belfast-hawkins

anonymous
OOW UNLIMITED BELFAST OFFICE
ONLINE ORAL REPORT
Capt Hawkins
Outcome Pass.
All things highlighted red indicate anything specific to online examination
Just a quick run down on what to expect prior to the exam,
The MCA office to whom holds your NOE will send you an invitation to an online oral exam.
You can either accept or request another date and have 3 days to do so
You have to confirm by email acceptance and confirm you have the following in place:
I. A clear and large desk space
II. Fast WIFI
III. Quiet room sufficient lighting
IV. Downloaded the Microsoft teams app. (THIS IS IMPORTANT AS APPARENTLY FOR SOME REASON
THEY FAILED SOME ONE FOR USING TEAMS ON WEB BROWSER)
Once accepted you will receive another email from your MCA office, this will be your invite to Microsoft
teams.
At this point make sure that the app is downloaded and when you accept the invite it takes you straight to
the teams app and you can join the meeting.
If you use mac book make sure you use google chrome browser when you go onto your emails and accept
the teams invite or you will have trouble on safari ( I learnt this 10 minutes before the exam)
My exam was due to start at 1400, Made sure I had a quiet well lit room. In the room I had a laptop (don’t
forget to keep it on charge) a glass of water, some radar plotting sheets printed out (supplied by MCA on
exam invite email) 2 pens and 2 pencils and a ruler, and 3 sheets of plain paper.
I clicked the teams invite link on the email 10 mins before the exam started and eventually joined the
meeting. Captain Hawkins joined pretty much bang on 1400. I sat up straight with a big smile on my face
and said good afternoon sir. On the screen he had his background settings to a giant red ensign, which I
tried to give him a bit of cringe worthy banter which I immediately regretted.
EXAM BEGINS
He asked me my previous experience and ship types so gave him the usual spiel and he stopped me at
summer draught (wasn’t very interested)
Then questions below not in the right order and likely missed a lot out as he was back and forth like a yo-yo:
PX plan Glasgow to Florida
1. Risk assess beth to berth
2. APEM
3. appraise the plan using all relevant pubs
4. Listed the pubs, stopped me at : Sailing direction, WX routing charts, asked for contents
5. asked me difference tide tables and title stream atlas
6. Asked for sources of MET info and where to find WX obs.
Away from PX plan asks me about WX expected in the North atlantic depression, doesn’t let me get far
before using the first slide.
SLIDE – synoptic chart , there was a depression and asked me to tell him wx at warm front cold front etc,
gave same answer.
Back to PX Plan “ok now appraised now what?”
Went through planning stopped me at no go areas, give examples..
said about parallel indexing he stopped and i had to explain why and how to do
He Then moved away again and said I am navigating and the captain want a VSA I explained in full.
While on sextant what else is it used for?
name parts of sextant
he then tried to use a SLIDE sextant related and never worked
he asked me for errors
Told me to grab a pen and paper, I was expecting some kind of mad calculation.. but he gave me heading,
deviation variation and compass to true.
Where to find deviation and variation
Back to your passage your on watch and you run aground thought I gave every thing forgot lights shapes
sigs but remembered in the nick of time
asked me lights shapes vl aground, gave all size ships
Then asked for anchor lists shapes
Handing over anchor watch and keeping anchor watch.
Now on a bulk carrier 10m draught how do you determine UKC
You mentioned squat what is it, described in full
Narrow channel now, single screw right hand prop turn around, explained transverse thrust forgot how to
turn but guessed right (astern prop turn stbd)
Now on a timber carrier what to watch out for with nature of load?
luckily joined one say of cargo prep the week before with shane at GMA told him everything lubber LL,
added buoyancy >125m 4.3m <125 up to fore castle, wiggle wire and so on
Asked me what is a danger of timer cargo? I said uncovered and absorbs water additional weight
He wanted exact ration, I had no clue told him I didn’t know but if I was to guess I would say double weight,
he said no not that much and we moved on.
Take a new cadet to forecastle what are the precautions ( still thought we where on timber so was saying
slipper wood etc) he laughed slightly said no longer timber, so I went onto all safety with moorings and only
observe from hight TBT , etc.
Back to the passage enroute and see a red flare 2 point fwd bow actions? during answer mentioned x band
what is x band radar? said everything
you mentioned SART tell me about it
tell me about EPIRB
RADAR limitations
contents SOLAS training manual
what is international code of sigs
Heavy WX actions , answered and he wanted to know more on securings of deck cargo etc.
Now its res vis and echo 4 points stbd actions
SLIDES he had radar plotting with first plot made
went through WOA triangle explained all aspect and actions to take as per 19
SIDES ( did not work so had to explain to me) ROR situations pretty straight forward
I. TOWING VL STBD BOW – ( because the slides where not working i had to ask for aspect ) PDV STAND
ON RULE 17 a1) 34(d) a2)explained in full (thanks Paul at whitehorse)
II. SV ASTERN MAKING GOOD SPEED RANGE DECREASING- 13 overtaking
III. YOU OVERTAKING
IV. RULE 18 – PDV, FV, SV
V. SMARTY BOARD SLIDE: UNDER WATER OPS, MINE CLEARANCE, TRAWLER SHOOTING, CBD (8f,
123) what are they, sigs and actions.
BUOYAGE SLIDES: TOP MARKS one at a time, said the first 3 in detail then ended up him picking me
one and me just saying what it was couldn’t believe it.
He then went back to syllabus asked for magnetic compass checks and maintenance
Fire in galley actions on bridge, in the galley and on deck. ( mainly was looking for cooks engage FF
system on way out and close door)
What are M notices
Whats port state control and flag state control.
MAROPOL annex 5, GRB ditch criteria.
He then stopped and said I have seen enough and you have done enough for a pass. (big smiles all round)
had a 5 minute chat and that was that.
Being one of the first to sit an online oral, I didn’t know what to expect. I’m sure that if you’re reading this you
are in the same boat! I only had 6 days notice but had been studying a little bit since my exam was cancelled
in April.
All I can say to anybody anxious about sitting an online exam, don’t be. Its still the exact same structure and
theres’ nothing extra that you need to know that might trip you up. Just sit up straight, act confident, study
hard and you will be fine. If anything the online exam helped me because every time the examiner was
struggling with the slides it gave me a moment to steady myself.
Remember try to stay calm, talk slower, take a pause and think before answering.
I hope this was a help and I wish you the best of luck for your exams!
A massive thank you to Damian MARITAS, Maurice at Ocean navigate for previous tuition,
Vinil and Shane ate GMA, Paul at Whitehorse maritime and the master and crew of SDNR for advice and
giving me the time to study!