I endured the joys of wet rubber on at least a dozen occasions over the years. Best was at Mountbatten, because they were very professional in all respects. Worst as either at Tenby, when the launch suffered an engine failure and we had to be recovered by RIB (helicopter not available....) or at somewhere whilst at Wattisham - we had to change in and out of the provided immersion suits below in some windowless paint store whilst the launch pitched and rolled in a significant sea state....
Always did it in immersion suits though!
The 'haul in the sea anchor to be picked up first' ploy was well-known - although if too many people did it, the result was somewhat self-defeating!
Always a good way of getting to know your future course mates - although pre-VC10, one of them was the infamous 'Phnom Penh Len'. The ex-Herc rearcrew knew him from old and had a word with their SCSR chums, who made sure that PPL had the best possible exposure to sea survival...
