Description

Many academics believe the recent pandemic did not change the nature of business, it expedited what was likely to change. Within the world of ECDIS navigation, it is fair to say that the pandemic period has certainly added more shared knowledge of ECDIS and forced safe navigation back to the top of shipping priorities. Without ships sailing on track, on time, and safely with ECDIS, it is likely the outcome of the pandemic would have been much worse.

Additional sea going demands on ships have resulted in increased ‘remote’ audits in 2021/2022. Remote audits are far more frequent than pre-pandemic ‘physical’ audits. In this edition we review and share over 7000 navigation audits and observations over the last 12 months, as opposed to an average 3000 a year pre-pandemic. This is not to suggest that standards have dropped, it suggests audit standards have risen and we are at the final stages of making shipping as safe as could be.

Over the past two years seafarers have found more time to share knowledge in ECDIS, and we have witnessed a surge of passing ‘lessons learnt’ and openness in navigation to each other, as we pull together during the increased pressures faced at sea.

The team here at ECDIS has worked exceptionally hard over the last two years to pool this knowledge and keep the ECDIS operators at sea informed and up to date for safe navigation culminating in this 2023 ECDIS Procedure Guide.