Supporting vessel safety through safe routing measures

Offshore routing is one facet of reducing the risk of marine casualties. Distance offshore provides more time for repairs to be effected by the vessel’s crew if a hazardous condition develops, provides time to respond to navigational errors, and time for an assist vessel to arrive on scene before a vessel approaches the shoreline.

Accordingly, if a vessel master has to deviate from agreed to APC routing measures for vessel safety for storm avoidance or seek shelter from inclement weather, ACN's Monitoring Center will assist with obtaining concurrence from the U.S. Coast Guard to deviate from the routing measures.

Deviation Defined

A vessel that is operating in non-compliance with the APC routing measures.

Deviation Notification And Facilitation

In cases where a deviation is deemed necessary for safety of ship, cargo, and crew due to weather or other circumstances, the vessel master will be requested to provide the following information:

• Confirm reason for deviation (e.g. weather avoidance, etc.),
• Provide Sea Height, Wind Speed and Direction for both your original and intended routes,
• Closest intended distance from shore during this deviation and intentions (continue transit, loiter/jog, shelter, anchor, etc.),
• Geographic reference or position of closest point to shore/ETA,
• Estimated date and time to depart from deviation parameters and return to normal operations,
• Last Port of Call/Next Port of Call/ETA,
• Type and amount of cargo onboard (bbls),
• Type(s) and amount(s) of fuel oil and lubes aboard (bbls),
• Confirm updated charts of area onboard,
• Number of anchors and shots of chain onboard,
• Confirm vessel is not experiencing any engineering, structural, cargo difficulties and is fully seaworthy, and
• Confirm number of propellers.

Once the information is received back from the vessel, the Monitoring Center will then forward the deviation request to the Coast Guard.

During any point of the process, the Coast Guard or the Monitoring Center may request further information clarifying intentions and other aspects of the request. The Monitoring Center then awaits Coast Guard approval or denial for the deviation request and promptly notifies the vessel of the decision.

If a deviation request is granted, the vessel shall notify the Monitoring Center and appropriate Captain of the Port upon deviating from the approved route and upon resuming the approved route when the deviation is no longer necessary for the safety of the vessel and crew.

The vessel will be closely monitored during the deviation due to the distance offshore and to ensure compliance with the restrictions from the deviation approval of the Coast Guard.

The Monitoring Center will close out the event with a notification to all interested parties including the Vessel, Owner/Operator (O/O), and U.S. Coast Guard that the vessel has resumed normal routing measures.