ones.

Many thanks for a good write up JonnyBoy.

[SpeciMan]

If some air is left in a dry suit this will give extra buoyancy and help insulation when on the kayak - you won't get tipped upside if you are wearing a buoyancy aid and have air in your drysuit.

[Martin Hurst]

I'm afraid i'm never one to take at face value opinions. I'm not saying there incorrect but would require a full explanation.

I have my doubts , as the PFD rating (I thought??) gives 2 times the flotation for the weight scale , so i'd have thought without knowing the weight of the wearer comments such as a 50N is useless are meaningless out of context. PFD's are not designed to turn the casualty face over so apart from adding more buoyancy how would a 150N vest be of additional help to an injured casualty ??Similarly , I fired off one of my miniflares over new year and it certainly gave a decent show. it would in my opinion be of great use guiding in a rescue for example , particularly as I have 7 left!