On The Road Again (60tn)

When I left off this story I had completed my research - so it was time to start jumping through the Transport Canada hoops.

As fate would have it, one of the members of my Coast Guard unit was also interested in getting a 60tn - although he had elected to pay for the Course. He was, however, working to get hsi friend (a certified instructor) to teach the Course here in Sechelt.

We had to take courses for the MED A2 and the ROC-MC portions, so Kellei and I deceided to do all of that together - it was a local Course and only took 5 days for both. We both already had the Advanced First Aid - so this would be the only formal instruction necessary.

The ROC-MC radio Course was very easy for me - being an electrical engineering grad with a specility in communications, a HAM radio operatior, and having held a ROC-M certification since I was in my early teens, the commercial Course was mainly just a brush up on the GMDSS and DSC.

The MED A2 was the cool one. Granted, it´s just a safety Course - centered on many of the things we keep up on during Coast Guard training. THings like hypothermia & cold shock, survival, distress situations, croud control and management, etc... For me personally the ability to actually launch a life raft and get inside - which gave us a first hand impression of what it would be like to be in there - will certainly help should we ever encounter one during a SAR mission. I hope we never do - but after taking the Course - I believe it is something everyone in the Auxiliary should take, just for their own personal benifit.

It certainly wouldn´t hurt for recreational boaters to take the Course too - but with a $800 price tag - I doubt too many would find it a reasonable expendature.

 - I´ll continue this, hopefulyl tomorrow - if I have net access to do so - writing About nautical experiences from Oklahoma, somehow that just seems wrong.

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