A career at sea is a way of life, according to Dimitrios Tsouvalas, Chief Officer, who notes that by its nature, seafaring is demanding and adventurous, but it is the unique investment of your life that is giving you more in return than you expected in the beginning. Let alone, the only person that sets the boundaries for your success? Yourself.
SAFETY4SEA: What do you love the most out of your career at sea?
Dimitrios Tsouvalas: Making a career at sea is not just a profession, is a Lifestyle! Traveling, in all its forms by its nature is demanding and adventurous but is the unique investment of your life that is giving you more in return than you expected in the beginning.
Same with a career at sea, the thing that I love mostly is that every day is an adventure, and you have to live it to the maximum, gain as much as possible and to try to improve yourself daily.
S4S: What have you learned over the course of your career at sea?
DT: Throughout my career at sea, I realized that with drive, motivation and willingness to learn, shipping is an industry where only you set the boundaries to your own success. By promoting professionalism, safety culture and following up all the relevant company’s procedures and general seamanship principles on board you can overcome all day-to-day activities in any rank, even the most demanding ones.
S4S: How would you describe your daily life at sea/ work in a few words?
DT: As an Officer on board, I have to say that our daily work life is challenging; you have to work as navigator in four-hour shifts that are day and night, you have to do all relevant paper job, maintenance and safety inspections, company’s and charterers reports and documentation, crew trainings and any other required tasks that may arise for the smooth operation of the ship. In regard to the life on board you have to adjust your sleeping cycles due to time zones, you can make various activities such as gym, watching movies, telecommunication with family and socialization with rest of the crew.
S4S: What is the biggest challenge that you have to face on board?
DT: The biggest challenge that we, as officers have to face on board is fatigue, contributing to marine accidents and you have to be vigilant as officer at all times, not only for your own fatigue, but for the rest of the crew as well. The communication within a multicultural and international industry is also vital as there are differences in the perception and understanding of each ethnicity. Climbing, mooring, high or low temperature, risky maneuvers and adverse weather conditions are also perilous daily challenges.
S4S: What is your piece of advice to fellow crew members onboard?
DT:
My advice to the rest crew members is to accept every arise situation with a positive and professional approach, to be always in a good emotional mood, continuously improve their knowledge and skills through training, keep themselves healthy and to be patient with those difficult times that we are experiencing due to the pandemic.
S4S: What inspires you every day onboard?
DT: Daily, I get inspired by all the crew members on board and various professionals from the shipping industry. I try to gain the respect from the rest of the people around me in my life by respect and appreciation for everybody. I get motivated and trained more and more everyday knowing that I am capable to achieve my goals with a plan step by step.
S4S: What has been the most extraordinary thing that you have experienced onboard?
DT: The most extraordinary experience that I got during my watch on a cruise ship at 03:35, a passenger was fighting with his wife; it got my attention from the CCTV, and I send the security guard to calm them down. When the male passenger saw the security guard, got on the rails and jumped in the sea. The ship was going with 17.5kts and I immediately started all the Man Overboard procedures as per company’s ISM and NPP. By the records, the retrieving of the person characterized as, exceptional, due to the fact that the person was completely healthy and the whole operation took 45 minutes. This is the power of a good team. That’s one of the accomplishments that I am most proud of.
S4S: What is the one thing that should change to make life better on board?
DT: In regards with the changes that I would like to make are shorter contracts with constant and competitive salaries, rotation through same type of ships so the crew would be familiar and lastly but more immediate and important is free, reliable, fast and unlimited Internet connection. Internet can help the crew to communicate with their families, get recreated and even trained online if they choose so.
S4S: What piece of advice would you give to someone thinking a career at sea?
DT: The advice, that I have to give to someone is to make research about the nature of the job on board before they apply and if they choose to follow the career to have always in mind that working environment is pretty demanding and stressful. They must not have in priority only the income in the beginning but the need to learn first the job, get trained and overcome difficult persons and situations. Then the salary would be enough to repay you for all your efforts.
S4S: What do you miss the most about your seagoing experience?
DT:
From my seagoing experience, the most that I miss, is the feeling of freedom, that all seamen had before the pandemic. The feeling when I was approaching a new port, a new place and country, the ability to experience different cultures and people visit new places and discover more and more new adventures with any opportunity.
The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and do not necessarily those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
