PMI Session #1: COMPLETE!

Yesterday we finished up day 2 of our Basic Firefighting class, which essentially consisted of a classroom phase and test, then a 3-4 hour practical session at the mockup. Everyone did well fighting the fires inside the mockup, trading out positions in tight quarters and rescuing "Joe", our decapitated dummy/"missing person". Afterwards, the instructors handed out our certificates and we headed to the Nickerson Pub for some "Session 1 Closure".

Class C fire in the engine room with Team India as primary.

Basic Firefighting complete...

Nickerson Pub with most of the class...

Most of my classmates have their itineraries dialed in and are shipping out this coming week on their sea phases, although a few are still trying to get ahold of their companies and iron everything out. Some folks are heading down to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to work on tugs that supply the oil Industry, while others are heading to research vessels, or Northwest tow companies like me. Once the sea phases begin, we have a myriad of things that we must do while underway, in addition to our job on the boat. We have a training record book that must get checked off by a designated person onboard, and we have a few special projects to complete during the phase.

Because I already have sufficient sea-time under my belt, I went ahead and signed up for a Lifeboatmen class in Edmonds for this upcoming week. I had a few days of downtime anyhow, so I checked with PMI and they agreed to let me take the class early, which does two things for me, 1. It speeds up my Able-Seaman certificate by two months, which hopefully equates to a raise in pay with my company, and 2. Gives me an additional week off in June while the rest of the class is taking the class. During that week, I can either come home, or work on the boat. The timing just worked out that they had a class available, and that I had dead time while waiting to ship out.

Today, I'm going to assemble my bike that has been sitting in the back of my car for the past 3 weeks, and go for a spin on the Burke-Gilman bike trail, which is similar to the American River trail back home. The weather today is supposed to be upper 60's, so I'm going to go out and soak as much of that warmth up as possible before heading north to Alaska!

I'll post up a few things during LB class, but then you might not hear from me for a few weeks or even a month depending on wifi access in our ports of call. From what I understand, we will pull into port, offload/on load, tie stuff down and GO. We may or may not have any shore time during these ports, but that is to be determined.

 

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