Fairway 30 - Royal Institute of Navigation

North Sea Navigation
On a recent ferry trip across the North Sea to Esbjerg on board a DFDS ship a visit to the
bridge had been arranged. At the time scheduled we were in the midst of a heavy
blizzard and the Master asked if we would mind delaying the visit until the return
passage when it was hoped that conditions would have improved. Once on the bridge the
following day we found the Master and the Second Officer, together with an Engineering
Apprentice. The Master, we discovered, had only joined the ship when we did, it being
his first passage in the ship, and he was taking time to familiarize himself with her. The
Apprentice was checking all the remote cameras and sensing systems for the car deck.
The Second Officer was on watch.
Being a group of yachtsmen, three of whom are RIN members, two more being retired
shipbrokers, we had a great interest in the navigation systems. DGPS was the main
method of navigation, with one ECDIS unit. Being alone, this unit could not run without
paper charts. Why only one ECDIS, which hadn’t been certified? The Second Officer
wasn’t sure, but thought it had to do with cost and that it was the Company’s decision,
not the crew’s. Although there was only one ECDIS it was feeding two screens
displaying the chart, complete with AIS contacts, and there were two radar screens,
which were not showing AIS. At the back of the bridge, though, was a chart-table with a
Standard Navigation Chart. We were told that under Danish law, without full ECDIS,
there was a requirement to plot a position on the chart every hour and that this was done.
The chart also showed a variety of routes used in different weather conditions. The ship,
the Dana Sirena, had originally been built for use in the Mediterranean and tended to
work somewhat in heavy seas, but the main reason for these differing routes was fuel
economy. Indeed, on the return to the UK the ship sailed some 40 minutes early, the
small number of vehicles and passengers all being on board. This, we were told, allowed
for a slower passage speed which saved a large amount of fuel oil.
I asked about back up should GPS fail. They had no other system on board other than
estimated positions on the chart and radar. However, I did notice alongside the paper
chart a deviation card for the magnetic compass, recently checked and signed by the
First Officer.
John Hasselgren, 01277 231185, fairway@rin.org.uk
Towards eGMDSS
In introducing this meeting on board HQS Wellington Kim Fisher said that he had
originally suggested the title as a joke since everything nowadays was e something,
eNavigation, eCommerce, but that the joke had returned to haunt him as eGMDSS could
become a reality. GMDSS is only ten years old, but the idea goes back much further.
Under SOLAS 1960 passenger ships and cargo vessels over 1,600 gt. had to carry radio
telegraph and monitor 500 kHz, while smaller vessels carried radio telephone, keeping
watch on 2,182 kHz. SOLAS 1974 had introduced VHF radio telephony, keeping watch
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