Shore based employment - Pandaw cruises

08.08.2005 - 20.12.2005

Marine Superintendent

r/v Tonle Pandaw on Tonle Lake

r/v Tonle Pandaw, r/v Mekong Pandaw, r/v Pandaw 4, r/v Pandaw 2

GT: 553, 600, 550, 550

LOA: 55, 60, 55, 55

Class: River cruise vessel

Flag: Cambodian and Myanmarese

Sailed up and down Vietnam & Cambodia on Mekong river and Myanmar on the Irrawaddy river.

Was contracted to write ISM manual and completed task. Also required to take care of many other technical matters. Recommendation of safety improvements for existing ships and implementing planned maintenance which was hard to explain as crew was not used to preventative maintenance. They rather waited for things to break and then they dealt with matter at hand. 

Started by updating safety plans and equipment, it was more complicated to get funds to actually service and upgrade stuff as that would have entailed expenditure. Also made changes in professional crew as many were employed only on their character, not ability. As the river boat had no scales of competencies to follow I sourced locally trained electricians and engineers to start solving onboard issues.

In Cambodia sailed down to Ho Chi Minh City with stops in between depending on cruise. In Cambodia sailed once up to Kratie and Angkor Wat. Cruises took from 3 to 9 days.

In Burma joined a cruise from Bhamo down to Mandalay. Pretty awesome countryside that not many gets to see. The staff in Burma was very professional. We also visited the Katha village of George Orwell where he was stationed during the English colonial years. The area was totally dry now as the riverbed had moved quite far from the houses he writes about but the buildings still stood and were inhabited by locals.

Most memorable experience was when we had a weeks stop (a charter was cancelled) in Kampong Cham and one evening the Vietnamese Captain and Chief Engineer invited me ashore to come for dinner. They had found a Vietnamese lady who lived there and ran a restaurant. In fact there are plenty of Vietnamese refugees or immigrants in Cambodia, so they are not that hard to find. The highlight of the dinner was a 6kg python that was cooked to a curry. We ate snake and drank some kind of local liquor to wash it down. It was not that strong but we emptied several bottles in the course of the evening and were in a merry mood when coming back onboard.

During this same break I also arranged, oversaw and executed 2 generator overhauls as they were on their last legs and about to give up. One was a Caterpillar and the other a Daewoo genset. Their condition was so bad that when the Engineer connected them to the grid and one switched on a consumer they almost tripped of the additional load and black smoke emanated from the funnel.

Employed several qualified staff to the technical side, it was difficult to find personnel. 

Planned new building projects in Vietnam and Myanmar. Mostly gave insights of design matters at hand. 

Budgeting area of responsibility. 

In the end I overstayed my set contract period and when the situation was reviewed it was mutually decided that I would not extend.

Owner/ Operator: Pandaw Cambodia Ltd.

Phnom Penh Center, Rm. no 229, St.Sihanouk 274 Blvd. Sothearos 3, Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  

www.pandaw.com