OPITO Training Day 2

Today we started with a review of how the rebreather works. It's basically a snorkel attached to an air bag. You inhale, and then blow into this thing. Close the valve, and exhale through your mouth. You are blowing air into the rebreather. Now you can inhale and "rebreathe" the same air. They give you nose clips so you don't inhale a nosefull of water.

Our first exercise was to use the rebreather underwater for 20 seconds. It's MUCH easier on the ground than in the water. Then we had to use an underwater handrail to pull ourselves across to the other side of the pool while using the rebreather. My noseclips slid right off. Very unpleasant, but I made it across. They gave me some tape to put on my nose to keep them on.

The helicopter evacuation was the part I was dreading the most, and I was about to panic on the first run. We did six dunks: one where we held our breath on our own and swam out the window, one with the rebreather (which was actually harder for me) and one with the rebreather but the window was closed and we had to push it out. Then we did these three again but with the helicopter capsized--we were turned upside down. By the last time on each one I was gaining confidence but I can tell you it's still not something I would do for fun. Next is lunch and then the fire safety portion of the course.

Sorry I don't have pictures but we have to leave everything in lockers and there is no where to carry a camera in the suit! This is pretty much exactly what it looks like, except my window seemed a lot smaller than the ones in this picture! We went through it four at a time: