Splash 24/7 also have an article speculating on why the course change?:
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In this picture she appears to be about to break in two.
Latest from Splash 24/7.
The Mauritius Government has made claim against the Owner/Insurers:
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I think they probably mean they tried to get close to the island to get mobile signal not wifi. Satellite internet for ships is regularly becoming cheaper, installing it would probably save companies money in the long run as it stops Captains from trying to get dangerously close to land to try and get a mobile signal.
Lâexpress made a video detailing the AIS data, it looks like they changed course about 2 hours before going aground, initially they were heading straight for Mahebourg.
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Good find.
The other item was that captain and chief engineer were on the bridge at the time even though it was in the evening. Thatâs a bit unusual.
When the ship was called with the warning the captain answered that the ship was in safe water. Likely the reason he thought he was in deep water was from looking at the ECDIS.
It looks like they might have made a 10 degree alteration right before they went aground, too little to late.
From the chart it looks like they only just went aground, they almost missed the reefâŠ
Sounds like the officials put each crew member in the âBoxâ and are getting to the real story as to what or wasnât going on. Wonder how many cell phones went over the side before they got off the ship?
About 99.99% of the attention in this case is going to be on the party and cell phone etc.
However:
When we had the ECDIS installed it was labeled âFor training onlyâ at first. In theory the mates were still navigating based on paper charts.
However I had an epiphany one day while monitoring the second mate from my office (using iNavX on an Ipad). while he was navigating through traffic in Malacca Strait
When the workload gets high the navigation process gets simplified, steer for the areas in white on the chart and avoid the areas in blue.
Busy with traffic or busy having a party, either way thatâs why itâs important to have the depth contours set up properly on the ECDIS.
And look out the window occasionally. All the electronics in the world didnât prevent this accident. Basics still work as they have for centuries.
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Thatâs going to turn out to be very expensive cell phone service.
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I got you Lee, call me at BR549 hee haw.
Thatâs true of the duties of a lookout which hasnât changed in thousands of years.
But with regards to navigation; in many cases the basic paper navigation chart is no longer available to the bridge watch
The ECIDS allows the mate on watch to spend more time looking ahead with only a quick glance to check that the ship is in safe waters where in the past it required plotting a fix on the paper chart during which the mate could not watch ahead.
If that quick glance conveys useful information it decreases the chances of a navigation mishap. Thatâs why having the depths contours correct is important.
Agree.the contours should be entered correctly .Not so old saying âBullshit in, bullshit outââŠApparently the quick glance was not exercised in this event, on either and other aids to navigate. Total fuck up, and you know it KBC.
Complacency is an insidious bitch and anyone whoâs been around awhile knows how quickly it can bite you in the ass.
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One thing that I think should be made an international requirement are radar overlays on ECDIS.
Having radar overlays available on ECDIS make it immediately apparent if there are discrepancies between the ships GPS position and radar position.
Itâs basically having real time range and bearings that you can see instantaneously instead of having to plot them on a chart.
Often when you do a ship simulator course one of the things the course operators do to mess with you is to offset the GPS position on the ECDIS to make you think you are in different position to what you actually are, so one thing I learned was when you are doing a simulator course turn on radar overlays and you can see when they are messing with you.
On some ships you canât overlay the radar image on the ECDIS, there are sometimes compatibility issues between the radar and ECDIS manufacturer. Some radar and ECDIS combinations easily allow you to display radar targets, but not the actual outline of the coast that a radar overlay would show.
Done properly it doesnât really clutter the ECDIS screen, it is a fantastic navigational aid.
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This is still true nowadays. I had a Captain who would mess around with my route plans just to have the ship make a close pass to land to get a phone signal. We do have VSAT onboard yet he was still trying to connect his own local sim via cell terrestrial towers coz they were cheaper. Needless to say these practices have to end where the safety of the ship is compromised just to get a freakin phone signal.
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Yeah very true.
As we learned from the COVID crisis governments can easily tell from cell phone towers who is making phone calls or data connections from a small area, so the Mauritius authorities will probably be able to tell from digital records if the watch-keeper was on the phone to his wife when the accident happened.
They will most likely keeping all the crew apart and looking for hole in their stories, fortunately for the crew Mauritius has a good human rights record so they shouldnât expect too many problems if they are honest.
Get them in the âBoxâ and take the cellphones. I wouldnât want to be the last few questioned, or worse⊠requestioned. The authorities already know the answers or questions. They got the story after the first few interviews. Just looking for fibbers now.