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2 Attempts, First was fail with Vinod Ranganathan, and second was pass with Raman Bala. 

First of all, I'd just like to thank Vinil for all the help. I could have studied for years & still failed, had he not guided me in the right direction. Much appreciated, and anyone who wants to pass their OOW should buy his software & do the exercises over & over & over again! Especially radar plotting. 

(anyway Vinil, I've sent you a gift, but you can't drink it.  Although it should help you with situations.)

First of all, I will tell you about my most recent passing exam with Raman Bala. 

He didn't introduce himself, and I had never met him before. i only found out his name as he stamped it on my NOE at the end. It was a 9am exam, so I was sitting in the waiting area for about 10 minutes before he approached me. Before entering the exam room he asked me to leave my mobile phone outside. 

We discussed my previous exam, and he asked me why I had failed. I told him that I had made some serious errors in rule of the road. He then took out a kind of diary they keep from under the table, which has notes in it from each exam. It did indeed say that rule of the road had been my downfall. So Mr Bala then said, ok we will go through everything, but we shall try to get to ROR quickly. 

Instruments:

First off, the sextant case was open, & he just said tell me about the sextant. 

So I picked it up (properly) & he asked what is a sextant? A device for measuring the angle between two objects, such as star & horizon or objects on land for VSA / HSA. I then described all of the correctable errors & pointed out which screws to adjust. It was weird, as where the third screw should be, I think there were two screws, so I just kept my hand gestures vague. 

Then, stevenson screen, PAB briefly describe use. Magnetic compass. He asked me quite a lot about magnetic. What are the parts, etc. I didn't open it up, I just described the heeling error bucket & chain from memeory. Then he asked how do you take a bearing? I said, attach a pelorus or bearing device (as none was present on the compass there), and apply CDMVT before putting lines on the chart. That was enough for that. 

No HRU, No knots, it was just a skip over. 

Then, you are OOW, passage plan from Southampton to New York. How do you do it? I went Appraisal, Planning... & he went 'ok ok never mind all that, just tell me appraisal..' which was kind of offputting actually. So I spoke about getting charterers instructions, voyage variables from master / chief / chief engineer, fuel onn board, load line info, etc. Then onto publications. Every publication I mention, he seemed to interrupt me & ask 'so what is that?' Particularly, the routeing guide. He wanted to see if I knew the difference between routeing charts & IMO routeing guide but he words his questions in a vague way.

Although he did ask me, what is in the IMO routeing guide. I was ok with that. Also, contents of routeing chart. I knew most of them. Then he asked me a lot in depth about chart corrections. How do you know a chart is up to date? I said check chart correction log, check cummulative list. He said is that all? & really kind of pushed me to think. It took me a couple of mintues to remember that corrections have written on them 'last correction', so you know if one has been missed out. This is what he was looking for. I was scared at this point, because I wasn't sure what he was asking me for. He just said 'anything else?' & my mind went blank. He went pretty deep into sailing direction corrections as well, & I couldn't really answer him, as I'd never done any, & I hadn't studied this in a long time. I just apologised & said i don't know sir, but I would consult the mariners handbook, & the 'how to correct publicaions' guide for instructions. 

Then he asked me a little bit of ISM, how would it help me joining next ship as 2nd mate? I was answering confidently, so he just shifted & said ok, you've joined, & master asks you to do lifeboat drill. How do you do it? I started from up to date risk assessment, & pretty much gave a model answer. Always remember to mention passenger control at each stage though, ie. no pax on deck, or near davits, no pax or crew inside the lifeboat, etc.

He asked then a bit more about passengers (Pax), & prep for heavy weather. Then he asked, ok there is a fire in a passenger cabin.I don't want you from any perspective like 'i'm on the bridge', or 'I'll get a hose', he said, tell me the whole thing. Everything how you respond to fire in a pax cabin. 

So, I started by mentioning fire patrol would report initial condition of the fire. OOW makes coded announcement (code bravo on my last company), close FSDs, WTDs, Splash doors, & all dampers, get out GA & Fire plans on the bridge for master & chief to take command. In port, contact shore authorities, at sea prepare distress/urgency call. I said a lot of things. I just went through everything I could think off. Shutting off electricity, keep passengers in the muster stations, check cabins to ensure full evacuation of MVFZ, I mentioned means of access. 

He asked me how the fire team report to the bridge. I said they have radios, & he kind of scoffed, like 'normal radios'? How can they be understood? I told a big fib & said they had those ones with a throat piece & he was happy. Completely untrue, but he was happy. He also asked me BA checks. 

Anyway, once I got into it & started rhyming off things in order, He moved on & said 'OK now there is fire on the bridge' Start again. Radar Fire for example. 

I almost forgot to mention Low location Lighting. 

I said I'd use extinguisher to put it out whilst it is small. Turn off the radar. open the doors to clear smoke once fire is out. He asked me which type of extinguisher to use? I said Dry Powder, & he look incredulous, but didn't say anything. I took this look on his face to mean that he had a different idea to me, so I explained myself. I said, well you have to use the entire exinguisher bottle to put out a fire (as we are constantly told on firefighting courses), and our bridge was quite small, so I wouldn't want to gas myself with CO2. He almost laughed at how stupid he thought my answer was, & said what about the mess of dry powder. what else will be affected on the bridge? I realised what he was getting at (I still think I'd prefer not to gas myself though), & apologised & said, oh yes, I don't want to impair other nav equipment, so I'd use cleaner CO2. silly me, I never thought of that before, kind of thing. 

When he seemed satisfyed, he said, OK man overboard actions? I asked, immediate or delayed? He said immediate. I told him hand steering, williamson turn, release smoke buoy, call for extra lookouts/sound MOB signal (Verbal code oscar on my last company, but usually 3 long blasts), all the usual. I also embellished a great deal with passenger control, & told him most MOB on pax ships is either suicide attempt or alcohol induced. It was important to prevent panic in the passengers remaining on board, & clear them off the deck & away from the incident. Contact his travel companions in particular, etc. 

He didn't ask me a great deal of theory other than that. A little ISPS, no marpol at all, no safety officer duties. I can't remember a lot else, as we did spend a lot of time on Rule of the Road, this being my downfall the previous time. He did start ROR by telling me, you need 100% here to pass. 

Smartyboard was very strange, because he didn't ask me for all the information. He just asked me 'tell me what this is', & he would move on & change the image before I could give a full, complete answer. I didn't let him put me off though, I'd just keep the image in my mind, & keep giving my answer even when he'd moved on. Also, he never asked for action, but I gave it every time. I spent a god 30 second on action for MC & vessel aground, but I wasn't taking any chances.

Open sea, he put everything on my port side, & only PDV & CBD on my stbd side, but at different aspects. Also SV & FV, & CBD head on. 

Narrow channel, a few crossing vessels, & overtaking. Just remembered who to flash at when I had right of way & that was all. 

TSS, where can VEF go? where can SV go? bunch of situations, both as vessel following lane, CBD following lane, being overtaken, overtaking, and crossing both lanes with traffic, including RAM & NUC. 

He asked me safe speed, in a very strange way, & I couldn't figure out why, or what he was getting at, so I just recited rule 6 almost verbatim, & he stopped asking. Bit of a panic moment, when they ask questions in a funny way, but knowing the rule obviously saved the day this time. 

Then we went to restricted vis, & he said, you are near an area of restricted vis, with full operational radar. Can you go at faster speed, than if you do not have operational radar? I asked a few questions to clarify, but he didn't want to give me too much, so i took a chance, & said, yes you can go marginally faster, if you still think it is safe speed, all other weather is good apart from restricted vis, no traffic, unlikely possibility if small vessels / floating objects etc, & you do not hestitate to reduce speed at any moment. He seemed happy, but this question kind of threw me. 

Radar plotting, all was ok here, except one. I was overtaking a vessel ahead, which was just fine off my stbd bow. Shouldn't have a bother for me, go to port. Can you go to stbd? No because she can only go to stbd. However, I really struggled to give an answer here, because the little magnets he was using were pale blue, pale pink, & 2 red. The sun was out that morning, & I really got confused as to which was W & which was A. 

I tried to stall for a second & get the answer straight in my head. I kept asking sorry 'which one is that A or W'. I stood up to see better, but he could tell I was just confused about the colour, so he took pity on me, & brought out little rubbers with W, O & A marked on them, so I could clearly understand the plot. 

That was it. I got that question finished, & we stopped, so I was worried that my fumbling answer would have damaged me, but it didn't. he passed me. 

The funny thing was though, he couldn't find the 'Passed' stamp. He spent a few minutes digging in the cupboard to find it. However the 'Failed' sits on the desk, ready to go at any minute. This made me laugh. 

Anyway, I'll post back with my original exam with Vinod, once I have a think about it again. He asked me a lot more theory. 

Oh, and don't forget to collect your mobile phone again! I nearly left mine behind, but Mr bala reminded me.