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10 ECDIS questions SIRE inspectors ask and how to deal with it?
Well, many still do not agree with this statement and I respect their opinion too.
There is definitely merit in their opinion if that is based on the fact that not many officers are trained to handle the
ECDIS in the right way.
I personally have seen a few officers sweat out in front of SIRE (Ship Inspection Report Program) inspectors
when they ask the questions related to ECDIS.
But they sweat out because they have not been adequately trained.
And even if they wanted to self-train themselves, there is hardly any user-friendly information available.
But not anymore.
This is the first question and this is the most important one too.
The passage needs to be accurate must follow all the company requirements and must be in accordance with
the industry guidelines.
I have covered the general passage planning in this blog and ECDIS passage planning in this one.
Do read these two blogs to get to know about the passage planning.
But you must cover these areas in the passage plan on ECDIS.
The route
Parallel index lines
No-Go Areas (not excessively marked)
Wheel over position
Abort point
Marking of bridge watch levels
Position plotting interval and method at each leg
Security levels and the points where vessels need to be hardened.
Point for notice to the engine room and calling the master
Route check is a function of the ECDIS which checks the route and gives all the alarms for which the route is
passing through any dangers.
The 2nd mate then can check each of these alarms to see if the route needs to be amended.
To perform the route check, open the route in the table editor and click on the “Safety Check”.
route check option
2nd Mate can then see if that error is applicable to us or if the route needs to be amended to avoid that.
2nd Mate needs to check each of these errors one by one to ensure that our route is safe.
Question 3: How do you make sure your ENCs are corrected up to date?
To check if the ENCs are corrected up to date on JRC ECDIS, go to 6.Chart -> ENC update report.
This will show you the status of all the ENCs and the week number these ENCs are corrected up to.
Go to Summary and it will show you the total number of ENCs and how many of these are up to date and how
many are not up to date.
If you would like to see the status of ENCs for a particular route only, make sure to tick the “route filter” and
choose the route from the “select route” dropdown.
route filter ENC status
This will give the ENC status report for the ENCs for the chosen route.
Question 4: How do you know if you have all the required ENCs for the route?
Ideally, when we check the ENC update report with route filter and if any ENC is missing, it would show that in
this report.
And when we go to “Status Report”, this would give a clear reason for the “ENCs not up to date”.
ENC missing Status report Route filter
But with this function, it is only checking ENCs for the route with the set “Cross-track error” in the ECDIS for that
route.
So if we have set the cross-track error as 1NM, this would only check the ENCs for 1NM from the route.
But that is not enough.
We need to have the ENCs for up to at least for few miles from our route.
I prefer to have ENCs for at least 50NM from our route.
This would mean that in case we need to deviate the ship for any unforeseen reasons, we still have the ENCs for
at least 4-5 hours of the deviation.
One way of checking this is to temporarily increase the cross-track error limit in the route plan.
Then check the ENC status report with route filter.
cross track error ECDIS_opt
If the report shows all ENCs up to date then the ECDIS has the ENCs for the route and up to the (large) cross-
track error set in the route plan.
But some ECDIS has a limitation of maximum cross-track error that can be set.
So the other way is to get the list of all the ENCs for the route from ENC provider software (Chartco/Navtor etc)
and check physically if these are available in the ECDIS.
If your company subscribe to PAYS (Pay as you go), you only need to check this for ENCs that are not available
under PAYS.
Question 6: What IHO presentation library your ECDIS uses? Can you show me?
In layman’s terms, the IHO presentation library is the set of instructions to the ECDIS manufacturers about how
the various symbols must be displayed on the ECDIS.
For example, what color, size, and shape of the symbols must the ECDIS show on ECDIS.
ECDIS manufacturer needs to develop its software as per these set of guidelines developed by IHO.
From 2nd mate and seafarer’s point of view, we must know what presentation library version our ECDIS has.
Go to “Chart legend” and there you will get the “Presentation library version”.
presentation library ECDIS_opt
Apart from this, you need to know what is the latest version of the presentation library so that you know your
ECDIS has the latest version .
We can get the information about the current version of the presentation library from the IHO website, by
contacting the ECDIS maker or simply by asking your company.
Question 7: How do you plot position from sources other than GPS?
We need to be able to plot position on ECDIS from sources other than GPS.
The sources like visual bearings, range/bearings, and celestial observations.
While the procedures may be different on different ECDIS but if you are actually using these features to plot
positions, it would be easier for you to show it to the SIRE inspector.
Here is a blog that I wrote on position fixing sometime back that includes position fixing on ECIDS.
Question 8: What ECDIS safety settings are entered during arrival to this port?
Here is a detailed article on ECDIS safety settings that I had written earlier.
The mistake is to keep the safety settings constant for the voyage.
The ECDIS safety setting needs to be dynamic.
These need to be changed during the voyage even when the vessel’s draft remains the same.
Usually, the safety settings are calculated with zero height of the tide.
At the open sea, the vessel’s route must be in safe waters with these safety settings at zero height of the tide.
But that is not the case with port arrivals and departures.
If the vessel needs to use the height of tide for compliance with the company’s UKC policy, then the safety
settings need to be changed to include the height of tide too.
Mere doing the UKC calculation with the height of tide is not enough.
Let us say that for a river port we did the UKC calculation with the height of tide as 3 meters and UKC is
complying with the company’s UKC policy.
Now, this is the ECDIS route for this river port with initial safety settings (without the height of tide).
ECDIS-Route-safety-settings
Let us say the safety depth calculated and entered here was 13 meters. And if the height of tide while passing
this point was 3 meters, we need to adjust (reduce) the safety settings by 3 meters.
As a practice, we can prepare a list of points (waypoints) where the safety setting needs to be changed (taking
into account the tide).
Question 9: What procedure you follow when the route crosses safety contour?
But what if the depths inside the safety contour are in the range of 13 to 14 meters.
These depths are still safe for us because these are more than our safety depths.
On ECDIS, the unsafe depths (depths less than safety depths) are shown in dark black color and safe depths are
shown in grey color.
ECDIS is supposed to give an alarm when the vessel crosses a safety contour.
But after the vessel has crossed safety contour there would be no alarm in case the vessel is about to run into
danger such as crossing an unsafe depth.
For this reason, we are required to define the procedure we would follow after crossing the safety contour to
ensure that ship navigates safely.
Method_2_crossing_safety_contour_opt
It is also required that the company must document in their procedures as to which method the bridge team
should use.
Some companies may direct the master to choose any of the above two methods.
Likewise, there could be so many other features (certain soundings, buoys, pipelines, cables, etc) for which ENC
makers have defines a minimum and maximum scale for its visibility.
However, if we keep the SCAMIN setting to off, irrespective of how much you zoom in or zoom out, none of these
features will disappear.
From the option “View Common”, you will find the option to turn on/off the Scale min under “Chart Symbol”.
Scale_Minimum_ECDIS_opt
But why this feature is given at all?
This is to give an option to the navigator to de-clutter the screen so that it is more user-friendly during the
navigation.
Conclusion
Nowadays, ECDIS is the main area of interest for SIRE inspectors when it comes to bridge/navigation rounds.
Though it may sometimes seem too much to cover in ECDIS but if you have your basic questions about ECDIS
covered, there is nothing to sweat about for ECDIS.
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