Three Marlow Navigation Masters recently proved that they can take on a challenge when faced with difficult pilotage situations.
Captain Vladislav Babayants, Captain Oleksandr Orlov and Captain Oleksandr Kovalenko from our Full Management fleet spent four days at the Kherson Maritime Specialized Training Center (KMSTC) in the bridge simulators. Working as a closed-knit bridge team, each playing the role of Master, Chief Officer and Helmsman, they were given a number of challenging exercises to do with a Pilot coming on-board.
Exercises included an approach to Kherson Port pilotage with bad weather, departing New York, Port Elizabeth container terminal using tugs and an approach to Fukuoka in Japanin very bad weather. In each case, a serving experienced pilot from the local port of Kherson joined in on the exercises. This gives the participants an excellent understanding of the Pilot’s issues and there is a lot of really good discussion about this during the course.
The challenge, was not so much ship handling skills, but dealing with the Pilot on-board and various problem that might arise. For example, an over-confident Pilot or a Pilot who does not communicate properly. In some cases, the Pilot makes mistakes to see how the bridge team responds and whether they interfere.
Of course, best practise for bridge management, ship handling procedures, passage planning and hydrodynamics are always re-enforced during the exercises. Each exercise taking around 45 minutes, followed by a full debrief and Q&A session.
This is a four day course and runs frequently throughout the year.
