ROUTINE CAN BREED COMPLACENCY

The following are some tips to help you avoid complacency:

             CLOSE CALLS / NEAR MISSES—it’s hoped that your experience on the job will illuminate this potential pitfall. If you have been sailing for 20 years, you have had enough scares and close calls to remind you of the inherent dangers awaiting the unsuspecting mariner. 

JOB INTEREST—All professions can become routine and a bit boring over time.  Going to sea is no different.  Read those professional articles.  Keep yourself sharp and up to date.  Pull out some of those dusty textbooks you haven’t read in years.  Some sections will take on a whole new meaning.  Hold a small class and share your experience and knowledge with your shipmates.  Not only will this be an excellent review for you, it also may earn the appreciation of your shipmates.

ATTITUDE—We know that attitude plays a major role in our performance.  When you’re feeling a bit down, it can contribute significantly to complacency.  We must acknowledge that leaving homes and loved ones behind, enduring winter storms, struggling with long, dark days and suffering through cold, wet port calls is difficult.  But this is the life that we have chosen.  All of us share an enormous responsibility.  We must ensure that we stay fit mentally and physically.  Maintaining a proper attitude is part of this responsibility.

All too frequently we see human error listed as the contributing factor in a maritime casualty.  How often, we wonder, did complacency play a role?  It’s a comfortable feeling to have gained invaluable experience through years of hard work.  The next challenge is to remain a diligent professional.  Don’t run yourself aground on the treacherous reef of complacency!  (Adapted from NSC Marine Newsletter)

VMSL AT EXPOSITIONS

During December VMSL displayed at the International Boat Show in New Orleans, next will be Connecticut Maritime Association Shipping 2010 in March followed by Sea Japan in April 2010.  It is a pleasure to see old, current and new  customers of VMSL.  If you are in the area of the events please stop by and say hello.

IMMERSION SUITES

Immersion suites are to be inspected monthly and every three years an air-pressure test to check for the integrity of the seams and closures.  IMO recommends that the latter be conducted at a shore-based facility that is equipped to carry out any repairs that may be necessary.

MSDS

Reminding all vessels to ensure a Material Safety Data Sheet for MARPOL
Annex I oil  carried as either cargo in bulk or as marine fuel is on board.

Major Earthquake in Vanuatu

On 8 October, Vanuatu suffered an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter Scale which caused alarm throughout the country, coming at it did within a week of the 8.1 quake in Samoa which resulted in a tsunami which killed hundreds of people and wiped out whole villages.  Luckily no lives were lost and no tsunami resulted in populated areas.  Damage in the northern town of Luganville was not extensive.  Vanuatu has regular earthquakes as it sits right on the western edge of the Pacific plate at the subduction intersection with the Australian plate.

Volcano Eruption

In October Mount Garet on the island of Gaua, in the far northern province of Vanuatu, started to erupt after being (almost) silent since 1973.  By November the eruptions had so intensified that the residents west (down wind) of the volcano  were evacuated to another island.
The danger is immense as the caldera contains Lake Letas, with an estimated 800 million cubic meters of water.  If the caldera collapses and the water comes in contact with the molten lava, it will act like a steam boiler and result in a massive explosion.  For this reason precautionary evacuations have commenced.  Vanuatu is in the Pacific “rim of fire” with seven active volcanoes and is located where the Pacific tectonic plate is riding over the Australian plate.

Who is a Chief?

A leading member of Parliament (and a Chief in his own right) has called on the National Council of Chiefs to clearly define who is a chief and how a chief is chosen.  Confusion is growing and court cases increasing due to competing claims of chiefly status which, when obtained, brings with it recognition and power.  Custom law is recognized by Vanuatu’s Constitution in certain situations.

  National Arts Festival

The fourth yearly National Arts Festival was held in November in the capital, Port Vila. The festival, over five days, brought custom rituals and dances, as well as sand drawings, carvings, and paintings for all to see and enjoy.  Scheduled at the same time was the annual male and female fieldworkers Workshop congress sponsored by AUSAID.  This brings together field workers from villages throughout the islands to report on “custom” in the villages. The field worker program, the first such program in the world, has been going for almost 30 years and has recorded for posterity most of the custom stories, traditions and rites.  Those that are secret have been stored without public access.

Fes Napuan

The annual Fes Napuan musical festival, which brings to Port Vila music bands from all over the country and from neighbouring countries as well, was held during the National Arts Festival week.  Music is one of the fastest ways to progress in the country and is avidly followed by many.

National Census

Vanuatu underwent its national census in November, an event which occurs every 10 years. Census takers, with multiple choice questions worked in every community in the country, gaging the “state of the nation”.  The collected data will take up to a year to be analysed and will be used inter alia, to reset electoral boundaries, the locations of future schools and the allocation of provincial budgets.  It will give a current “snap shot” of the country.  The population was 186,000 ten years ago and is estimated to now be 240,000.

Termination of Foreigners as Vanuatu Representatives

At the first meeting of all of Vanuatu’s heads of foreign diplomatic and consular missions (Pacific region, America, China, Europe) it was announced that all foreign nationals holding such posts have been terminated.  This was done to restrict Vanuatu passports to citizens only and to register displeasure at the lax standard of reporting from the foreign nationals.