20060518 Motor Boat Training

Today was a day out on the water. The attached photo is me geared up for the occassion. I am wearing three sets of longjohns, goretex rainpants, two polypro shirts, a long-sleeved shirt, goretex/fleece vest, parka, float coat [the orange jacket, a pfd], ear-flap hat, gloves, boots and socks. I felt like the Michelin tire man but I needed it all. Rain spit most of the day, but we could see snow falling in the distance.

The day challenged many people and perhaps me as much as anyone. Prior to the day's training I had never operated a power boat in my life. The skill tests were:

We had to run the boat up to a buoy close enough for someone to reach out and touch it, but the boat could not touch the buoy.

We ran at full speed toward three buoys place in a triangle. As we passed between two buoys aimed directly at the third, the instructor pointed to the direction we must veer to miss that third buoy.

We had to run a slolom through a series of buoys placed in a straight line.

We had to slowly navigate within a pentagon of buoys about three boat lengths across, describing a pentagram with the boat by traveling forward, then back, then forward, then back, then forward once again. The boat could not touch a buoy nor travel further outside the pentagon than half a boat length.

We had to retrieve an unconscious person from the water [an instructor in a dry suit] and get them into the boat. This was a team exercise. The instructor is about 6'4" and 220#.

An intense day to say the least, jumping right into skill tests when I had no feeling for the tiller, the throttle, or really anything about any of the three boats used in the tests. Can you say FOCUS?

By the way, we put a thermometer in the water this morning to find out what we swam in on Tuesday--33 degrees fahrenheit!!!