Hope I never have to get in a liferaft

As we plod through the RYA Yachtmaster syllabus we are also ticking off the other requisites for a commercial endorsement to the RYA Offshore Certificate. For this endorsement we have had a medical stating that we are capable of being the skipper/mate/deckhand of a vessel up to 200 tons (200 tons, jeezz). We have been attending a St. John's Ambulance First Aid course at the main hospital here. The course material and the diligence with which the instructor works through it (all for 33 Euros per head) makes the course that I did before leaving Canada for $80 look very weak. Yesterday Tony and I went to Melieha Bay to do an RYA sanctioned Sea Survival Course. Basically other than watching a few videos which covered the use of various radio and automatic safety responders we experienced trying, and succeeding to get in a liferaft which is in the water. This was very difficult to do, many of us struggled very much to get in. If I've learned anything from that experience its - STAY ON YOUR BOAT - almost no matter what.
Out of 8 people in the course, Tony and 2 other buff men from the Malta Harbour Police did manage to get in wearing an inflated life jacket. The rest of us could not do it with the lifejacket on. From this attached video you'll see how hard it was for me to get in. I really wanted to pull the girl card and give up and flop back into the water - but that's not usually my style, plus as you can hear I was gettings lots of verbal encouragement. Tomorrow we finish the First Aid course and will continue with the rest of our plod. When we first committed to this we were a bit peeved that people with as much sailing experience as ourselves had not earned the credibility we were seeking. However now that we've actually got a handle on how much we have forgotten about manual navigation, plus some that we (or I should say I) don't think ever learned in the Power Squadron course, we are glad that we are doing this. RYA or not, we should know this.

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