Grooming of deck Cadets – 10

Navigation

With traditional disciplines absorbed in the current day regulations and standards – the deck cadets take up the Deck officers’ careers and the Engineering Cadets take up the Engineering officers’ careers. The Deck officers are mainly responsible for the Navigation, Cargo operations, Stability calculations and executions, Ship’s electronic navigational systems – usage and upkeep, weather routing, collision avoidance, operations & upkeep of the radio communication systems (GMDSS), practical structural maintenance, seamanship aspects, mooring equipment  handling, trade specific skills such as oil-chemical-gas tanker works, container carrying practices,  Ship’s safety, security & environmental protections operations, emergency response, presenting the ship for a number of inspections & surveys, ship’s commercial business related administrative work, ship’s hygiene and catering management (using the skilled catering crew), ship’s accounting and paper work and so on including handling of the human resource on board on a day to day basis ….

The Cadet’s introduction to all these subjects in theory and practice, a number of tests and examinations he/she has to appear for and clear with very high passing percentage requirements and undergoing continuous experience concurrently during the sea-service and further enrichment is what effectively ‘grooms’  the Cadets.

Navigation at sea is about constantly being aware of one’s position & the route to the destination, being aware of means available to fix the positions and being able use all the means of the position fixing – conventional as well as modern.

The Deck Cadets need to start interacting with the world around them differently as they begin their path in the MN career and climbing the career ladder ….

>> When they look at the time they understand its co-relation to the earth’s motion.

>> When they look around they understand the compass cardinal points.

>> When they look at the morning sky they think of the twilight calculations, the amplitude of the rising Sun and a position line that they would obtain as well as the compass error check!

 

>> When they see a GPS they think of the Doppler shift based ranging and fixing and factors that dilute its accuracy.

 

>> When they look at the beautiful sky they see the navigable stars and planets and one constellation leads them to the next around the sky and they think of the possibilities of obtaining the position lines by intercept …

 

>> They take care of their Navigational instruments and always keep abreast of the technological advances in the fields of Navigational instruments …

 

>> when they come on the bridge they check the Navigational lights, understand the circumstances the ship is in, verify the accuracies of the Nav equipment in use, plan a terrestrial or celestial position lines obtainment plan for the day … verify the magnetic compass and constantly keep obtaining fixes and comparing the views around in its context to verify that what they see around matches what is expected based on the positions they fix ….

 

If this change starts happening be sure the grooming is indeed happening ..!!  

Safe sailings!