42 days of induction at Eagle Louisiana

As a student who study Nautical Studies in Maritime School, I always wonder how is the life on board  ship. How to survive on board ship for a period of 6 months? How to make friends when you are the youngest among them? How to fulfil the period of 12 months of practical time? Plenty more questions in my head which I need to find out the answer.

Special program was held by AET for our batch. We have an induction weeks which took place for 42 days. The training ship is Eagle Louisiana which trade around Gulf of Mexico. We consisted of 6 deck cadets from DNS 20 batch. Our first port of call was Mobile Alabama. After long flight from Doha to Houston we did our lightering payroll which took us 6 hours.

First day on board we were introduced to our Training Officer which is from India, C/O Anil Raina. He gave us full day rest as we just arrived after very long time of flight. First and second week of induction program, our training officer showed us about basic of cargo and navigational operation. We had to complete some assignment which are about piping diagram and layout of deck and navigational bridge. We also experienced ship monthly drill such as lifeboat drill, fire drill and oil spill drill.

  We involved in pilotage operation and along side operation at port. Life at bridge during pilotage was quite challenging as you need to frequently find out the ship position by all way. Sometime you did the job just too slow which caused your training officer to get mad. I learnt to keep practicing not until you get it right, but until you not get it wrong. Determination and work hard as we are just to start our career at sea.

We got our first shore leave at Port Neches. The excitement of getting shore leave for first time is one of the memorable things. All of us dressed up nicely. Our training officer brought us to shopping complex and treated each of us a cup of Starbuck Coffee. All of us mostly used the free Internet at Starbuck to call our family and special friend at Malaysia.

When about to reached 42^nd days, we got the news of our next assigned ship. I was assigned to joined Bunga Kasturi Enam at Ras Tanura port  in Saudi Arabia. The best things was, before joining the next ship, we were given the flight ticket to Malaysia. After 42days at ship, an opportunity to be back home to Malaysia gave us strength to continue our remaining days of shipboard trainings.