offshore survival practical

The offshore survival practical is the second part of the so called course. It needs to be done as well if you want to have the certification and then be able to enter any offshore rig.

I did it yesterday morning.

The place was the swimming pool of one of the best hotel in Kish. The eram hotel.
I had to be here at 9h00,I was at 9h15 because of communication problem with the driver.He does not speak a single word in english. I thought that he knows at least the basics but not really actually.So, I said him to drive me to the swimming pool. I did very simple and said him "pool".He started to drive and after 10 minutes he stopped me in front of a bank and started looking me.

"hmmm whats up " I was thinking.

After giving a call to my supervisor he eventually drove to the correct place.Later on i knew that "pool" in persian means money...

Back to the course itself.Arriving to the pool, just time to wear the coverall and the lifejacket.
We learnt how to " jump " in the sea in case of emergency evacuation.we also learnt how to make a line in the sea in order to minimize swimming efforts. After that instructor shew us how to step
into a life raft, how to properly approach a rescue boat.

the best was for the end : jumping into cold water.there was a small pool with water around 8 Deg C. Instructor told us to jump in it because most of the sea in the world are not really hot.I was the younger so they designated me as a first. I put first my leg inside in order to check ( even if in real condition , you can not touch the water before jumping in it). it was bloody cold.Then I jumped .... at the moment I was totally immerged I thought that I was dying. Its an awfull feeling because your heart suddenly got a shock and maybe pass from 100 beats per minutes to 200 . I could not breathe... it took maybe 5 minutes to calm down my breathe but the water was still cold.
Then instructor shew us how to keep the body heat with another guy.

we finish this session in a jaccuzzi in order to recover from this thermal shock.

I can not guarranty that I will remember everything I learnt during this offshore survival course but at least I know now that they are lying in Titanic movie. the water was around 1 or 2 Deg C. So I can not believe that this guy had time to do whatever in the sea when the titanic sank!!

R
PS: no PS for this post