It seems to be a very simple question, but sometimes we may get misguided by contradicting statements in different sources. The problem is that unnecessary self-testing of this equipment can reduce the overall run time available in an emergency. Each self-test draws a small amount of energy from the battery.

Nowadays mariners are well aware of the importance of anti-grounding function in ECDIS. It is well clear that any alarm emerged while route checking should be addressed seriously, especially if such alarm is relevant to the anti-grounding assessment. Here we wish to discuss one of such alarm occasions, which you may experience approaching the Chesapeake Bay in North America while heading to such ports as Baltimore or Norfolk.

In February 2018 the Nautical Institute (NI) published a new version of Dynamic Positioning Accreditation and Certification Standard. Each offshore training scheme (DP Induction, Simulator and Revalidation) has 28 teaching hours over the 5 day period with about 80 objectives to study and online assessment as a compulsory part at the end of training program, which is a massive workload for a prospective DPO.

Therefore, we decided to develop a computer-based training called "DP Awareness" as a support tool for those who are passing the Nautical Institute training scheme or revalidates DP certificates.

We are happy to announce that our company has now reached another milestone. Last week Learnmarine trained its 500th seafarer in ECDIS awareness and RADAR Navigation in a Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) training center

In 2015 “El Faro” a 241 m long ro-ro/container ship with all her crew of 33 persons became a victim of the Hurricane “Joaquin”. The tragedy happened not far from the United States coast. However, probably the best Search and Rescue Service Provider – USCG was unable to save even a single life. How could it be possible that horror movie scenario became a reality nowadays, with the vessel utilizing the best available technologies and operating under day by day increasing safety margins required by international maritime regulations, such as SOLAS, ISM code, and others?

Do you wish to know what went wrong on that doomed voyage?

COLREGs compliance and collision avoidance with a single vessel on our starboard side seems to be a very simple task. But the situation changes dramatically when the number of the scene participants increase. Bridge watchkeeping is a very situational task: the same places may be nice and quiet one day and absolutely disastrous another day. When it comes to the dense traffic and decision making, do we really understand what are we doing on the bridge and use our RADAR/ARPA equipment or we just follow some sort of our inner voice and try to match the desired CPA? And if we do, we might be really close to a trouble we unaware of. Because to know what we are doing we have to understand the principles of relative motion and radar plotting.

Category Zone of Confidence (CATZOC) are the values that are used to highlight the accuracy of data presented on charts. Before the ECDIS era, mariners used to assess paper chart accuracy via Source Diagram. However, this was changed with the wider introduction of ENC's in the industry and the consequent introduction of CATZOC, which is described in IHO S-4 standard. Later allows accessing the ship's UKC numerically with regard to a given ZOC, which is reviewed in this article.

The webinars Risk Assessment & Permit to Work and COLREGS - the psychology of collision avoidance were held successfully and the webcast is available!

We decided to make a post, which contains useful information on ECDIS. This will be the work in progress and we are going to refresh and add content periodically. You are welcome to click and check for ECDIS news here from time to time.

Dear colleagues, together with our partners Key4mate we are planning to hold the webinars on following subjects:

- Risk Assessment & Permit to Work

- COLREGS: Psychology of Collision Avoidance

Check out the full article for details...

A story as old as time, like Shakespeare's “To be or not to be?” This is, probably, one of the most remarkable quotes in classical literature. How many times in situations related to the collision avoidance, we ask ourselves what action to take will be best?

Learnmarine is proud to provide our online assessment system and training services on Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) tugs maneuvering, towing and escort operations to the Kazakhstan Maritime Academy.

Every mariner at some point in their career has heard a story about a captain or mate prevented a critical situation from becoming worse. Perfectly solved this critical situation becomes a hearsay via “marine radio”. However, what about you or all of us? Are we ready for the crisis or critical event which out of standard routine duties at sea? At the end of the day, we are all humans who are not free of emotions. If we are not ready for some unexpected situation if something goes outside of the loop, emotions and fatigue are ready to take over the common sense in the decision-making process, ignoring even key safety aspects.

Learnmarine took part in development and deployment of tailor-made training on Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) tugs maneuvering, towing and escort operations inside the walls of Kazakh-British Technical University.

Learnmarine is proud to announce that we developed our first tailor-made online course on Risk Management for Odessa Maritime Training Center. Risk management is one of the basic elements of modern Safety Management Systems. It is among the requirements of the ISM code. Therefore, modern maritime officers have to be versatile in hazards identification, risk assessment, and control techniques, which altogether form the Risk Management process. The course is already available for students at the Training Center's facilities.

The amendments to MARPOL Annex V adopted at MEPC 70 will enter into force on 1 March 2018. The changes include criteria for determining whether cargo residues are harmful to the marine environment and a new Garbage Record Book format with a new garbage category for e-waste. This post provides a summary of the new regulations.

SOLAS regulation, which says “…every crew member shall participate in at least one abandon ship drill and one fire drill every month…” is widely known. However, not every training with survival crafts is done monthly and to make it even more complicated there are certain variations on the lowering, launching and maneuvering frequencies depending on the type of ship’s equipment. This post idea is to bring some extra light on the subject of abandon ship drills.

The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments - a key international measure for environmental protection that aims to stop the spread of potentially invasive aquatic species in ships’ ballast water entered into force on 8 September 2017.

The convention requires ships to manage their ballast water to remove, render harmless, or avoid the uptake or discharge of aquatic organisms and pathogens within ballast water and sediments. For the ship's personnel the main questions are: what do we need to know about it and how is it going to affect ship’s operational routine?

The Maritime Authorities of the Tokyo and the Paris Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control will launch a joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on SAFETY OF NAVIGATION. The aim of the CIC is to check compliance with the applicable requirements of the SOLAS Convention, the overall status of the vessel’s navigation safety, and the competency of crew involved in navigation operations.

This inspection campaign will be held for three months, commencing from 1 September 2017 and ending 30 November 2017.

Surabaya is a port city on the Indonesian island of Java. A vibrant, sprawling metropolis, it mixes modern skyscrapers with canals and buildings from its Dutch colonial past. It has a thriving Chinatown and an Arab Quarter whose Ampel Mosque dates to the 15th century. The Tugu Pahlawan (Heroes Monument) honors the independence battles waged in Surabaya’s streets in 1945.

That’s what you can find, when you “google” Surabaya. But I know this city from the different side. As every seaman I know it as the Port of Surabaya, especially Madura Strait, which is a stretch of water that separates the Indonesian islands of Java and Madura, in the province of East Java and also one of the most congested anchorages in South East Asia.

One of the navigational officer’s duties during route planning and execution is to check the route for the presence of temporary hazards: seismic vessels with a 10 km cables, drifting containers, oceanographic works, firing, etc.

If a vessel is in the same area for a long time, then tracking routine messages by NAVTEX or INMARSAT C is not difficult, and you are usually well familiar with the situation. However, if you transfer to a new area, you need to get the most updated information for a passage plane.

Azimuth thrusters provide to a ship amazing manoeuvrability, but also not the easiest to handle, especially if something goes wrong. With this in mind, on the 24^th of May at the Odessa Maritime Training Centre we carried out an Azimuth thrusters emergency steering workshop with cadets of NU “Odessa Maritime Academy”.

Yes, all these years we try to prepare for you information on navigation, and we sincerely hope that it will be useful and interesting. Together with you, we have mastered navigation, astronomy, ship management, GMDSS, and safety techniques even better. And for this, dear colleagues and readers, I want to say thank you to you. And yes, we get feedback from you, we see at meetings, we communicate from time to time through social networks ...

One of the most thrilling stages of a job application is an interview. Especially if you are going to get a new job or be promoted and you have a lot of competitors applying for the same opening.

Here is some advice on how to prepare for an interview and what are the most commonly asked questions.

On the 18th of May I spent my day in Nikolayev (Ukraine). Particularly at National University of Shipbuilding, which is a two hour drive from Odessa (my home city).

The purpose of the visit was to attend a National Research Conference “Modern technologies of design, construction, operation and repair of ships, marine engineering facilities and engineering structures”.

Can navigational charts be trusted? Any of them: paper, raster, vector, ENC’s? Nope! – they all have to be doubted, you can only trust your own eyes.

When we talk about ship position accuracy we are mainly referring to the navigational equipment errors. This includes GPS (global positioning system), which can provide continues fix of position within accuracy of 10 meters. However, to date, there is still a number of problems associated with the accuracy of displaying cartographic information, both on paper, and on electronic charts.

Lets discuss some pitfalls that should be avoided during depth measurements.

We all know: echo sounder is a depth-measuring device. Its transducer is usually installed at a ship’s bottom in forward part. That’s why the depth measured with echo sounder is by default may be considered as the depth under keel (or UKC – Under Keel Clearance), although it is called DBT – depth below transducer.

Nevertheless, echo sounder readings are not always DBT, and DBT is not always UKC.

I would like to dedicate these posts to some subtleties of work with navigation equipment, which you begin to understand well and clearly only with experience. It doesn’t matter how long did we listen to that in the classroom, the understanding of the nuances comes to us only when we see it, try it and face faults and malfunctions. And there are a lot of them even on the most modern Hi-Tech ships.

The first among all others I’d like to write about are the heading sensors or compasses.