Voyage Plan

[j.sabourn]

Is there anyone on site who grew up with the legislation of having to produce a voyage plan before sailing ? To me at the time it was introduced I thought it was a big
Insult to any seafarer worth his salt.It was unnecessary as far as I was concerned as proper seamen always did this in any case and to have to show a member of the
Politubru where one was going I thought a big insult and still do. Shows the feeble thinking of the so called ruling class. Any Mariner once away from the restricted waters of the sailing from country was at liberty to go the way he thought the safest weather and war wise. Those who sailed under this brought out legislation may have knowledge how it worked out , myself What I saw of it, it deserved the contempt it deserved, and must have been the last throw of the dice by a fast declining British Merchant Navy..
Cheers JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Yes John a bit of a nonsense, on trampers you got your next port of loading at the last minute, completely different to the galley wireless rumours, all haste 2nd mate to the chartroom to see if you had an approaches chart for said destination, maybe you were lucky and had one and then it was a quick preparation for Master's approval and then a frantic research of Notice to Mariners for up to date chart corrections. Went on a a couple of begging missions to other ships in port to see if we could get a chart for our next destination if we didn't have one, Masters and 2nd mates of said vessels always helpful. The ones we got from Japanese ships the depths were always in metres, so a passage spent converting to fathoms, no computers/calculators in those days. Pity we couldn't convert the echo sounder to metres, it would have made it a lot easier.

[j.sabourn]

That bit of legislation must have come out when the coast guard superceded the ancient mariners who ran the BOT, DOT ,or the DTI, all men of practical experience. ? I came through the Straits NE Australia one time on a school Atlas. Was an American ship with no charts of the area until well past Thursday Island . Today they won’t sail if the radars not working, one time you had to have permission to put on. JS

[John Arton]

This is the regulations that brought about the required voyage planning.
https://tstarmet.com/navigation/sola...is%20followed.
These came into force in 2002.
When I was 2nd mate every vessel I was on carried a world wide folio of charts and publications, so the captain would tell me, this trip we are going from saying, Brazil to Japan, so I would ask him whether the ocean passage was to be via rhumb line or great circle sailing. The voyage plan was from pilot to pilot and consisted of course an distance between either lat/long or prominent points on the coast, lighthouses etc.
As master the vetting industry had got this extended to cover from berth to berth and to include all pilotage, even had one of these vetting guys, usually ex. Masters, try to cite my passage plan as poor due to the canal passage from eastham locks did not contain courses and distance for each part of the route.
All companies safety management systems will have a section on passage planning with pro forma templates to record the passage plan on. With ECDIS this can all be stored electronically for future use with any adjustment that may be required due change in draft or any other factor.
Rgds
JA

[John Cassels]

When I was 2nd.mate the only thing the old man wanted to know was eta next port. Maybe I was in the minority but I used to keep the complete world folio
up to date even before the tracing corrections came about.

[Ivan Cloherty]

When I was 2nd.mate the only thing the old man wanted to know was eta next port. Maybe I was in the minority but I used to keep the complete world folio
up to date even before the tracing corrections came about.

Never had the tracing corrections, never had a world chart portfolio that included every obscure port, main ports and approaches yes, even on passage as 3/m I did chart corrections to pass the time away as had combined wheelhouse and chartroom, got in plenty of practice on a 22 month trip. We used to exchange our World Portfolios for corrected portfolios at every major port but not all charts were available for the passage you were about to take, so if heading for Japan and a Japanese ship in port then I was sent aboard to see if they had one that they could release to us, we were prepared to pay, but they were usually gifted with ceremony and lots of bowing, so was usually sent back with a presento of a couple of bottles of Black label and then came back with a bottle of Santori whisky. Could have worn a path between the two gangways if my Capitano had not said enough is enough, he let me keep the Santori. We were short of a chart for approaches to Kamaishi, and the Japanese captain explained the best approaches, our captain did not send the second mate, as he would have come back with two bottles of Santori inside him and no charts. Now the port of Kamaishi is another story as is the story of little Michiko

[j.sabourn]

#4. In our system of governance whatever party is in ,they always boast about how many pieces of new legislation they get through. This to me means absolutely nothing when you see how many pieces of absolute garbage goes through. They would be better employed bringing back proper laws which were discarded by the likes of the Woke brigade and their simplistic non intelligence, the likes of life sentence to mean life, and with the hard labour bit brought back out of the bottom drawer. For them to tell professional seafarers their job apart from the time and waste of money is like trying to teach their granny how to suck eggs. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

#5 John I was with one old man when I was mate who said to me he was only there to take the ship in and out of port , and to give him a shout when we got there. Mind he was only there on loan and was an ore carrier, and I had known him for years in Runcimans, he is a long time dead now, it was a pleasure to sail with him. JS

[Mike Hutchins]

Never had the tracing corrections, never had a world chart portfolio that included every obscure port, main ports and approaches yes, even on passage as 3/m I did chart corrections to pass the time away as had combined wheelhouse and chartroom, got in plenty of practice on a 22 month trip. We used to exchange our World Portfolios for corrected portfolios at every major port but not all charts were available for the passage you were about to take, so if heading for Japan and a Japanese ship in port then I was sent aboard to see if they had one that they could release to us, we were prepared to pay, but they were usually gifted with ceremony and lots of bowing, so was usually sent back with a presento of a couple of bottles of Black label and then came back with a bottle of Santori whisky. Could have worn a path between the two gangways if my Capitano had not said enough is enough, he let me keep the Santori. We were short of a chart for approaches to Kamaishi, and the Japanese captain explained the best approaches, our captain did not send the second mate, as he would have come back with two bottles of Santori inside him and no charts. Now the port of Kamaishi is another story as is the story of little Michiko

Ah! Remember Kamaishi well! Went there on Greek Park-ship in Jan '55 with coal. My first time in Japan & memorable to this day!
Mike.

[j.sabourn]

My first of many memories and the love of my life was Sadjico in Kawasaki in October 1953. Nearly 72 years ago and still remember well . Still young at heart pity about the body. JS