One of the days we went underway we did a man overboard drill with the class. We have a series of roles in this drill. We have the spotter, boat hook, life ring, and the person who has the harness on in order to hang low to be able to retrieve the person in the water. We have a spotter that keeps their arm towards the person in the water and yells out how far away we are to the person. Boat hook person is the person with the boat hook that hooks onto the PFD of the person and hooks the life ring afterward. The life ring person is the one that grabs the life ring and throws it to the person immediately after they hear “man overboard!”. The harness person is one that has to put the harness on themselves and hook them self to something to keep them from falling into the water. They are the ones that grab the person from the stern and pull the person back onto the boat. My crew did it in 2 or 3 mins and 50 seconds which is pretty good for us since we need to have a quick recovery time. We do this because we want to be prepared for an emergency if it ever happens. It is also good practice for when you are on a boat and someone goes overboard. Instead of panicking you immediately do what you know you have to do and you could save a life.
-Jennifer OConnor
