06/040 - Passage Planning Pressures

Rank_Occupation: 2nd Mate
Ship_Type: Tanker

Report:
I hope this fatigue report brings some hope for us seafarers . Ive always wanted to find a way to convey my frustration , on the lack of compliance, regarding this issue . And was happy to find such a forum . Reading many of the posts on this forum it has confirmed my belief that my company is not the only company faced with these problems in management and policies.
 

All the cases and experiences mentioned here i have personally experienced . This means that its a big problem .I have just seven years of experience out at sea and right from my first ship to the latest i have experienced all these , dosnt it mean that its more than a common problem.
 

Frankly all the accidents i have come across and discussed boil down to fatigue , many a times people rather blame equipment and take the blame on their competence than admit it was due to inadequate rest hours , due to work load forced on to seafarers by companies. I do understand that companies want to cut costs but i believe the onus for safer seas lies with Minimum manning , shipping is not what it used to be every year it more and more strenuous and difficult . ISM code has been a major boon .
 

Ive sailed on a ship where , even though it was ISM certified didn't follow ISM and relalised the importance of ISM when i returned to a ship that followed ISM , but why can companies put down on a checklist the time it takes to carry out the checks mentioned in a checklist , it will help both the ship and the company identify how much time is consumed on board in activities. There are not procedures on board to access the amount of time a work takes and cross check it with work time tables. Why not ask companies to have electronic work card which record times when a person goes to work and goes of work . If such devices are made tamper proof ILO would have an idea of how many ships actually follow STCW or ILO rest hours. But instead of investing on equipment that will help crew , work load is increased by increasing the number of checkes in a checklist. How many times have we had the time to actually sit down and check if our checklists apply to our ship. The culture now is to follow the checklist and assume it is correct . Do we actually follow . Sadly no. The more we educate our selves we realize the amount of risk we are taking but soon as we complete our courses and get back on board we tend to forget about the risks involved because we are worried about what our company will say if we tell them we are taking a risk or not complying with a checklist . For example . lets say a duty officer drops a walkie talkie , because he slipped on deck. Is that walkie talkie intrinsically safe any more? we don't know , but do we send it for a check no . Why?. Too much paper work involved , more work , means less productivity in our operations . Too many questions asked by superintendents . Well let me get to the point and explain a few of the problems i had experienced on my last ship and the ones before that too.

We had a Master , Chief officer , Second mate , Third mate , one cadet .

Lets say the ship is arriving at harbor to anchor. Courses are plotted with way point marked and bearing and distances marked off every way point , with the passage plan prepare to every minute detail . Not because we are concerned about a safe passage , its just because we are having a vetting inspection . We are scheduled to discharge at two berths first berth is confirmed but not the second. With the scale of the chart and the name of the first berth provided it cannot be located on the chart a rough position from Guide on Cd's port plans can be obtained . So heres our first violation ( no passage plan from berth to berth ) and no master is going to ask the charterers or the agents the exact location , because they don't want to communicate with them . Why?.
They think they are too busy to answer such questions .

Well the ship receives pilot and proceeds to anchorage , well the anchorage is decided once the pilot boards. So then again no actual passage plan , yes the master and pilot discuss it but is it plotted on chart . Some masters want it plotted on chart so either the duty officer is distracted doing this or the second mate is called when hes supposed to be off watch to do it.

Now that this has happened the second mate has to amend the passage plan after the ship anchors since the vetting inspector is going to ask for passage plan amendment . Luckily most companies have made the passage plans in electronic format so it saves time (but also increases work in many other ways ). Now the ship is anchored. The second mate spends his time on the watch amending the passage plan and correcting his charts because its the best time " NO TRAFFIC ". second violation people don't really keep an anchor watch any more. No visual bearings are taken. VRM's on rage and bearings on radar are the only aids relied upon. Often at the end of our watch when we look around to hand over we notice that some other ship has anchored too close and wonder what to tell the officer we are handing over too. Then the pilots call up and say the ship cannot anchor more than 24 hours and ask the ship to move to the outer anchorage.

( Reverse courses have to be plotted and passage plan amended ) . And then the ship goes in again and courses have to be plotted again and passage plan amended again . Do we really re plot the no go areas ? . Do we check the tide levels again ?. Since a vetting inspection is due we have to plot the navtex and nav warnings on the charts . If we go to plot them on the charts and actually verify all of them its going to take more than a watch. And the only "safe" time to do corrections is wasted. So what happens , most of the navtex and nav warnings go straight to the dustbin and only a few are corrected to show vetting inspector they are being monitored . Isn't it dangerous ?. Yes but if we correct them and not the 2000 charts (world folios ) on board , our work load will increase and it means more pending notices and yes another vetting remark if there are too many pending ( more than 4 i guess ) even though the voyage charts are corrected . Already two days have been wasted , one watch goes in the USCG inspection or rest hours for those who are on rest when the inspection is going on . Yes and stores and provisions are received at the anchorage since the terminals don't want them to be landed or received while the ship is along side. So more time of the watch spent there. Well once the ship has finished discharging at the first berth and the Master confirmed at the last minute which route the pilots will take to the next berth , the inner river passage or back out and through another entrance into the river and the chief mate has to prepare two discharge plans since one route has an air draft restriction and the second mate has to plot two routes and write two passage plans . Plotting courses through a river with numerous way points and the courses and which are never used ? Dont we plot GPS positions even in a river passage . Is there time to look at the radar and plot positions . NO . There isn't . This is truth . It may be hard to digest . But it is .

Well once the ship is at the second birth the duty officers are busy doing six on six off. Simple isn't it . This is what i follow ,Sleep six hours of my rest period and use the other six hours of my six hours of my rest period to work . Yes its 12 hours of continuous work and discharging on a aframax is no joke when your tired and have to look at numerous gauges and pumps and log down temperatures , monitor vibrations and inert gas reading , check cargo rate every hour, and talk to the shore . Can a person who has been working for the last six hours and worried that he hasn't finished his passage plan finish it . Lets see how ISM makes this worse .
 

Some companies have a system where the passage plan has to be emailed to them before departure . I have no idea how the manage to do it on time .
 

Well in the six hours of the rest hours a person is going to work . Plot the reverse courses , mark the way points and calculate the distances. And recalculate them since the master will ask him why not pass south of some island or closer to some point of land and some times you have to show him that the distance is more or lesser since they want to know whether it makes a difference . Taking out charts for the next voyage for a ship carrying world folio it self takes 30 min . Considering superman is doing it. Well why not make the passage plan for the first 24 hours of passage ?. Because not all ports are mentions in BP distance tables and world port guide and masters need to give accurate ETA.some times we need to search for a port which isn't present in nuries tables nor in any other publication on board. And masters hesitate to ask charters . Thank god for Encarta encyclopedia i found a port after two hours of searching . Well then most masters don't want to erase courses on a chart until the vetting inspector has visited and checked the charts . So that means the person is even more short of time and has to spend his rest hours doing such work.
 

If the vetting inspector checks records every thing seems fine , and answers like the chief mate relieved the duty officer are given . I pity the chief mate and dread the day ill become one since they are the most worked .They practically get no sleep in port and nor the do the masters have the time to relieve them . Nor are old masters capable of . Most of them wont be able to conduct cow and stripping operations unless they have sailed on those ships before as chief mates. Nor do i blame them . They have enough work on their hands. Port authorizes and agent visiting at odd hours. Then there are technicians visiting in port. Well i am sure most people are bored reading all this. Its taken me two hours to write about what i do in watch. So how long will it take me to do the work ?

Please increase the minimum manning standard . Make edcis compulsory. Ease the paper work . Its quite simple , ask my seafarers to vote to pass resolutions and i am sure they wont mind working for lesser pay and having an extra officer on board. More than one extra officer actually. We should thank our stars that no serious accidents have taken place so far . But they are round the corner wasting to happen . Do you want to wait till then , like history has show us ?.
I've stopped mentioning the violations in between . Its because there are so many I got fed up of mentioning them.