Feedback From Sea Phases (pls post anonymously)

[ETwhat?]

Is the second sea phase for a deck cadet not 12 months long? as so if you have 4.5 months time and 2 months bridge watch keeping, theres still plenty of time to get the minimum requirement done. If the phase is 12 months long you could get away with going back having had 4 months off, as you only need another 7.5months at sea. the company are only getting into breach of contract if and when its no longer possible to achieve the requirements within the time remaining. It may be worth putting an email to them, saying i go back to college in 8 months and need x amount if time at sea can you please confirm that i will get it. gives the company a kick up the backside. I imagine if the you require more sea time the company will end up providing it at the end of college and your orals just get delayed a bit.

as for the planning, yeah it sucks but just live with it its not for a very long time. and make sure that your officers are aware of the things you need to get done and what time constraints you have. hopefully you get a ship soon

Same Same same

Afraid I can only reply with the same sorts of things for my sea phase. My specialised training onboard, more than often consisted of lengthening out and arranging the 10, 000 lashes. It's alright, to start with, but there's only so much you can learn about seamanship and bridge procedure from pushing water down a drain on a deck, and counting/leveling ropes and webbing.

I'm now on my 2nd sea phase...Or at least, am supposed to be. After waiting now over 2 months neither the training company, nor the shipping company (Of which is supposed to have a good rep) are able to specify an estimated date of joining a ship - Latter not even able to reply. ...How can anyone plan or manage

On my 1st sea phase, I was given 3 months sea time, and even payed for a further 1.5 with another company. this totalled 2 months on the bridge...so for my next sea phase, making up the 12 months sea time and 6months watchkeeping (AS A MINIMUM!) will be somewhat of a challenge- In fact if I'm not sent away in the next month, I'm certain contractual obligations would be broken. In my opinion, this is a serious mis-use of government resources, of which are used to train cadets, and further a mis-use of cadet productivity in becoming a decent next generation deck officer.

Does anyone know what actions nautilus would take with something like this/anything else I can do? (Just hope I get a ship with some helpful officers and the time I need)

Cheers

Well, here's an anonymous reply like you've asked for.

I feel the training is completely wrong. A lot will no doubt disagree with this but so be it. It felt like we were on board just to be extra ABs and not being trained as Officers at all.

Before anyone replies saying that we need to know the basics and maintenance etc first then yes I completely agree, but you don't need to paint, chip, grind or wash and so on hundreds of times to know how to do it. For other jobs that aren't as common perhaps more time should be spent on them, but I was never really involved in anything other than the tasks mentioned above due to anything else being too dangerous for Cadets.

In any other job/industry an employee who is being trained towards a higher position gets trained in the actual tasks that they are expected to know once they are fully trained. In my - limited - experience though I wasn't trained in the aspects of being an officer - done Bridge watches but nothing more, i.e. no health and safety checks etc - and this in my opinion will inevitably lead to a poorer standard of officer, due to not completely understanding the tasks they are required to do upon qualifying. I can only hope that in the next sea phase this will change but I'm not too hopeful.

As for taking charge of your own training I tried this but when you ask the officers for help or for advice on something or how they do specific tasks they normally just say something unrelated and no matter how often you ask they just don't seem to get what you're asking them. I found that some officers on board did not know their tasks and were found out by the Captain on quite a few occasions.

[jcwilson91]

I am heading to sea sometime in august, well i think i am.

I suppose formally my sea phase starts in august, truth be told i am expecting not to have anymore than a few days notice for when i have to join my ship. I wish i knew already because then i could make preperations and plans before i go, I will be updating this thread, mainly because i find that this forum could do with a few most active members. Hopfully it will pick up and become more active.

J

[DOROTHYOFOZ]

Yeh I was lucky aswell because I knew my sponsor before I started college so they generally kept intouch with me before i started college and during college we organised when I was going. Currently at sea just now and the only thing I can say is that once the first month was over and the whole being away from home faded away I really started to enjoy it infact the only thing I find hard now is updating my folio cause I am doing so much practical

[ETwhat?]

How about some anonymous replies?

its good to see that peoples experiences are generally good enough that they dont need to hide who they are, unless of course they are having a bad experience but dont have wifi on board to tell us.

[dawg]

How about some anonymous replies?

[ETwhat?]

squareleg sent you a PM (its the fat one tony wasnt available)

[Squareleg28]

How is the ETO trb split up? What are the main areas you have to get signed off?

[ETwhat?]

I don't know if that issue is company specific but Maersk generally gave me a month or so's notice of my signing on date, and an approx sign off date.

I think it is a case of when your managed by the company then they are better informed than if your managed by a training company who then have to talk to the shipping companies. Saying that ive just got my id card from a company it expires 2016 so they are obviously expecting this to be a longer relationship than i was :s

the other interesting problem from an ETO point is that on lots of ships (except cruise ships) there is only one ETO, this means that your working with him all the time, where as deck and engine have a department of people to follow around and then the AB's/ MM to work with and learn the roles. given that UK ETO cadets are reasonably new some more prep to the staff on what to do with us would have been good and perhaps more tasks in the TRB that could be covered by other departments, there is some but not much.

[Martyboy]

I don't know if that issue is company specific but Maersk generally gave me a month or so's notice of my signing on date, and an approx sign off date.

[GuinnessMan]

Structured joining and leaving dates would be a good thing. It causes a lot of confusion with the officers on board, especially ones with non-British crews as cadets normally have a fixed contract (+/- 1 month).

[ETwhat?]

well apart from being a general enquiry point for any issues or questions that you have for the union, she seems to have been trying to organise a young persons forum which would meet and bring issues to the union council which they can then consider if its worth putting some pressure onto the sponsors etc. but yeah really her main job is to go around make the union seem like a fantastic thing to be a member of/life is so scary if your not so that we give her money on the main idea that once a member we will continue to pay all through our careers

[steamer]

and does .....................

[kayak]

Blossom Bell is the nautilus rep who comes round recruiting cadets