A successful deployment :-)

A busy old day this first day in October, starting with a heavy lift and finishing with a deployment of one of our four 100 man life rafts http://www.surviteczodiac.com/LRDocs/Datasheets/100TOVcontround.pdf . The first job after our arrival aboard the MV Hallaig was to assist with an emergency lift of the aft ramp. It’s something that we are well practiced in with the Loch Striven but it had to proved to the attending MCA inspector and the procedure is slightly different. The Hallaig ramps inner and outer leaves have separate hydraulic rams that have to be lifted in two stages, they’re also a little heavier, but surprisingly not by much. The emergency lifting gear is pretty much the same and consists of two lovely 10ton Yale chain blocks plus a smaller half ton block for lifting them into position on the two ‘Samson posts’ that support the stowed outer leaf.

 

The first section is lifted into the vertical position then bolted to the inner leaf whilst the tackles are lowered and their purchase transferred.

 

It is a long and strenuous job that takes a good two hours of heaving with a crew of four, however with a dozen strong men comprising of two crews and some yard workers we had it housed in 1 hour 45 minutes.

 

After lunch the operation of the four 100man life rafts was explained to us by Cedric, a French technician from Survitech Zodiac  http://www.surviteczodiac.com/ prior to our deploying one of them. An invaluable exercise as most people seldom get to use one of these huge rafts for real as training is normally given on smaller versions and with video footage. The casing has to replaced after every deployment and that alone is about £2k so this very realistic exercise of abandoning the ship via the upper deck and chute exciting indeed.

The life raft is released remotely from the wheelhouse by the skipper, it rolls into the sea then is winched into position by two members of the crew.

 

Once it is within a few feet of it’s position by the embarkation gate it automatically inflates.

  

The life raft is then pulled in hard to the ships side and the normal route would be to step straight into it from the car deck.

 

There is however an alternative entry from the next deck should access to the gate be impossible, and that would be via an inflatable chute on the port mez deck. Sadly being on the ‘muster list’ as one of the rescue boat operators I missed out on that treat but was assured it was great fun

 

You can tell by all the smiling faces

 

I was pretty impressed with the rescue boat too, its 40hp four stroke Yamaha engine with electric start and power trim and tilt giving it plenty of power and manoeuvrability for marshalling the deployed rafts and towing them to safety. 

 

With the life raft successfully launched, all the passengers and crew saved it was left to Cedric and the two chaps from Ocean Safety http://www.oceansafety.com/ pack it away.

 

with a little help from the yards crane that is

 

That was it for today at the yard, I commuted back to my mates flat stopping along the way to buy some fresh scallops from Morrison’s. OK, perhaps not that fresh as they were only £1.35 but they had bright enough roes and no smell so I couldn’t wait to get them home and into the frying pan with some butter. Having spent a good deal of my adult life on and under the water farming and diving for them I’ve eaten rather a lot and can usually tell if they’re going to be good. I wasn’t anticipating anything cordon bleu as they will have been dredged rather than picked but I was still expecting a mouth watering treat. So much so that I skipped the garlic and chopped up bacon to just savour them. They were absolutely tasteless great firm texture nice solid roes but no taste whatsoever, I was gutted.

And just before I turn in here’s a ship that passed by during our ramp lift,

the MV Nordstrand belonging to Faversham Ships http://www.favershamships.co.uk/nordstrand.html .