24 July 2006
A MOB Alarm Drill
by Slade, onboard the Esperanza
©Greenpeace/Slade Gray
Similar to Fire Drills, this involved the crew assembling on the heli deck. Half the crew spots the man who has fallen overboard and all point to him/her, whilst the other half of the crew assists in lowering the inflatable boat into the water. With our skilled boat crew, Luke and Alain (who also drove inflatables in the Southern Ocean) they took off to collect the MOB. In this case the man who had fallen over was a buoy that had been thrown in the water by our 2nd Mate, Mathijs.
Whilst all this is happening on the deck, the Captain and 2nd Mate are on the bridge making a series of turns eventually doing a full 360 degree turn. It was really interesting to see how this all works. Everyone knew exactly what to do, exactly where they needed to be. Then there was me who didnt have a clue, hence the reason we practice these things. So I took photos and joined the spotting crew and observed the action.
After a debrief of the action and the buoy safely back on board, we all went back to work.
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Comments
I was very interested in reading about your man/woman over board drills, something I used to do a fair bit of. How long does it take to get the man/woman back on board and what sort of turn did the Captain use to get the ship back to the position of the man/woman overboard?
Ryder.
PS. Love your work out there.
Posted by: Ryder at July 25, 2006 5:19 AM
Hi Everyone,
Keep up the brilliant work, keep on smiling,and Good Luck in all your endevours,hugz alround, takecare.........x
Posted by: jackie morningmist at July 25, 2006 2:05 PM
Heya Slade!
I also felt the same thing when we had the MOB drill on the RW. I didnt have any clue on what I was supposed to do so I joined in spotting the MOB, the buoy.
Felt like a fish flopping on the deck :P
We do man overboards in our boat team but of course being on the ship is different...
Posted by: Mary Ann at July 26, 2006 4:55 AM
Dear Ryder.
I am pleased to see that someone is interested in our M or W overboard drill.
Because of the size of our relative small ship I do not use this Williams turn.
I just give hard rudder to port or starboard depending on which side the person fell over the side.
because the ship is a twin screw it doesn't really matter over which side you turn
If you use a Williams turn you have a bigger chance in my opinion that you lose the person out of sight.
So I just keep on closing in on the MOB and when I see the boat crew is ready I make a lee on the port side and launch the boat to pick up the MOB.
This time it took us 8 minutes to recover the victim.
That's a little too long. We are aiming for 6 minutes.
I hope this answered your questions.
Best regards.
Frank.
Captain MY Esperanza
Posted by: Frank, Captain - MY Esperanza at July 26, 2006 3:29 PM
Captain Frank,
For such a large ship it sounds like the Espy is very manueverable!
What is a Williams turn anyway?
Posted by: Mary Ann at July 26, 2006 7:15 PM
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