1. Voyage Planning
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MERCHANT MARINE

2. Technical questions
List as many sources as you can for making a voyage plan.
List as many environment factors as you can that may affect your voyage plan.
Who should participate in a pre-transit conference?
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MERCHANT MARINE

3. Technical questions What is a contingency plan? When is it used?
What is a shared mental model?
What is a one-person error? How does voyage planning help avoid it?
What is voyage monitoring?
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MERCHANT MARINE

4. Concho’s voyage planning
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MERCHANT MARINE

5. Exxon Valdez
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MERCHANT MARINE

6. Exxon Valdez
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MERCHANT MARINE

7. Voyage Planning Checklist
Environment
Tides
Currents
Sunrise/sunset
Statistics
Ship’s information
Length
Beam
Draft (including changes caused by squat)
Vertical clearance (“air draft”)
Allowance for speed changes
Vertical and horizontal clearance in bridges, locks
Deviation card updated
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MERCHANT MARINE

8. Voyage Planning Checklist
Unusual Conditions
Hazards (dredging, regattas, salvage operations)
Lift/swing bridge operating hours
Speed limitations along the route
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MERCHANT MARINE

9. Voyage Planning Checklist
Assistance
Vessel traffic service
Radio frequencies
Check-in locations
Pilot
Embarkation location
Time
Radio frequency
Line-handlers
Radio frequencies for tugs, berth, bridges, canals
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MERCHANT MARINE

10. Voyage Planning Checklist
Aids to Navigation
Significant aids noted/marked
Sailing direction checked
Notice to mariner and light lists checked
Charts updated
“No-go” areas marked on charts
Available anchorages confirmed
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MERCHANT MARINE

11. Plan our Voyage
Professional seaman cannot upgrade their seagoing documents and licenses without proving experience.
Pilots cannot be licensed for their routes without having made a minimum number of transits over the route.
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MERCHANT MARINE

12. Contingency Planning
A good voyage plan will allow for these “discovered discrepancies.”
Contingency planning: if things are not as we thought they would be, then we must either change our plan or to stop the voyage.
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MERCHANT MARINE

13. Contingency Planning Schedule to meet, missions to accomplish.
If things are truly going wrong, the prudent seaman will and must consider anchoring his ship or returning to a berth until things are put right.
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MERCHANT MARINE

14. Contingency Planning
Plans, either primary plans or contingency plans, will not work if they are not followed and executed correctly.
If the plan is being executed correctly by comparing the plan with what we actually experience. We call this voyage monitoring.
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MERCHANT MARINE

15. Shared Mental Model
A shared mental model is a mutually agreed upon understanding of the voyage:
Where and when turns will be made;
What the environmental conditions will be;
Where and when the speed will be adjusted;
What unexpected conditions can be anticipated;
What contingency plans exist to deal with them.
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MERCHANT MARINE

16. Shared Mental Model
Having everyone share that mental model means everyone, not just the navigation personnel.
Consultation between the chief engineer and the master.
A pre-transit conference can help ensure the development of a good shared mental model.
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MERCHANT MARINE

17. Shared Mental Model One person error: Anyone can make a mistake;
When everyone understands what is supposed to happen and one person makes a mistake, it is at least possible, if not probable, that someone will point out the error and thus prevent the potential crisis.
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MERCHANT MARINE

18. Discussion questions
What are the differences (and similarities) between a pre-departure conference and a pre-arrival conference?
If you discover some of your navigating equipment is not functioning or is functioning inaccurately, what do you do? What does your company expect?
In your experience, are all watch-standers encouraged or discouraged from reporting discrepancies between the voyage plan and reality?
Aboard your current vessel, how formal (or informal) are your pre-transit conference? How effective are they? What about other vessels on which you have sailed?
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MERCHANT MARINE