Since I will be working only 4 degree north of the Equator, I only had to take the T-BOSIET which is three days rather than five. BOSIET consist of five parts: Safety Induction, HEUT, Sea Survival, first aid, and firefighting. I was kind of looking forward to the course since I was told the closest facility to do the training was the Congo. I was rather disappointed to find out that a training facility had just opened in Malabo so I was going to get to do my training in town. My training class mix wasn’t surprising. I was the only female and the only expat in the class. I am not going to lie it was kind of intimidating for the first day but everyone was nice and friendly other than the monkey meat incident (One of them tried to convince me that the mystery meat for lunch was actually monkey. It wasn’t someone else later confirmed that I was correct and it was goat.) The most surprising part was that over half of them couldn’t swim so they would get to wear the fancy red helmets in the water.
The first day of the training course focused on the Safety Induction and Sea Survival. The Safety Induction was about four hours of oil rig basics which for me was good to know. It covered things like prescribed medication, illness, and personal protective equipment. The Sea Survival training was a about four hours: an hour of classroom and then three hours in the pool. This was to teach us what do should the need to board the lifeboats or are forced into the water arise. The lifeboats used on oil rig are rather. The lifeboats are completely enclosed, fire resistant, come with a sprinkler system and motor. The boat holds about 50 people and once everyone is inside, the hatch is closed and the motor is turned on. The boat is then lower into the water and once released from the hooks the sprinkler system is turned on, to help keep it fire resistant should the ocean be on fire. Then the boat is steered away from the platform. We got to do the get in and lowering part as part of the course. The second part of this exercise involved being dumped into the water and how to conserve body heat, stay together, get into a life raft, and get lifted by the helicopter winch. In theory, one should never have to jump in into the water unless its a helicopter crash but history has shown that in cases of extreme emergency that may be the only option left.
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| http://www.offshore.no/international/news/article.aspx?id=12580 |
- Water Fire Extinguisher to put out a Class A – Paper Fire
- Foam Fire Extinguishers to put out a Class B – Gasoline Fire
- Dry Powder Fire Extinguisher to put out a Class B – Gasoline Fire
- CO2 Fire Extinguisher to put out a Class C – Liquefied Petroleum Gas
After that we learned how to use the self-rescue smoke hood and how to escape from a smoke filled room as an individual and as a team.
The third day was the scariest day of the course, HUET. I am a certified SCUBA diver with over 50 dives and love wreck and cavern diving and I will freely admit that I almost had a panic attack. HUET is all about what to do if the helicopter crashes. The day starts out simple enough with an hour classroom session then everyone gears up with coveralls, helmets, and life jackets. We started off with a swimming assessment to see if anyone’s helmet color needed to be switched and from there they made sure everyone could hold their breath at least 25 seconds as well as how to breath though a SCUBA regulator. I easily passed those two parts. Then came the hard part: the five pool exercises using the helicopter simulator.
The first simulator is easy. It assumes the helicopter landed on the water and the floats deployed correctly and one leaves the helicopter and enters directly into the life raft.
The second exercise is a practice without having to remove the window. You are strapped into the chopper and it starts to sink. You have to wait until the chopper is fully submerged before leaving to ensure that the rotor blades have stopped.
The third is the same as before but this time you have to remove the window. This is why being patience is the key. One needs to wait until the pressures equalize to help facilitate an easy escape. These exercises were easy for me and for the third one I was tapped on the shoulder to signal it was time to get out.
The fourth on is where it gets hard. You are strapped in, the push out windows have been removed. The helicopter sinks and then flips upside down. You first have wait for the chopper to sink and then flip upside down. This is rather scary. I can hold my breath for 40 seconds but when that adrenaline rush hits you it’s like nothing else and that 40 seconds becomes about 10. I managed to complete this exercise but when I surfaced, I was breathing hard, my heart was pounding and I was shaking. I then had about a min to calm down and get back in and do it again this time with the push out windows installed.
The last exercise was where I almost panicked. I wasn’t in the greatest spot right after the previous one but all I could think about during that last rotation was that I didn’t want to fail so I didn’t have to do it again. That was the only though that kept me in my seat and allowed me to get through it. After that run, I spent the next like 5 mins sitting by the pool and just letting my heart rate return to normal and the shaking to stop. I am so glad that as long as I am working in Tropical water I will not have to do that again until May 2018. We weren't allowed to take photos or video of the training but here is a min long video showing you exactly what the training entailed.
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