How many people here have been to sea?

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[Viking28]

Thought i would ask how many users have cruised or worked at sea. And what ports  have you been in and what ships have you sailed on.

My Ports/boats/
Ships:Svitzer Sarah
MS Oriana
MS Queen Elizabeth (the new one)
Ports: Copenhagen,Tavemunde, St Petersburg, Helsinki,Stockholm, Aarhus, Oslo, St Peter Port, Malaga, Dubrovnik, Venice, Split, Kotor, Corfu, Gibraltar, Stavanger, Alesund, Geiranger, Bergen, Solent, Calais, Dover, Le Harve, Caen.

[cpt.nordstrand]

been a passenger on: stena saga, stena jutlandica, stena danica, pearl seaways, crown seaways, wermeln(lake tourist boat), color magic, color fantasy, peter wessel, bastø ferries, and alot of more wich i cant remember the name of

ports: oslo, fredrikshavn, gothenburg(gøteborg), copenhaven, kiel, cebu, unknown port in phillipines island bohol, palma de mallorca, kristiansand, larvik, stavern, risør, helsingborg, moss, horten, ålborg, risøya(tvedestrand), lyngør, molde.

NOTE: never worked on any kind of seagoing vessels

[danny]

I've not worked at sea, but I have talked myself (with thanks to the cpt being a very close friend of mine) onto a AHTS in the northsea for a 2 week trip during winter when the weather got Gnarly...
Unfortunatly the friend moved companies a few months later, so I can't do it anymore 

[Ballast]

Lost count after almost 10 years.. 

[mvsmith]

R/V Argo
R/V Thomas Washington
R/V Melville
R/V Knorr

Out of San Diego, California & Woods Hole, Massachusetts to:
Honolulu
Adak , Alaska
Yokohama & Osaka, Japan
Penang, Malaysia
Colombo, Sri Lanka (Ceylon then)
Port Louis, Mauritius
Reykjavik, Iceland
Bridgetown, Barbados
Recife, Brazil
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Valparaiso, Chile
Antofagasta, Chile
Papeete, Tahiti
Bounty Bay (Adamstown), Pitcairn Island—in a longboat

[TJK]

Only one year on the SS Sørlandet from Kristiansand Norway


i was only 15 years old that time but a experience for life

Tore

[Traddles]

Too many years, and hundreds of ports. All round the Gulf of Mexico, South & East African ports, Walvis Bay, Lobito Bay, Capetown, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, Lourenco Marques (Now called Maputo), Beira, Nacala, Tanga, Mombasa, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Djibuti, Muscat, Bahrain, Dammam, Abu Dhabi, Korea, Japan, Canada, USA(Chicago, Houston, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Lake Charles, New Orleans, Port Sulphur, Mobile and a few more I have forgotten). European ports, London, Cardiff, Avonmouth, Liverpool, Middlesborough, Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin, Belfast, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Genoa. Calcutta, Colombo, Port Sudan, Suez, Port Said, Algiers, Ceuta, Gibraltar, Las Palmas. Gothenburg, I give up. Too many to remember. I think about 23 different ships working. RMS "Mauretania" as a passenger.

Angus

[Rbsanford]

ive been on:

SS Badger
M/S Vista Star

            as you can see, i need to go out to sea more often.

[Third Mate]

While I was in Cadets, I've been on a few ships. Most of them....hmm ok all of them were navy ships.But most of them were stationary.So they were:

A tanker by the name of HMNZS "Endeavour

RHIB

A dive ship "Kiwi" (now decommissioned)

1945 Warship HMAS Diamantina

Tug by the name of lyttelton that was built in 1938

[Rbsanford]

ime thinking of goin on a yacht cruise in the florida keys on spring break though. 

[sadsid (†2016)]

Hi
Same for me Angus to many years & ships were to even start.
1963 Wyre Gleaner  Iceland from there on White Sea  Bear island and more than
I can remember last Ship Grampian Dee 2004 Aberdeen 11 years in this 1 looking
after rigs in North sea home port Aberdeen.
                                                                                                            Eric

[Viking28]

Cool Whats the roughest seas you guys have sailed on? I know mine is a Force 10 of the Atlantic Coast of Portugal.

[danny]

I have no idea, but whne i talked myself onto that AHTS the weather was rough enough that the waves would be 10 metres bellow you one minute, and then 20 metres above you the next... so probably a force 12?

[Ballast]

Hard to tell.. All depends on the water depth, wind direction, is there any shelter from the land, were it windwaves or was it swell etc.

[sadsid (†2016)]

Hi
January 2004 while on location 80 miles off Shetland island looking after
Semi The Control gave me the readings 33mtr swell with Gusts of 140 knots
                                                                                                      Eric
Pic of ship lenth 29 mtrs

[maalle heitetty kippari]

Ships:
Silja Line, m/s Symphony
Silja Line, m/s Serenade
Silja Line, G.T.S Finnjet
Viking Line, m/s Ålandsfärjan
Viking Line, m/s XPRS
Viking Line, m/s Gabriella
Viking Line, m/s Rosella
Tallink, m/s Star
Tallink, m/s Super Star
Tallink, m/s Baltic Princess
Eckerö Linjen, m/s Eckerö
Eckerö Linjen, m/s Roslagen
Eckerö Linjen, m/s Alandia
Eckerö Line, m/s Nordlandia
Gudingen
Skiftet
Alfågeln
Aura
Boats:
SAR rescue Jenny Vihuri
Finnish coast guard PV 120
Nimbus 3000 (our boat)
Nimbus 35 fly
Princess 35 fly
Princess 42 fly
Utö 31
Regal
Bayliner
Storebro 410
Long-tail boat

Ports:
Helsinki, Turku, Rauma, Pori, Kotka, Oulu, Mariehamn, Tallinn, Stockholm, Bangkok, Pak Nam Ram(Huo Hin), Phuket

I worked at sea our boat.

[Captain Cadet]

i been trained on Ts John Jerwood.
i want to go on TS Royalist. (but im scared of hights  )
and ive been on MV stena europe
and a boat in gosport and plimouth
that not much boats

[Viking28]

Nice. didn't know so many people on the forum have been to sea. I one day want to work at sea (commercially)
In your opinions what do you think are the best types of ships or companys to work on or with?

[vin_sun]

I one day want to work at sea (commercially)
In your opinions what do you think are the best types of ships or companys to work on or with?

Have you decided in which department you want to work in ? Deck or Engine ?

Though this is not in any particular order each type of ship has its highs and lows.

Cruise liners
Glamour / Great interiors / State of the art equipment / Good ports / Good cuisine / High levels of responsibility / Passenger welfare / Long tours of duty

Container Ships
Short port stays - so no shore leave / Frequent port calls if on a smaller container ship

Bulk carriers
Long ocean crossings / Slow speed ships / Fast turn around in ports - shore leave possibility better than container ships

Oil tankers
Large tankers mostly load in the ports of the Persian Gulf where there is nothing much around / Smaller tankers have short port stays / Subject to regular inspections by external bodies / Pollution risks if not alert / Long voyages / High responsibilities

Chemical tankers
High responsibility for senior officers / May have to deal with toxic & lethal cargoes - calls for extreme personal safety / Main deck of ship can be very congested with extensive pipelines / Can call at many berths in a single port / Tank cleaning operations can be very tedious / High degree of competence required for cargo operations / Practically impossible to step ashore in ports due to short port stays, inspections, receiving stores.

Gas tankers
Considered to be the "cleanest" of the tanker family as practically no contact with cargo / High degree of safety culture required / Very sophisticated in terms of equipment for handling cargo / High responsibility for senior officers / Subject to regular inspections by external bodies / Shore leave can be rare.

Car Carriers
Get to see the all brands of cars as cargo / Short port stays / Known to roll heavily in rough weather

Needless to say any ship is a victim of rough weather and stormy seas can give one sleepless nights due to the discomfort of rolling extensively. At times when you are due to get off a ship for vacation, it may not happen as you may not be in a suitable port and may have to even tolerate another long voyage. If you are are offered  '3 months on - 3 months off' contracts, time will pass quite fast and it will be less stressful. Wages are generally good on merchant ships and may even be tax free. Family life can take a back seat and it is normal not to be around for a family get together, Christmas, etc.

Companies

Cruise liners - Cunard  , Caribbean Cruise Lines, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Costas, MSC ....

Container - Maersk, P&O, Hapag Lloyd .......

Oil Tankers - Teekay Tankers, Shell, Chevron, BP .......

Chemical tankers - Stolt, Odfjell .......

Gas tankers - Teekays, Qatar Navigation, Mitsui OSK, NYK .......

Bulk Carriers - Bergesen Worldwide (BW), NYK, Mitsui .....

Car Carriers - Wallenius Lines, Hoegh, NYK, Mitsui .....

Viking, this is just a comprehensive list. I am sure there will be others here who can add more ...... and then you can decide !!   I hope you have had the opportunity to watch Discovery Channel's "Mighty Ships". They have covered all types of ships and it gives you some idea of life on board.

Regards
vin_sun

[sadsid (†2016)]

Hi
Fishing modern trawlers now compared to when I started but
No change in long weary hours percent of catch so you could end
up with nothing for 2 weeks very hard work. 
                                                                               Eric
Advice go with Vin_sun.

[Ballast]

It really depends on your own interest. I've been working on seagoing chemical tankers for almost 4 years. My last vessel was 6400 DWT, not the largest ship out at sea but probally the size that is the busiest. We often had 6-10 different berths in Rotterdam in a time frame from a week upto 10 days. Loading, discharging, tankcleaning. When we left to sea, we had to do some tankcleaning again and on the Northsea trade you are back in port within 20 to 24 hours where everything started again.

On our ship we only have a chief officer and a 2nd officer which do both 6 hours on/6 hours off. The 2/O also has a lot of responsibilities because he had to do everything that would happen during his watch. Arrival, depature, topping off, tankcleaning, cargo calculations etc. Those are the things that only the chief officer would do on the 'big ships'.  Besides that, everyone also has his sidejobs. For the 2/O that's the maintenance of the safety equipment and correcting the charts and nautical publications. That gives an additional workload to it. It really teaches you how to plan your time as efficient as possible.

As you can see it was busy, the only quiet watch you had was during the short seavoyage. I neverminded it, because everyone is focussed to keep the ship going. It's really a young man's game but i enjoyed every minute of it 

[vin_sun]

@ Ballast

Like your spirit !  Yes, the small coastal chemical tankers can really test your nerves !! The fact that you and the Chief Mate had to share duties would have taxed you both to the limit. We tanker men know how tough life is on chemical tankers. I have known of chemical tanker men quitting from them and changing over to either crude oil tankers or product tankers.

vin_sun

[danny]

Like everyone else has said viking, it all depends on what YOU want to do.
I can't really offer much advise, but i'm going to sea commerically too! (once i've finished college, then uni [nautical sciences with a OOW qualification combined into the course])

[Viking28]

I know I definitely want to work with Cargo Vessels. And are Nautical Sciences required for a job in the deck department

[vin_sun]

I know I definitely want to work with Cargo Vessels. And are Nautical Sciences required for a job in the deck department

Yes, you require a degree in Nautical Science to work in the Deck Dept. If you had chosen the Engine Dept. then you need to get a degree in Marine Engineering. The system may vary from country to country. Some countries expect you to do a full 3 year degree course in a Nautical College and board a ship directly as a 3rd Officer. There are countries who require you to do that three year term partly at college and partly on ships as a cadet.