I’ve heard this is the place to go for good helpful info. <br><br>I’ve been doing unpaid volunteer work for Mercy Ships in W. Africa for the past few years. I hold a 1600 Master/Towing Master and was towing, anchor handling, and DP work as a mate before that (with Choeust & Harvey Gulf). <br>I am currently in the process of upgrading to 3rd Officer. I’ve been attending Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy and completed that and began studying for my exams on my own. Unfortunately, the schools do not negate all of the required Control Sheets, and some still needed to be signed. I managed to get 48 out of 49 control sheets signed at the school and by doing a day trip with a local company. I only have one signature to go, <strong>OICNW 1-5G, Azimuth Of Any Body At Night</strong>. <br>I seem to have few options. I can’t fly back to Africa and wait 3 months for the ships to sail, so I need to either-<br><br>1. Get a job for a month just for a signature. this is unfair to the company, so I’d rather not do this.<br><br>2. Re-take another Terrestrial Nav class at another school. (no, thanks!)<br><br>3. Find a boat going out at night sometime and do the exercise and get the last signature. <br><br>The last option seems to be my best. Right now I have a friend in Louisiana willing to do it, but that’s going to cost hundreds of dollars to fly down, rent a car, etc…<br>I’m currently in Virginia Beach, headed back home to NH this week. Does anyone know a captain/mate somewhere along the Eastern Seaboard wiling to allow some unknown guy to come aboard at night and do an Azimuth of the moon? I’m certainly willing to pay for fuel/time/carriage if necessary. In Chesapeake Bay or New England is optimal, but I’m willing to travel. <br>Barring that, if there’s any school willing to do the same, that would help out as well. <br><br><br>Advice?
eThib- I think I saw your picture on a punchboard in the break room at MAMA. I can tell you what I did on those assessments. I made a reduced copy (about twice the size of TWIC card) of my celestial certificate on most of those assessment and I taped it to the assessment sheet. The celestial class that I took was approved for certain assessment signatures. Another thing, could you talk one of the instructors into going down to a pier or on a personal water craft there to do the one sight?
<P>CAPT. LEE WHEN HAVE YOU SEEN A PERSONAL WATER CRAFT WITH A WING REPEATER OR ANY DEVICE TO GET A BEARING HUMMMMMMM???</P>
Chaos,<br> Leave Lee alone, he’s just making a pass. He’ll sign just to ride “bitch” on the back with eThib…no repeater needed.
Yeah, that was me, Lee. I’m surprised we didn’t meet. MAMA was a great school that’s bent over backwards to help me, but I need a Gyro repeater to do the sight, so a small boat won’t do. NMC won’t accept a copy of my Celestial (or Terrestrial) certificate from MAMA for this sight, as the sight needs to either be done in the right kind of simulator or on an actual vessel, at sea. I couldn’t do them on the Mercy Ship as we had no American 2nd Officer+. The NMC is working with MAMA to permit them to sign these off, and in addition, MAMA is looking into getting a vessel for training, but that’s a ways away, no doubt.
I would take your friend up on his offer, it is a pretty generous offer and it won’t be bad to do it with a friend. Paying for the travel sucks, but think of it as an investment, you will get all that money on your first hitch as 3/M.
MITAGS can do this one for you in their simulator. We do them all the time at PMI. Give them a call if you’d like.<br>
Chaos- It is so frustrating to have to explain every little detail to someone as seasoned as you…What I meant by PWC is a small boat. I guess I used the wrong word. Sorry for confusing you and thanks so much for pointing out my ignorance!
Capt. Lee, as anchorman and I read your last posting we both questioned your PWC refrence and its no problem, I am glad to point out your ignorance because I know you would do the same for me.<br><DIV>by the way I need you to please give me a call. I left you my number on your voice mail</DIV><br><DIV> </DIV>
I had this EXACT same problem a few years back. I was sailing as C/M (yes without the license) and my friend was sailing 2/M on the same ship. His brother was C/E on the King’s Pointer so he ended up flying up to NY to take a trip and get the signature. I waited until he passed the exam and came back to the ship then the Captain demoted me to 2/m and promoted him to C/M for 1 day so he could sign my assessment. <br><br>I know what you’re thinking… why didn’t the captain just sign it off for you? It was a foreign flagged ship and neither captain had a US license. The NMC doesn’t allow foreigners to sign the assessments!
Thanks Dougpine, I’ll give MITAGS a call. I wasn’t aware their sim was set up for these. <br><br>I appreciate your advice too, Kingfysh, but we don’t get paid at Mercy Ships. <br><br>For all interested, 1600 Ton Mates & Masters can sign these sheets, as well…should you ever need it done. <br>I wonder If I can sign my own? /lol.
Chaos- UNBELIEVABLE!!! Now anchorman has a parrot!!
eThib,<br> You can do azimuths in the simulator at MAMA. Have you talked to Sitka about this? I’ll be there tomorrow working with the adv. shiphandling class on z-drives. I’ll check for you.<br>Doc
Hey, Doc-<br>I’ve been working with the NMC and with Carrie, as well. Feel free to check, but I was told by Carrie MAMA isn’t authorized to do these. I was there last week. I saw you come in and out but didn’t get a chance to say hi. Good to see you back. <br>
You don’t need a repeater and you can still do it in a “PWC” . You can use magnetic compasses, one for the heading of the vessel and a hand held for the az. Just like a repeater, you have to make sure you apply the difference between the steering compass and the “repeater” that you shoot from. You still wind up with a compass error. Also, if my memory serves me correctly, the assessment says the candidate’s shot has to be within a certain tolerance of the assessor’s shot.
Sorry, mrolnick, but the assessment clearly states ‘Read the gyro-compass bearing of any body and determine gyro-compass error’. I may be able to complete it this week at a school in Massachussetts this week if all goes well.