A master's experience

摘要

The experience of one VLGC master, who completed the generic ECDIS training and sailed with ECDIS for the first time in 2011, is instructive. When he joined he found the ECDIS on board was user-friendly but was of a different type to the unit he was trained on. He picked up the specific type information by going through the manual and trying things out on the unit: a process that is possible on long voyages. The master's experience was that ECDIS was a beneficial presence on board, even though paper charts were in use as the primary means of navigation. "It was very convenient having ECDIS, especially when entering anchorages, manoeuvring within port limits and when immediate manoeuvres needed to be made for collision avoidance," he observed. "A glance on the screen gives an immediate understanding about the sea room available."