bennet

I logged into Teams about 10 minutes before the scheduled start time. About 10:05 Captain Bennett logged in, apologising for the tech troubles. I had my work books, TRB and certificates available but he didn’t ask to see them. He ran through the routine with me (all phones off, show me the room, will be a mix of questions and slides etc) and we had a short chat about the ships I sailed on. After a few minutes he cut me off and we got started. The questions may not be in the exact order they were asked as I’m going from memory. I won’t put answers for them all as I know I slipped up on a few. ————————————————————————————————————————————–
Sextant: Tell me what the parts are, what the correctable errors are, and tell me what the reading here is.
Passage planning: Talk me through passage planning. You’re going from Southampton to New York in January, what should you consider? Tell me what’s on a routing chart and how you would use it. How would you check that a chart is up to date?
Met: How do you get met updates? Tell me about this Synoptic chart. What would you expect in areas of high and low pressure? Tell me about the precision aneroid barometer / stevensons screen. What is a TRS? Can it form in the atlantic, in winter? Why?
Charts and ECDIS: What are these symbols (on a photo of a paper chart)? Tell me about ENCS and the Pros vs Cons of ECDIS. How would you update charts and ECDIS? What’s in the NTM?
Sailings: What’s great circle sailing? What’s it good for? How is it constructed?
AIS: Tell me about AIS. What frequency does it operate on? What is RACON?
Emergency: You receive a distress VHF DSC whilst in the middle of the ocean. What will you do? How will you prepare for to engage with a sinking ship? What is this (Shows a picture of an EPIRB)?
IMDG: What is the IMDG code? What’s in each volume? How can you tell a container contains dangerous goods?
Pilots: What would you consider when picking up a pilot? How would you rig a pilot ladder? How would you do it from the deck and ensure it’s 1.5m above the water?
DWA: What is dockwater allowance? How will you find the salinity of the dock? How would you calculate it?
Compasses: Why would you take a compass error? Complete one.
TSS: (Puts a picture of a TSS on the screen). Tell me everything about TSS’s. (I didn’t quote it word for word but I ran through all of rule 10 in my own words).
COLREGS: PDV Head on / PDV port side crossing / PDV starboard crossing / How do you determine risk of collision? / PDV overtaking on the starboard side.
Radar plot: What would you do when encountering restricted visibility / (Produces a plot with a vessel astern on the port side) complete this plot (WOA, talk about it) / What action would you take / What does rule 19 say (again, not word for word, but hit all the main points).
Light: PDV side on / Sailing Vessel head on / CBD port side / Aground side on / Mine clearance vessel
Bouys: Safe Water Mark / West Cardinal / Port Side Lateral Mark IALA A / Starboard Side Lateral Mark IALA B / How would you tell which region you are sailing on and what side would you put them on / Safe Water Mark / Isolated Danger Mark (I almost ballsed this one up, saying that it has Racon D, although I immediately corrected myself).
At this point we went back to video, and he ran through the errors I made (he is quite thorough, picking up on large and small bits, like calling a placard a sticker for example) before telling me that I’ve passed. At that point the video froze for about three minutes, which was tense. Eventually the connection settled down, he said that the signed NOE should be done within a day or two, and that was that.
In hindsight, I cannot recommend looking at previous reports enough. The general layout of my exam was very similar to the previous reports I’ve seen with Captain Bennett – whilst I wouldn’t recommend only studying what you see in previous reports, it doesn’t hurt to analyse them and pick up on repeated topics. Also, be confident on your instant-fail topics. You can fail on your general knowledge, but it’s a lot easier to drop the ball there. But more than anything – breathe, don’t panic, and if you’re still in the chair then you’re in with a chance!