21 October Safety at sea

 While ferreting in the forward wardrobe the other day I noticed the fire extinguisher was covered with dust bunnies. As I wiped I looked at the gauge and was horrified it read 'empty'. This prompted me to check the other extinguishers on board, seven total, and found three were good, but four had expired.

Before we started our sailing life David and I did three RYA courses; Competent crew, Day Skipper and Survival at Sea. I remember the tutor asking us what we thought was the biggest cause of death at sea. Falling overboard? Being hit by the boom? Sinking? No. The answer is fire. Fire on tankers, cruise ships, motor vessels and sail boats is statistically the biggest cause of death at sea making an adequate supply of working fire extinguishers, our first line of safety, imperative. We went off to West Marine and bought the last one on the shelf.

This one is categories B and C, electrical and liquids / gas. From Amazon we ordered a pack of four A,B and C extinguishers. 'A' is designed to tackle wood and fabric fires. Now we have eight in spec extinguishers distributed at strategic points; two in the forward hanging locker, three at the bottom of the companionway stairs, two in the aft hanging locker and one automatic type in the engine room.

Here we are testing the expired units as we motored south down the Chesapeake and a long way from land. It was a good opportunity to refresh our memories of how to use one and interesting to see that an 'empty' cannister has zero propellant. Of the four showing empty one worked. Like a spirit level – useless on board a ship.