 Mentoring was always considered as one of the basic elements of the seagoing routine. In fact and according to the author’s opinion, the concept of mentoring was born at sea. This book was written to fill the gap that is there today – note that there is not enough literature on this subject available, even though all people agree on the high importance of the mentoring. The author wrote his books in an absolutely reader-friendly and conversational manner.
What it means is that he made every effort to avoid the common prescriptive and too structured approach to presenting the material as such approach would inevitably build the boundaries around the free-thinking of the readers. In fact, this is exactly the main difference between mentoring and learning. When we train people, we usually transfer the underpinned theoretical knowledge and lay the relevant rules, which of course are important.
However, the competency profile will only be rounded by the mentoring, which would imply the informal and maximum effortless transfer of the practical experience. We recommend the publication to all those willing to establish and maintain the good mentoring on board their ships and within their teams.
 This publication by MarineInsight professionals will introduce the reader to the life at sea, show main reasons why the seafarers have to quit their sea jobs, teaches how to stay fit and focused at sea, tackle on board politics, deal with effects of hectic life and with difficult seafarers, how to cope with the lacks of social life and fatigue, and to improve interpersonal relationships with other crew members, explains professional mistakes done by seafarers, importance of shore leave, supplementing this all with general information on health.
We all know that working on board sea-going vessels requires completely different style of living. In fact, the seafarer's job is maybe one of the most interesting jobs since they travel so much, meet different new people from other countries and cultures, they have a chance of working on the technologically advanced floating structures etc - it is all very intriguing. The benefits of being a seafarer include opportunities to visit other countries, lucrative jobs, truly adventurous lifestyle, enhancing professionalism. However, there are also some disadvantages such as lack of social life, being away from the family for long periods of time, having to follow the onboard politics etc.
 This publication will be useful for the bridge and deck teams of the ship with Filipino crew members working on board. It was prepared by Dr. Tomas Andres, recognized intercultural consultant focusing on the culture of Philippine for expats of international and multinational companies and organizations.
Obviously, every ship aster and officer must be capable of extending the positive understanding towards the crew members under their command. Getting to know and understand colleagues is a key to professional success. In his book, the author has made an attempt t prepare a concise yet thorough study of Filipino etiquette, mores, values, customs and manners that would show the similarities and differences in behavioral expectations arising at the time when ship Masters and officers come to work and live with Filipinos.
In fact, the publication is intended to serve as a useful tool for building good intercultural relations and it also may be used informally by any individual planning to work with Filipinos but who did not have a chance to attend the training on intercultural relations. Of course, coming to terms with different people belonging to other cultures is sometimes difficult and time-consuming but we recommend you to go through this book and familiarize yourself with Filipinos.
 This book shall to serve as a guidance for shipping companies, management teams of the ships and for individual seamen. Such the important factor of crew management as the rest time at sea attracts quite considerable attention. The crew members have to get sufficient sleep and rest in order to be able to perform their duties in a safe and efficient manner.
The consequences of lack of rest may be very serious. This publication is focusing on the rest of crew at sea, including the relevant regulations and ways to comply with their requirements. All of matters mentioned above are of utmost importance and have significant impact on wellbeing of the crew members and, subsequently, to the safety of the vessel. The present guidance is aimed to provide some answers relating to the work planning in order to make it possible to make sure that the people on board get the rest they require.
Needless to say that the sufficient rest and sleep are critically important for humans to be able to work normally. It is even more that a question of the immediate wellbeing of the people. Continuing lack of sleep damages the health. That is why the proper balance between work time and rest time must be found. This is what the present publication is about.
 The authors of the present publication have divided it into seven parts addressing crew resource management itself, human factors involved, providing information on the IMO STCW Convention, maritime training and education, problem of piracy, health issues, and maritime ecology.
The first part covers the management of the crew resources, describes the importance of the human factors involved and proper bridge resource management in decreasing the number of marine casualties, as well as all other related issues.
The 2nd part of this book is fully dedicated to the human factor, while the 3rd part covers whatever is relating to the STCW Convention, namely importance and needs of the studies for maritime navigators, implementation of the subject Convention, new applicable standards of competence for officers, assessment components etc.
The next part is mainly focusing on maritime training and provides valuable relevant info on improving the quality of such training and education, describes relationship between students' approaches to training and motives of choosing the maritime professions, etc. The part of the publication touching the piracy problem describes Somali piracy, describes various safety measures and preventive actions as well as technological advances and efforts that are made in order to reduce the piracy...
 There have been so many studies performed with the intention to find the ways of how to reduce the port turnaround times. So much of technological and logistical ingenuity was deployed by the industry professionals, such as naval architects, transport planners, production and civil engineers etc. to ensure that the vessels spend the maximum of their time at sea not in the port.
However, the application of all this energy has ever been matched by relevant studies of the effects that these "efficiency gain" have to the lives of the seamen. This report appears to be the first detailed comparative analysis of port turnaround timing. It is also aimed to offer readers some preliminary exploration of the social cost that is incurred by seamen. The report also includes comparison between different types of vessels, such as car carriers, dry bulk and liquid bulk carriers, container ships, forest products carriers, tankers etc.
There is valuable information and tips on living in the fast turnaround vessels, including the decline in levels of manning, lack of shore leave, physical and mental wellbeing, port environments and locations etc. The publication presents a result of a very serious and practical research and is therefore recommended.
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