It looks like baby spew...', explained instructor Dave Eccles.

He was of course talking about the fluid which can occur in the lungs of a casualty when a lot of sea water is ingested. I was soon learn that this condition could be fatal if left untreated.

I was sat in a class room in Fleetwood nautical college and local lifeboat crew members were running through the theory of casualty recovery and treatment before moving on to liferafts and the much awaited practical pool exercise.

The college is attended by students from all over the world and boasts excellent training and facilities. Its pool includes wave and smoke machines, a RAF helicopter winch simulator, sound effects and all other manner of devices required to simulate emergency situations - night exercises are easy to recreate too, they turn the lights out! In addition to their regular RNLI training and exercises Fleetwood crew are allowed to have free use of these local facilities every six months. I didn't ask whether this privilege had anything to do with the fact two of the college's instructors are crew members and one is in the process of joining...

At the pool's muster area the crew kitted up in an array of different wet weather gear and lifejackets for testing and comparison purposes before jumping off the muster platform some 12ft into the deep pool below.

The crew were then taken step-by-step through the individual stages of a hypothetical emergency situation. Every detail was covered including gathering and formation, liferaft inflation and righting techniques, getting in the liferaft and making secure, and helicopter winch recovery - quite some ground to cover before the grand finale. When everyone was happy that all everything had been covered the lads were led out and the instructors set up an emergency simulation.

The pool became pitch black, smoke filled the room, the wave machine built up a healthy swell and appropriate sound effects kicked in - I had to admit it was all pretty convincing.

Cue Fleetwood crew who leap into the smoggy darkness - for the next few minutes I couldn't see much except when the odd flare went off. Then followed the sound of a helicopter circling overhead and when the lights came up, all were safety tucked away in the raft O.