From the Electrical Engineer point of view the challenge is to keep the vessel in good and working order while at the same time you have to take care of yourself, control your feelings and find ways to come back stronger! Let alone, people can be very unpredictable and sometimes behaviors and decisions can lead to unwanted circumstances.
Nevertheless, for Gregory Drosos, who has been working as an Electrical Engineer for 4 years now, teamwork makes dreamwork in order to ensure safety onboard, working with fellow crewmembers as family, caring for both the vessel and themselves.
SAFETY4SEA: What do you love the most out of your career at sea?
Gregory Drosos: Until now, on this long journey that started for me in 2006, I have met a lot of great people from various countries and a lot of different cultures, it’s great to learn more in this life and inside the vessels it’s a great opportunity to do so. From the Electric Engineer point of view is about the challenge to keep the vessel in a good and working condition with all its parameters that needs in order to accomplish this while the vessel is getting older.
S4S: What have you learned over the course of your career at sea?
G.D: The most important lesson that I have learned is that you have to control yourself 24/7, you got to be patient but at the same time you have to be effective. You have to take care the vessel while at the same time you have to take care about yourself. I have learned to control my feelings while I felt emotionally weak/tired and after a short coffee I have returned back stronger. The most important lesson that a seafarer has to know is that while we are inside the vessel working is to learn that safety is everybody’s business, and we need to help everyone in order to keep this up.
S4S: How would you describe your daily life at sea/ work in a few words?
G.D: Every day is a new challenge, I gather up together with my team and we discuss early in the morning what to do next, putting the jobs into priority from the most important ones to the simplest tasks afterwards. At the same time, we have to keep in mind that in all these tasks we need to collaborate with various departments, and we have to involve our assistants in order for them to get trained from us.
S4S: What is the biggest challenge that you have to face on board?
G.D: I will answer the unpredictable human behavior because the vessel is a big machine which with time and experience it can be much more or less predictable, people can be very unpredictable and sometimes bad/wrong behaviors and decisions can lead to unwanted circumstances. I consider this the biggest challenge I have ever faced.
S4S: What is your piece of advice to fellow crew members onboard?
G.D: My advice is always to ask their supervisors in order to gain more knowledge and to talk about whatever they consider as a problem to their job even a problem to their personal lives.
S4S: What inspires you every day onboard?
G.D: From my supervisor that take cares of this, in order to keep up the best of us, I would add our guest’s satisfaction and a smile can be rewarding in order to try to achieve more every day, also the free time with my colleagues is something that cheers up my mood. We work as a family, and this is very resulting for the vessel and for us personally.
S4S: What has been the most extraordinary thing that you have experienced on board?
G.D: The startup of the vessel was a great experience. We were learning daily so many things and we were feeling so proud in the end of the day. Also, seeing our assistants to get promoted is something emotional that you know that you helped a person in order to go forward on his life.
S4S: What is the one thing that should change to make life better on board?
G.D: More crew can help to keep our resting time full and to help us participate on leisure activities more often, the internet should be provided for free for all crew on the year 2021.
S4S: What piece of advice would you give to someone thinking a career at sea?
G.D: Go forward and not be afraid of anything, try to complete a contract and if you didn’t like the job then you can look to work elsewhere, but this is not happening so often, most of the people work again and again. Ship life always can be better but in my opinion is a good and nice place to work.
S4S: What do you miss the most about your seagoing experience?
G.D: Of course, and I miss the small moments I lose from my family and my kids, technology helps to keep up contact daily but after I return back for my vacation it’s very rewarding for them.
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.
