Today, we had abandon ship drill. If I ever have to leave a sinking vessel, I hope it's a freighter with a handful of crew and not a cruise ship with thousands of passengers.
Amber has regular training for fire, pirates, oil spills, all sorts of emergencies. By the swimming pool, Chief Mate Hrvoje Horvat instructs on immersion suits, which are in all our cabins.
Third Mate Elijun Tan demonstrates.
Another crew member (difficult to tell who's who in these suits) bobs in the water.
A lifeboat is lowered as the chief mate and captain anxiously watch. This can be very dangerous; two people were killed on a CMA CGM ship this year when a boat drill went wrong. Now, no one's in a lifeboat when it's lowered in an exercise.
If you've ever wondered what one of these things is like, read on. From the bow, here are the two sides with space for thirty-six (Amber is currently carrying twenty-three). Each place has shoulder straps, a safety belt and protective headrest.
The boats are equipped with a solar panel for charging, radar deflector, flares, fishing gear, first aid supplies and so on. These are water and ration packs.
Third Mate Frederick Villanueva at the wheel.
Here are the instrument panel and view from the little cockpit.
Amber has two lifeboats and six life rafts. In the best case, with only eleven or twelve in each lifeboat, it still would be claustrophobic and unnerving. With engine on, the interior would be hot, stuffy and noisy. Pitching and rolling would make people seasick and the smell in tightly packed conditions would be dreadful, but survivable.
On passenger ships, the chief mate, who worked on one, says the worst problem would not be the elderly or handicapped; the problem would be untrained people panicking. And on a vessel with thousands of passengers, that could mean disaster.
