An Officer in charge of the Navigational Watch or Officer of the Watch (OOW) as we all know comprises the Bridge Team. On merchant vessels, the watch duty officer is always accompanied with a look-out who is also a helmsman. In case the officer of the watch is a newly promoted officer, he will be performing his duties on the bridge under the watchful eyes of the Captain.
A cadet on a maritime school aspires to become a good seafarer someday. With his learned knowledge he strives to embark onboard a ship in a good company. Working onboard the ship for more than 6 months even up to 1 year gives him a chance to upgrade his profession and for possible promotion as an officer. After a few years of working onboard the ship he suddenly decides to stop and start to work on land. Nobody knows the reason why.
Upon arrival at port a seafarer would normally finished his job and turn over his duties in order to go ashore. After a 15 to 27 days of voyage at sea, we normally get excited whenever we see land. Putting aside the idea of having a visa, a typical seafarer would normally ask permission to the officer in charge in order to go ashore. Imagine the disappointment of a seafarer whenever his shore leave is denied due to not having a visa. Why do they really require seafarers to have a visa? We only stay a few days or most of the time less than 24 hours alongside a port.
Its a very popular prank phrase that you would always hear whenever your on the high sea’s, and this heckler “Filipino Monkey” was one their reason during the incident in the Strait of Hormuz.
As I have said in my post “How to make a voyage plan“, I mentioned there about the book Bridge Procedures Guide. I was trying to look for a free download so you can have an overview of it, but I can’t find any in the net. I’ll just list down for you its contents and include a photo of the book.
“Leadership is the ability to influence the crew through human relations and communications to make them do what you want them to do and still like it” – Capt. G. This is the most striking word that our guest speaker in our recent “in house training” said. It is also the most forgotten word onboard the ship. Pinoy Maritime will once again remind our Captains and Officers about Leadership. It may sound the same but it sure is implemented differently.
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