19 Jul 2016

Wake Up Navigators !!

Below is the Scrap Book Style Write up 'Wake Up Navigators' (Ocean-Navigators) .... I wrote it on a plane journey two years ago ..... pages that remind / urge the Ocean-Navigators never to forget the basic Sea-Sense and Seamanship of Best Practices that are vital to the Safety of Navigation At Sea ...

AND following these would in turn HELP KEEP THE SEAS AND OCEANS SAFE AND CLEAN !!!

Hope You Find it a timely reminder !!

Good Morning !

Not a large number have the life pattern that I live even this day since the last 4 decades - that of a few weeks on the high seas and a few weeks on land ... and not always in one country and one place  and a life that is governed by merchant ships' schedules and not mine at any time !! 

The paperwork for travels changes for some key factors from time to time : Technology, Political Changes, 'Security Incidents' as Hon'ble Prez. Obama may put it or as 'Terrorism' as Respected Presumed Candidate Trump may put it !!  Finally it comes to one same thing for the frequent traveller of my kind - and that is to remain focused on why we are travelling and to reach there safely and timely and oh yes economically and do the job properly !! 

The way you are questioned and scrutinised doesn't depend much upon you BUT upon what the perpetrators have done or are planning to do as per the security agencies ! or what the particular nation's current political agenda is saying !!

Yet before we get tempted even a bit about the recent long strenuous queues at the airports after the recent terror bombings in Istanbul etc, after reading about the Dhaka kidnappings, after being subscribed to key 'Traveller Advice' services about world over situations - do we realise that we travel because there is money in it and money comes by way of businesses and even the current situations  (and yes Brexit or not) ensure the continuity of the world running the way it is !! Whether we like it or not !!

I was watching a Fidel Castro biographical documentary the other day now that Cuba is open, and in it a Dove comes and lands on his shoulder just after his first inauguration - that in those days the Cubans took as a divine indication (yes in spite of the Communism !) ... today if a pigeon lands on a leader's shoulder like this a number of nervous security guards (uniformed and in plain clothes) will jump on to the leader to save from a hostile pigeon !! and yes a pigeon control security device will be made and sold !!

The world has changed, yes it was always changing .... news about Ozone layer healing gets released at a key time just before the Aussie and November's US elections .... may be the money going on the green causes is now urgently needed elsewhere - or is it a coincidence of sorts ..? 

Press releases, conspiracy theories, altered histories, biased media headlines, acts of illegal perpetration, cries for gun control, movement for inclusiveness of the LGBTs , protecting children from a host of criminal acts, exaggeration and suppression of facts (what facts?!!) in daily exchanges over a coffee and once in awhile references to Nostradamus too !! 

The only eternal fact remains that is - this moment has gone and will never be back again !

The rest is illusionary as the scientists have confirmed last year !!

Whether we say we like it or not, welcome it or hate it - it doesn't matter !! 

Be it and live it and forget not to leave it too !!

-E N D - 

ECDIS - with Primary as well as Back Up means of Sea Navigation : - Issues .... While i am totally Busy With ECDIS based Navigation - The users-number is growing steadily alright, but it has to grow in all sectors of any new technology - from the those hands-use it for Navigation, those who regulate it, those who verify it, those who manage ships using it ........ seeing a DGPS beacon being erratic the port state may rightly question the ship's for applying Terrestrial Navigational Techniques, but are they also questioning the Harbour Pilots using AIS based Homing devices which will also lose accuracy and may shoot up to more than 100m inaccurate ...... this level of approach is far still .... but progress steadily in the right direction alright ..!! 

Gravitational Waves ... new discoveries

Hello folks !

I am back after a long gap ..... hope to share more .... this time with the news about the scientific news about the 'Gravitational Waves' concept that was 'Theorised' by the great Albert Einstein about a century ago (he always worked that way and his colleague S K Sen used to realise it in Maths a few months / time later - a brilliant scientific partnership in that... this time in the absence of mathematical requirements, it was the job done by the French-Italian-US scientific teams (as we hear on the TV )!!) ...

But with myself having a keen insight into the 'Astrology' - the Varanasi-Based calculation and  placements methods - I never saw any contest to this theory from the very first time it came to my knowledge a few years ago.  Because I have been urged into Astrology by my wife Uttara (Meena) who has developed for long her very own 'Vyom Concept' that came to being based on her works in the fields of 'Vastu' 'Fengshui' 'Numerology' 'practically making Interior Decor works' on many sites - the way they were being told when she studied them and also almost hijacked by people who give a 'magical' look to it rather than a 'scientific' insights method ---while it is in fact somewhat like a weather forecasting system of different sorts. When i was almost pushed into the Astrology world ... my big question then was how to define 'good' from 'bad' ??? and a very big question as to 'what authority a fortune teller has over others' lives to dictate 'do this and do that because astrology says so ..'   .... so i got involved in its studies in fact with a big disapproval for the  ways in which astrological aspects were told by those who know it and those who seek 'solutions' from it !

Being basically a sea-going-Navigator myself, there was no problem about the 3D visualisation of the planetary (correctly speaking celestial bodies') planes and relative positioning at a given time with respect to the earth where we live. 

The second part was that of 'making sense ' of everything - this came about on the eureka eureka day in a Vastu class where i was sitting with my wife as a student, and suddenly with my knowledge of the Magnetic Compass on Ships and their adjustments, and coupling it with the Vedic Karma theory that i have studied in my Upanishadic studies in the past .... suddenly all made sense as to what all this is about !

What was awful though was , the way people and society at large reacted to it ..... there were those who were keen to use it for betterment in life, those who were sternly opposed to it, there were these who ridiculed it and there were whose who misused it to get a social status in people's lives !!

While what this study is about is in the first place accepting the fact that the universal as well as local material and cosmic (just to explain its extra-terrestrial nature - call it 'cosmic'...) changes the way the humans on the earth singly or plurally think and interact - it constantly affects the way the status of micro to universal levels is ! and in that one can be forewarned or helped to reason out the conditions in one's own or as a family or as a society's 'future' would be ..... and then to make whatever sense that entity wants to make ... it is not and must not be the business of the 'teller' whether it is good or bad ..

And while this is what astrology is about, to relate it to something mystical, psychic is all incorrect & should not be confused with..... well then see the press conference in which the scientists are making the announcement of 'we have found it ' (gravitational waves..) .... and see all the congregation being overjoyed for their hard earned 'success' ... what is painful is having to listen to scores of 'scientific-minded' ordinary individuals who keep challenging - at least in India  labelling it as 'blind faith' and so on till they 'get it' !! so now from the Gravitational Waves if the earth and its beings get affected , so does what and how they do all the human behavioural and thinking activities that they do ........ 

That's why Albert Einstein was cut above the others - what he 'got-it' a century ago the scientific field is 'getting-it' now and we will have to wait for years for the public at-large (many of them busy only 'copying-pasting-forwarding' types i mean and refusing to use any kind of own wisdom that they do have ...) ...!!

Gravitational Waves - yes they are present or even more factors associated that we the humans haven't named yet or even sensed yet !! and they do affect everything that are human-made and controlled from stock-markets to politics to wars to personal relations ! and there is nothing 'magic' or 'mystic' about it!! 

Few things are there - insisting on calling it 'scientific' or otherwise is very much human shortcoming (as my son Eshan Arya describes it in his article 'tagging' it ..).... at times just accepting wind as wind and nature as nature makes it easy going without challenging their very existence !!

In the meantime i gear-up for greater insights into the astrological analyses of hundreds of situations that vividly provide a weather-forecast like synopsis for the 4-decade-seasoned seafarer in me because being able to explain it to public-at-large in the Gravitational-Waves context will make it easier to explain.. !! 

-END-

28th October 2015

Maritime safety is marred by recent spate of major marine accidents ..... grounding and collisions among them topping the nature of disaster...

Port States stepping up the scrutiny for hours of work and rest .... 

Now the question is whether the compulsory rest hours required by MLC under the well researched rest requirements is actually contributing Safety of life at sea alone or the mishaps as well..?

What is rest at sea? does it mean 'not doing paid job' and using the time to spend on hours and hours on fb and whats app through ship's internet and remaining tired as well distracted and not having added anything extra about the awareness of the ship designs and operating procedures... or truly being de-stressed and well rested..?

And yes how about the efficiency of the officers and ratings from a large variety of cultural backgrounds ... do they all have the same work-efficiency? 

Ship's safety depends upon the well rested officers and the crews as well as a well maintained status and well informed and skilled operating staff ..... if the rest hours are going to adversely been interpreted as said above and if the answer to the quality maintenance & operation is not positive then the increase in the number of accidents have some connection with the new well intended but poorly enforced work & rest hours regime ....

Please do not experiment with ship operations and enforce in an immature way and in fact help promote lowering of safety in the name of concepts that are not fully compilable for the sea related ship-board operations !!

----

Challenges to the Modern Day Work & Life Balance - at Sea!

Having a team that is keenly interested in the job is vital for healthy running of a ship! 
But it is challenged these days and can not be taken for granted !!

Not until a few years ago the sea career brought a 'special' status for those who worked at sea! Times changed very fast - at a speed that probably has been unprecedented and that equations changed! The social media and being 'connected' playing a major role in that .... the mindsets of the younger generations joining the sea being the next important factor, employment and recruitment styles so also the business objectives having changed drastically ... a sum total effect being the way a seafarer thinks, lives and relates these days! What was once considered as wise became stupid and what was considered as nonsensical became smart !! 

The effect of all this is not just on the mindsets of the seafarers alone but also their relatives, life partners, friends and the dependents ... it's a revolution of sorts .... 

Both sides of the sea career - the part that the seafarer plays himself at work and his life partner/s play in running their life together in his/her absence is the other ... both these are the very practical jobs !! they are way beyond, way deeper than just typing words in a smartphone ... 

Under these circumstances the challenge is far more pronounced to maintain the life & work balance for the seafarers. In recent times, as much as i have come across happier seafarers by being in 'touch' through social media, e-mails etc. so also I have come across an increased number of seafarers who have neglected their jobs by being obsessed with the electronic media, facing depressions caused by misunderstandings caused by shallow communication and even an increased instances of suicides or attempted ones ... 

Impositions at sea in the modern era that increasingly thwart the traditional entertainment of the seamen but keep them 'disconnected' in relationships .... increased number of women not being ready for alliances with the seafarers makes them isolated and disconnected ... and those who are lucky to have alliances becoming desperate to keep the marriage intact by being irrationally ignorant about the jobs on occasions ...and chasing the goals that are best suited for the shore based careers ! (in short having less chances of succeeding in them!)

There is no conclusion for this write up today, nor is any distress and definitely no solutions... because traditionally the lives of the seafarers have been unique and unique they will be .... one thing being very obvious though that those who manage to strike this balance and lead happier  and content lives have enormous support and contribution from their partners and families ashore ... the modern day seafarer is a family man and heavily dependent on the family for his shore based survival - perhaps except for the monetary part but that too not always! 

And this very human aspect is hard to plan, predict or regulate! often not accounted for, yet one that matters in the way a ship is operated ! 

What matters is how a Master and Chief Engineer and other senior officers quickly adopt the skills and sensitivity to best handle their modern day work force so that they continue to remain interested int heir jobs !

Sweet & Sour – with some ginger as well !

As the social backgrounds of the serving merchant-seafarers changed, so did a lot more too!

A modern day sailor ….

• Well educated
• well informed
• well provided with high tech ships
• well provided with high standards of shore supports
• well trained
• well rested
• well protected
• well recognized socially
• well-connected in real time
• well paid
• in good health
• high in safety
• saves the environment
• saves the undue expenses
• saves well for himself
• under the constant threat of sea-pirates
• under the constant threat of criminalization
   
  But (indeed no one likes a ‘but’ interrupting the list …)
   
• not able to command the crew in emergencies (see some of the recent marine accidents)
• not able to verify effectively
• not able to tie a knot with expertise
• not able to splice well
• not able to swim well (is it…? there are so many ..)
• not able to interrupt a wrong practice with self-initiative
• not believing in ‘command & control’ to run a unit that is designed for just that
• too many stories of Captains abandoning the crews and passengers and escaping themselves
• not knowing what is a seaman’s proverbs to predict the weather at sea (‘red sky at night sailor's delight ….’) !!
• not knowing the sea-creatures unless he sees the documentary
• can not describe the sea and swell
• doesn’t bother to top up the wet bulb thermometer
• doesn’t really check the time error
• can not predict the weather ahead  

Do the pros have to be countered by the ‘cons’ is it..?!!

Whatever – as long as the cargoes are shipped safely and timely, seas & environment are kept clean & lovely, freight earnings are plenty, the world doesn’t really mind how the man at the sea commands! 'Command' is old fashioned anyway!!  


What are the far reaching effects of this change already happening at sea? In part we can anticipate and in part it will be what we do not foresee now ... the time will tell .....unless of course the 'command' is ashore by men & women in shifts controlling the futuristic unmanned ships !!
 

Safe sailings!