I sold my soul once and worked in the offshore oil industry,
mainly in the North Sea. Prior to working offshore, we had extensive safety training (how to get out of a ditched helicopter, how to right a capsized life raft etc.). We also did fire training and how to get out of a burning oil rig - this is that scariest thing I've ever experienced: the instructors send you into a mock up of a rig, with a fire somewhere. It's pitch black, full of smoke and you are given a breathing mask and about 15 minutes of air. It took about 5 minutes to 'escape' and I was on red - so real firemen have my full respect.

Anyway, it's pretty dangerous working in the North Sea - not least because the water is pretty nippy. If a disaster occurs in the winter, they reckon you'll survive about 3 minutes in the water before hypothermia gets you - as far as I was concerned, the safety aspects were pretty important.

So I had a bit of a shock on my first offshore job, on a vessel formally used by Jacque Cousteau. I was just about to finish a shift and the crew went through a safety drill - this one was the rapid rescue of a man overboard (i.e., get him out of the water fast). The ideal drill should get someone out within about a minute and the ships have a fast rescue boat to do this.

On this day they threw a dummy in a life-jacket out into the water, sounded the alarm and the rescuers went to do their thing. My workmates and I stopped to watch the well-drilled crew. What actually happened was they couldn't get the boat into the water - it took them 20 minutes - and once they did, the fast rescue boat went round the main boat's stern and broke down about 50 metres away from the dummy. We had to throw them a line to help them back. The dummy was lost.

The ship's cook was great though - fresh croissants every day.
(Jimbojames Wishing every day could be like today, Sat 3 Nov 2012, 12:22, 2 replies)

Offshore survival courses today
like the BOSIET and HUET must be pretty dumbed down these days as the smoke is cosmetic and you have a filter mask, not any BA.

Helly Hansen survival suits are the best; I think the tests showed that you could be in 10°C water for 24 hours and your core body temperature wouldn't even drop by 1°C.
( M3rx likes the Asian ladies, Mon 5 Nov 2012, 11:34, closed)

We also did a run through with a smoke mask and it was grim.
I like the sound of the modern suits though - we had dry suits with holes in them (and I don't mean the pressure valve thingy), kind of defeats the purpose a bit I think!
(Jimbojames Wishing every day could be like today, Mon 5 Nov 2012, 13:45, closed)