Bow Cardinal's master, Captain Lorico Bacay, Jr., recounts their Global Safety Day celebration and shares the insights they have gained.
After being so occupied during their port calls in Rotterdam and Houston, the Bow Cardinal crew finally had the opportunity to conduct their Global Safety Day celebration while underway from Freeport, Texas to Santos, Brazil.
The Global Safety Day was observed on board through competitions which made the activities fun and exciting. The crew was divided into three groups: Team Safety Culture, Team Safety Minded, and Team Safety Values.
All the teams got a perfect score so the fastest team was declared the winner.
The ‘donning of immersion suit’ competition had been particularly challenging, as the task had to be completed, properly, in less than two minutes.
The vessel also held a Team Building - Drawing Competition and we thank Crewing Coordinator Joel Paler for judging this contest. It was initially a tie between Team Safety-Minded and Team Safety Values, but because of the happy and good vibes on the output from Team Safety Values, which reflected their focus and concentration, their work was declared the winner.
Another highlight of the Global Safety Day celebration on board Bow Cardinal was the Slogan Contest won by Team Safety Culture who came up with Speak up for Safety. Our deepest thanks to our distinguished judges for collaborating with us: VP Ship Operations Svend Foyn-Bruun, MSI Thomas Lieske, and Course Developer Hyacinth Rajcel Sharma.
Team Safety Culture
Lastly, thank you so much to the crew of Bow Cardinal for all your effort and cooperation. May we always remember the learnings and insights we gained not only to improve on our daily tasks on board, but also for us to stay healthy and safe, and to come home safe to our families.
Global Safety Day Reflections
The activities from this year’s Global Safety Day led the Bow Cardinal crew to the following realizations:
Accidents can indeed be prevented.
As CEO Kristian Mørch said in his message, accidents are actually preventable. We are fully equipped with knowledge (Odfjell sends us to high-caliber training programs), safety awareness programs (Odfjell Safety Day, Shell Campaign and Flash Report) and company procedures (the Shipboard Management Manual – SMM – is accessible and very convenient to use, and we have superiors to ask assistance from). We have countless safety trainings and drills on board that allow us to put what we learned – and continuously learn – into practice.
Safety can also mean using what we call common sense effectively.
We must always expect the probability of the cargo chemical hose bursting during manifold connection. So even if we are operating the crane away from the manifold, it is a must that we have our safety goggles on. Moreover, we must always keep in mind that we are the ones primarily responsible for our own safety. Hence, it should be innate among us to always make sure that the equipment we are using is in good working condition.
Today's near miss can be tomorrow's accident.
Near misses provide a great opportunity for learning and preventing future accidents. We must apply the corrective and preventive actions we identify, and put to use the lessons we learn. More importantly, we must, at all times, follow our procedures and observe our safety practices to prevent near misses from happening in the first place.
Safety requires our 100 percent.
As human beings, it is normal for us to get affected by family issues or personal problems, especially when we are on board. Having something bothering our minds can alter our behavior at work, and it is normally during these small windows of losing our focus that near misses – or even accidents – occur. We need to be in our 100 percent in everything that we do, no matter how small the task is. If we feel that something is off within us, we must not hesitate to ask for assistance.
Safety also requires that we value everything we do on board.
Seeing the value in everything that we do on board is the first step to safety. Understanding that every little thing we do contributes to a larger purpose makes us more responsible, and pushes us to do things safely and with high standards.
Lastly, safety is not a gadget but a state of mind.
Safety is not the procedures, the posters, the PPEs, and neither the Lessons Learned or news flashes. Safety is how we use all those tools and put all those lessons to use.
The ‘donning of immersion suit’ competition had been particularly challenging, as the task had to be completed, properly, in less than two minutes.
