When paper charts are no longer available they just have to go back to “platform jumping”. like in the good ol’ days. Or this that form of navigation a forgotten skill?
Ships are required to have ECDIS. Almost everyone on smaller vessel are using chart plotters, particularly with Rosepoint and Nobeltec. I don’t think many people are actually plotting on paper charts unless its a company requirement.
Starlink is the cheapest, best, and probably most reliable method of transmitting the company required paperwork. Soon almost everyone is going to have it. Providing crew access will become standard. Any company that does not provided it will become substandard and have more difficulty competing for crew.
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Its been nearly 20 years since I was working the oilpatch, but I’ll bet I could still do it!
I worked for Chouest for 8 years, anchor boats & supply. What they have going for them is that because of their size and diversification, they can build boats well on contract at inception, then free sailing. They also are very good at figuring out engineering problems with the boats, once It’s figured out, every one after has the change. If you worked on one boat of a style, you can work on any with a reasonable expectation of what you will see.
But one of the constants of our industry (And any line of work) is people constantly complaining about the lack of creature comforts, extras, side-show fluff. I remember when we didn’t have squat on the boats, and there was a stack of video tapes, magazines (LOL), & books galore. I realize this doesn’t have anything to do with you, but step back and realize this is the reality now, things aren’t back to the boom time level yet. Slap full of cooks was when things were in a much sunnier position. Now they have to have the Pay Wars, pull boats out of stack, all while keeping an eye on the cyclical nature of our side. Those boats they’re peeling off the docks down the bayou & Gulfport / All the little Bollinger Yards they own now…they’re coming out of cold or warm stack, going to look worse for the wear, because before they got stacked, skeleton crew with low morale, just treading water.
Remember, there are a lot of ways to get that signal / perk yourself, & those old fellas in the office know this, I wouldn’t be expecting more of a pet than that. You’re in a good place, Just ride It out.
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Of course they are and on top of it, BA actually produces charts with in center graticules and BA chart dealers must sell the charts correcte dto the date of sale. But I did see this last rule violated in Portugal by a supplier.