Safety is first on the schooner Adventuress, which takes out hundreds of passengers each year in the ever-changing conditions of the Salish Sea.
On March 27, Karen McDonald, one of the …
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Adventuress crew take part in safety training, including hauling a person wearing an “exposure suit” into the raft. Photo by Rachel Ganapoler
Chief Mate Zach Simonson-Bond secures a line on the Adventuress’ life raft, deployed for training purposes on March 27. Photo by Robin Dudley
Schooner Adventuress crew, volunteers and interested people gathered on March 27 for a rare training opportunity: the deployment of a life raft. This life raft had “expired” and was to be replaced, so the crew practiced an “abandon ship” drill. The schooner, which carries passengers for educational and recreational purposes, has never needed to deploy a life raft. Photo by Robin Dudley
During a March 27 training, the Adventuress’ expired life raft pops open and begins to self-inflate. It took about two minutes for the 50-person raft to fully inflate. Photo by Robin Dudley
Safety is first on the schooner Adventuress, which takes out hundreds of passengers each year in the ever-changing conditions of the Salish Sea.
On March 27, Karen McDonald, one of the schooner’s new captains, led the crew in a rare training exercise: launching a life raft, an event that only happens in the event of an emergency grave enough to warrant the command “Prepare to abandon ship.”
Per U.S. Coast Guard requirements, Adventuress carries an inflatable life raft for as many as 50 people. It’s stored in a white canister under a large table on deck. Inside the canister is a pump that inflates the raft automatically; it’s activated by a sharp tug on a protruding cord. The raft also has a hydrostatic release mechanism that deploys it automatically.
“It goes off at certain pressure caused by water depth,” McDonald explained, so that in a sudden sinking, the raft should pop up to the surface.
Life rafts like this are inspected annually by professionals and expire after a certain time limit. The schooner had carried this one for more than 10 years without being needed. A new raft has been acquired, providing the opportunity to use the old raft for training.
“It’s sort of a rare scenario” to be able to deploy a life raft for training, McDonald said.
There were about 20 people gathered on deck to witness the raft’s launching, and a few more watched from the ship’s Zodiac dinghy, circling nearby in the calm water off Port Townsend Boat Haven’s D Dock.
A line was used to secure the canister to the ship before four crew members hoisted it to the rail and plopped it into the water, where it bobbed next to the hull until McDonald had the crew in the Zodiac tow it several yards out. Someone yanked the cord and it popped open like an egg, the yellow rubber raft steadily and quickly inflating. In just a few minutes, the circular raft was fully inflated, about 7 yards in diameter, with a protruding section to help people climb aboard, and otherwise resembling an oversize, black-and-yellow backyard kiddie pool.
“Ships go down two ways,” said McDonald, “either really fast or really slow.”
The March 27 raft deployment demonstrated how it might happen in a slow abandon-ship situation, which might be caused by a fire onboard, an egregious leak or other events. If the ship is sinking slowly, the raft is deployed by the crew and boarded from the boat. The crew is also trained to remember grab-and-go emergency bags prepacked with medical kits, seasickness medications, blankets and food. The raft comes equipped with a hand pump, flashlights, water, oars and food.
Because Adventuress only sails in the inland waters of the Salish Sea, it’s unlikely that people would be on the raft for long.
Adventuress has never deployed a life raft in an emergency situation, McDonald said.
Adventuress also carries a small rowboat called Ayashe and an inflatable Zodiac type of motorboat, which is used almost daily as a small push boat, supply boat, people mover and general dinghy. That’s what the crew would use to rescue someone who fell overboard, for example.
