What's shore leave like for Electro Technical Officers?

[MitchE94]

Hi, im hoping to start in september 2012 as an ETO cadet, and I was just wondering if eto's get the same opportunities for shore leave as the deck guys, as eto's work day hours as opposed to watches. thanks.

[chris]

sadly not, from the cruise ship perspective you work 8-6 with an hour for lunch and two 30 minute smoking breaks, and most cruise ships are only in port 8-6 so at best you can get ashore for your lunch break.

If you get a study day or afternoon that could be taken ashore if 1. you study some other time and 2. you have a nice boss

There are some P&O cadets in my class and they get a 2 hour lunch break so they get ashore a bit more. From what they've said, they tend to get more random afternoons off for going ashore compared to an ETO on a HAL ship (no sour grapes here).

[MitchE94]

Are cruise ships ever in port at night or do they tend to move to a new destination overnight? Also, slightly off topic, but what is it like as an ETO on a ship? and what kind of ships do you work on? (that is if you have done a sea phase yet :P ) thanks for the reply.

[ETwhat?]

Lots of cruise ships to a sail away at night and then arrive into the next port at breakfast time giving punters all the excitment of seeing the land up close then they get to go ashore for the day and repeat over and over until the holiday ends. not all follow this some will have overnights and some will do a day at sea to cover bigger distances.
There is a good range of ships that will take ETO's although as it is a non compulsorary position its up to the operator to decide if they are needed.
Tankers, especially LNG will carry them for some companies
Offshore DP ships, and random other types will have some
Ferrys
and then cruise ships
Depending on the size of ship it will depend on how the role is built up, cruise ships will feature a whole electrical department made up of officers and ratings, while a ferry or tanker will have 1 that is loosely part of the engineering department but is responsible for all the electrical bits and bobs. then in the way between it will be a 2 man team.

as for what the job entails, its either fixing something or servicing / checking stuff as and when the computer tells you too

[electrolytic_coffee]

Are cruise ships ever in port at night or do they tend to move to a new destination overnight? Also, slightly off topic, but what is it like as an ETO on a ship? and what kind of ships do you work on? (that is if you have done a sea phase yet :P ) thanks for the reply.

I can really only echo the sentiments of the guys who have posted. As a cadet you will do a lot of scutt-work (as per all the disciplines really). My first ship was a cruiseship and it was really busy, it had only the 1 eto too so I quickly fell into an assistant role as my ETO felt i was competant enough to deal with a lot of things so long as I kept him informed. This was great as I learnt an awful lot just by doing the "job" which was pretty much how ETWhat has put it, workorders for repairs, routine checks and so on.

The downside of this was though shore leave was very hard to come by, not to say I didnt get any but it reqired some bargaining. I got to go on a tour up Mt. Etna with a group of passengers, but the trade off was I had to perform checks in over 150 cabins which took a while and by the time it was over Id probably walked the distance i did on that tour a few times over. Or at least it felt like it.

That being said sea time is probably your best time as an ETO cadet as you will appreciate how varied the job can be. One day I was doing hotel electrical/electronic repairs and stuff and then up on the bridge to fix the PC that the deckies broke (yet again) and the back down to the engine room to work on one of the generators (which actually I did more of on my 2nd ship which was a lighthouse tender).

One thing I will say, the academic work starts off great, nice and easy but ramps up in difficulty towards the degree work, so if you have the time brush up on your maths (algebra to an advanced level) and if you can get a decent electronics/electrical book. I recommend Success In Electronics by Tom Duncan (ISBN 0-7195-7205-3) & Practical Marine Electrical Knowledge by Dennis t. Hall B.A (Hons) (ISBN 1-85609-182-1). The latter one by Mr Hall will be your bible, for college workshop tasks and your sea time.

Hope this helps!

[Clanky]

Shore leave will depend a lot on which company you work for, the senior electrical and engineering officers on your ship and your attitude while you are onboard. If you work hard during the time you are supposed to be working and progress well with your training record book then you are more likely to be given time off to go ashore.

Some cruise companies do have schedules where the ships have overnights, but many prefer not to.

[CharlieDelta]

Have linked the books, hope you don't mind.

[electrolytic_coffee]

Have linked the books, hope you don't mind.

Cheers CD. Dont mind at all!

[MitchE94]

I can really only echo the sentiments of the guys who have posted. As a cadet you will do a lot of scutt-work (as per all the disciplines really). My first ship was a cruiseship and it was really busy, it had only the 1 eto too so I quickly fell into an assistant role as my ETO felt i was competant enough to deal with a lot of things so long as I kept him informed. This was great as I learnt an awful lot just by doing the "job" which was pretty much how ETWhat has put it, workorders for repairs, routine checks and so on.

The downside of this was though shore leave was very hard to come by, not to say I didnt get any but it reqired some bargaining. I got to go on a tour up Mt. Etna with a group of passengers, but the trade off was I had to perform checks in over 150 cabins which took a while and by the time it was over Id probably walked the distance i did on that tour a few times over. Or at least it felt like it.

That being said sea time is probably your best time as an ETO cadet as you will appreciate how varied the job can be. One day I was doing hotel electrical/electronic repairs and stuff and then up on the bridge to fix the PC that the deckies broke (yet again) and the back down to the engine room to work on one of the generators (which actually I did more of on my 2nd ship which was a lighthouse tender).

One thing I will say, the academic work starts off great, nice and easy but ramps up in difficulty towards the degree work, so if you have the time brush up on your maths (algebra to an advanced level) and if you can get a decent electronics/electrical book. I recommend Success In Electronics by Tom Duncan (ISBN 0-7195-7205-3) & Practical Marine Electrical Knowledge by Dennis t. Hall B.A (Hons) (ISBN 1-85609-182-1). The latter one by Mr Hall will be your bible, for college workshop tasks and your sea time.

Hope this helps!

thanks a lot for info, i'm currently studying Electronics at A-level, do you think this will give me an advantage on the academical side of things?

[electrolytic_coffee]

Yep for deffo, the course is tailored so even those without a background in the subject can pick it up. But at the same time moves at a reasonable pace. If you already have an understanding of the basics; Ie Ohms law, Kirchoffs Laws, resistor networks and also stuff like RCL circuits, and AC & DC theory you will be sorted. Theres more to it that just those, but that gives you a taste of whats to come.

You also have other elements to the course such as Health & Safety and Management courses which are mostly assignment based so if writing reports and using Harvard referencing isnt your thing it maybe worth looking it up. But its nothing that sinister really.

Oh yeah and the maths too. Maths for engineers specifically, you do a class in this in your first phase along with induction maths which is at the higher end of GCSE level along with a test (again of GCSE-ish level) you have to pass before continuing which you normally do within the first few weeks of starting.

[MitchE94]

Yep for deffo, the course is tailored so even those without a background in the subject can pick it up. But at the same time moves at a reasonable pace. If you already have an understanding of the basics; Ie Ohms law, Kirchoffs Laws, resistor networks and also stuff like RCL circuits, and AC & DC theory you will be sorted. Theres more to it that just those, but that gives you a taste of whats to come.

You also have other elements to the course such as Health & Safety and Management courses which are mostly assignment based so if writing reports and using Harvard referencing isnt your thing it maybe worth looking it up. But its nothing that sinister really.

Oh yeah and the maths too. Maths for engineers specifically, you do a class in this in your first phase along with induction maths which is at the higher end of GCSE level along with a test (again of GCSE-ish level) you have to pass before continuing which you normally do within the first few weeks of starting.

oh well thats good to hear, I've already covered all of them things (and more) still with a few months till the course finishes thanks to everyone for the info and i'll definitely take a look at them books!