18 July 2016; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

After a leave of 8 weeks of which I lost 2 to trainings, I faced the real world again and joined the ms Rotterdam, flagship of the company, for a three week period which will end in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. From there I will join the ms Koningsdam for the next three weeks. I am on the Rotterdam for a regular visit under what the company calls the On Board Team Support Program which is basically being on board and help out where needed. Be it with extra training, or with organizing some large drills or as is in this case help the ship prepare with an internal audit coming up.

But for those of you who wonder, what does a captain do when on leave? The answer is he goes on training courses. And I was not the only one, see the photo below.  I have blogged in the past about the various regulations under which the ships operations are governed. There is Solas (Safe ships) there is Marpol (No oil over board) there is SCTW (Standards for Training and Certification of Watch keepers) and there is MLC 2006 (Standards for crew)

Four Captains on Training Course. From Left to Right: Emiel de Vries, Master ms Koningsdam, Chris Norman Master on loan to P&O Australia, Albert Schoonderbeek Travelling Master, Hans Mateboer, Master ms Rotterdam. None of us looks very spiffy but wearing a three piece suit to a firefighting course is not recommended at any time.

SCTW has been with us for a long time already (1978 was the year to be exact) and based on experience gained through the last 20 years, an amendment came out in 2010 after a conference in Manila.  As all these rules and amendments have to be absorbed into National Flag State legislation, there are always a number of grace years before the latest rules kick in.  01 Jan. 2017 is the deadline for a large number of new rules under the Manila Amendments to take effect.  The most important ones, at least for captains, is that a number of grandfather clauses (Read experience is enough) will no longer be valid.  As we were firefighting on the ship every week, it was not found necessary until this time that we had this re-certified. Now we have to have a piece of paper which says, that we really can do what we were doing all along.

Thus all officers have to get their licenses recertified by 01 Jan. 2017. If not done, then you are not allowed to sail until the certificate has been renewed.  This deadline left the company and everybody else in a bit of a conundrum. There has to be recertification every 5 years, so everybody tries to go for training as close to the deadline as possible to make the 5 years after 2017 last as long as possible. (I will now last until summer 2021 and might be retired by then) The training facilities around the world can of course not cope with everybody showing up at the last minute and hence some have to go earlier. Thus all the officers whose certificates are expiring or who had Grandfather clauses under which their old certificates remained valid use a period during their leaves in 2016 to get re-certified.

For most captains this meant two things. Getting their Medical Care license (a sort of very extensive First Aid training) renewed and then their SCTW Basic safety training re-certified.  (Messing around with hoses, extinguishers and lifeboats). The last part was Advanced Firefighting and that was for all of us the most interesting part.  Medical Care is a 5 day course which consists out of basic First Aid, having the skill to give injections and know how to set IV drips; and interview patients to come to a correct diagnosis. Not really necessary for somebody who sails on a cruise ship but the law is the law and its makes not exception for Holland America Officers. For learning to make diagnoses, they do not use real patients but they use LOTUS people. These are amateur actors who simulate a disease, or a wound (with some very lifelike special effects) and who then answer your questions and queries. Once an assessment has been made, you have to figure out the correct medication or the right bandage and plan the correct follow up plan. (As at sea it is not so easy to call an ambulance)

Tomorrow a bit more about the firefighting.

The good ship ms Rotterdam under the command of Capt. Marco Carsjens,  is on the last two days of the first left of a loop North Atlantic Cruise Which started in Rotterdam and ends on the 20^th. of July in Boston. There we get new guests on board (but we also have a number who do the whole round trip) and then the ship sails back to Rotterdam, arrival 06 Aug. Tomorrow is a sea day to cover the 342 miles between Halifax and Boston.