[esailor Team]

Orals report.
Logged in 15 minutes before exam time. Oral started 11.30pm.
Ran through online policy before being asked what my background and last ship was.
Started with Masters hand over.
List all the certificates the ship has, he told me at the end that he was looking for Class certs among the statuary ones.
The rest of the exam was straight from the Syllabus. I had to list the things involved in passage from Bristol to St Vincent. Was given a synoptic chart and asked what weather I would meet in the next few days we quickly moved to the next point after he was given some key words on each topic. ie mention of TRS which brought on a question about what a master has to report which ticked I missed out debris in the list. mention of routing charts, ocean passages of the world. Added questions as I spoke they were all out of the syllabus plan a voyage, and determine position fix accuracy along with difference between ENC and raster charts.
Quick question about magnetic compass to which I said would rather not touch it, he surprised me when he said that is our current advice (forgot to ask where this could be found at the end.)
Nav aids was the next topic nothing too in depth broke it up to show me a radar plot 3 dots from 045. Said ARPA was broken on the radar. Said would put EBL on target got a nod and asked action. This was the only plot in the exam.
Next was navigational emergencies told to beach to repair a cracked pipe. Gave the usual answer who to report to and actions to put ship ashore. Was fishing for something that I had not given, which was I would pick a sandy beach.
Ship handling was basic what is transverse thrust, snibing round. What is a running moor. Asked about what happens to ship in narrow channel, bank effect, squat.
Some cargo questions about grain cargos mentioned GM and GZ values which seemed to tick the stability box as I don’t recall being asked any further stability questions. what comes with a container I said dangerous goods declaration and shippers note, he was looking for weight bridge cert but was happy when I mentioned find out the weight.
What extra certs does an oil tanker carry, waffled a bit here and he moved on.
What is difference between Class society and ROs
Moved to buoyage wanted only type and flash, followed by a 3 buoy channel.
Then smarty board lights, what was it and fog signal usual selection
Some simple situations in same format as e-sailor animated format. Last one was a vessel crossing from stbd with a ferry overtaking me. He gave a big smile when I said I would alter to stbd (don’t think he liked ferries).
That was the end of questions, asked how I thought I had done. I replied that most answers were ok though a few holes on certs especially on tankers .
Said the certificate missing for tankers was fitness to carry oil. Then followed a small talk about the exam and its conduct. At this moment it was like the drum roll before the next person gets thrown out of the big brother house fortunately I was not thrown out and told I had passed.

Big thanks to Vinal and Shaun. Also a bit shout to those in the chat groups.

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