Entry & progression
Your certificate is made of paperwork. The days you cannot evidence are days you did not do. This lesson is about the two records that build a career: the log you keep aboard, and the sea service letter that AMSA will actually accept.
The engine room log
Write down the readings, every round, whether or not anything is wrong. Oil pressure, coolant temperature, exhaust temperature, running hours, fuel and oil consumed, bilge and tank levels, work done, defects found and defects rectified.
The point of the log is not the entry. It is the column. One oil pressure reading means very little; a hundred of them means that a slow decline over a season is a visible line rather than a surprise failure in November. A log with a gap in it is a log that cannot show a trend across the gap - so write it down even when you are tired, even when nothing happened, especially when nothing happened.
TIP — Log the fix, not just the fault The most valuable entries in any engine room log are the ones describing what was changed, when, with what part, and why. The engineer who relieves you is going to make decisions based on what you wrote - and in eighteen months, that engineer might be you, with no memory of any of it.
The sea service record
A domestic day of sea service is eight hours (MO505 Schedule 4). Shifts within a 24-hour period may be added together to make up the eight. You can never count more than one day in any 24 hours, no matter how long you work - a twenty-hour day is one day.
The letter - and the trap that wastes months
CAUTION — The rules differ between domestic and international - and people get it backwards Domestic near coastal: a sea service letter from the master, owner, operator or chief engineer is accepted.
International: qualifying sea service must be confirmed by a letter issued by the company. AMSA states plainly that letters issued on board a vessel by a master will not be accepted.
The MED grades are domestic, so the master's letter works for them. But if you are accruing time you intend to use on the international ladder later, get a company letter as well - at the time. Chasing a company for a letter about a vessel you left three years ago is how people lose a year of sea time.
Yacht time, and the paid gate
AMSA states that it may accept commercial sea service accrued on luxury yachts toward near-coastal certificates if you are being paid to work on the vessel and the duties you performed relate directly to the certificate applied for. It does not need to have been completed in Australian waters.
The evidence AMSA looks for is a safety management system with a signed induction, or a crew or muster list with your name on it - plus an owner or operator letter, an employment contract, or pay slips.
Read the gate. Paid. Unpaid time, private time, and helping a friend deliver a boat are not commercial sea service, however hard you worked. And the duties must relate to the certificate - engineering days for an engineering ticket.
What to collect, while you are still aboard
- Your task book, signed off as you go.
- A sea service letter on letterhead, signed and dated, stating vessel, propulsion power in kW, engine type, your role, and exact dates.
- Evidence you were paid - contract or pay slips.
- Evidence you were crew - the SMS induction, or a crew or muster list.
- Your own copy of the log entries you made.
Collect it before you leave. A vessel you have left is a document you will not get.