I almost felt like a little kid again, wriggling into my footie pajamas and duck-walking around the poolside to jump off the diving board. Except the suit was bright orange, with a tight-fitting hood, mittens, and a chin flap that closed over top of my nose. It was also a lot warmer than my childhood footie pajamas, floated much better, and held at least two gallons of water...per leg.
After jumping off the diving board in my immersion suit, all the trapped air inside blew up the suit like a pillsbury doughboy. With the top flap unzipped and feet back down in the water, the air rushed out and left my suit shrinkwrapped around my body. Big mitten flippers made swimming floppy but effective.
Friday night's pool practical wrapped up our week of maritime Basic Safety Training, with exercises in immersion suit use and group swimming and huddling (how to stay together and move and keep warm in the ocean). We also learned all about life jackets and life rafts, practiced hauling each other into the life rafts and streaming a sea anchor, and ended the night by taking turns flipping the life raft upright (see the video below!). Sadly, we did not do the last activity with anyone in the raft, even though it could have been very entertaining. Lord willing nothing will happen while sailing, but if it does we will be well prepared.
One more day and we'll be headed out to Sierra Leone! We leave Wed morning for Freetown, and will be spending 2 1/2 weeks in a village outside of the city, helping to build a school. Because we will be living in the village, we won't have internet access until we reach the ship in early November. I look forward to updating you on our next adventures then!
It's kind of early and I thought this was called shipwrecked at sea. Glad you're just shrinkwrapped!
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