Keeping Everything Afloat

THE VESSEL TRACKING SYSTEM OPERATORS IN DUBLIN PORT ARE THE ONES CHARGED WITH KEEPING MARINE TRAFFIC MOVING SAFELY AND EFFICIENTLY IN AND OUT OF THE BAY. “IT’S A VERY REWARDING JOB,” DANIELLE HAYES REVEALS.

The view from the Vessel Tracking System (VTS) office in Harbour Operations must be one of the most impressive and unusual in the entire city. The Liffey flows by literally at your doorstep, while across the river is the industrial ballet of the Poolbeg Peninsula’s blue container terminal. To the east lies the mouth of Dublin Bay and the open sea, while to the west the river glides by the city centre, with the Tom Clarke Bridge just metres away. It’s not a bad place to spend your days.

For Clonakilty native, Danielle Hayes, it’s been her workplace for almost two years, since she made the short trip ‘upstairs’ to become a VTS operator, having worked on the Port’s pilot boats for the previous six months.

“When I started here, I was taking photos of the sunrises and sunsets all the time, as the view really is spectacular,” Danielle smiles. “You do get used to it though.”

VESSEL TRACKING SYSTEM (VTS)

The VTS operator is responsible for all vessels moving into or out of the port, including ferries, tankers, container ships, pilot boats, tugs and all other traffic on the water in the Port area. Danielle is one of five VTS operators, who liaise closely with the rest of the Harbour Operations team, including the Shipping Desk, pilots, tug masters and the Harbour Master’s office to ensure traffic runs smoothly, while much of her time is spent talking directly to the ships’ captains and shipping agents themselves, making them aware of the weather, the tides, the movement of other vessels and if there is any extra activity going on, such as the presence of divers in the Port. The VTS service is manned 24-hours per day, 365 days per year, with the operators working in 12-hour shifts.

In the half-hour we spent in the VTS station, Danielle spoke to at least six different vessels, organising pilotage, reporting on weather conditions, and guiding the various giant vessels around the Port area and the entrance to Dublin Bay like a chess game played on an industrial scale.

“VTS is all about the safe and efficient movement of vessels and the protection of the environment. It’s essentially like air traffic control but for ships,” Danielle says. “Any ship coming in and out of the Port has to call us for clearance first. We have radar screens showing all vessels in the Dublin Bay and Port area, as well as the booking system, which shows all the vessels due to arrive or leave that day. We are basically the co-ordinator between the different stakeholders, including the shipping agents, the pilots, tugs, the Shipping Desk, the Harbour Master’s office.”

Danielle has plenty of experience of ships and shipping. She studied the National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) in Cork until 2012 and spent time working on oil tankers for BP as she completed her cadetship. She then worked for Princess Cruises for four years, returning to college to study for her Chief Mate’s licence, which she attained. Then, however, the onset of Covid-19 brought the cruise industry to a standstill and Danielle returned to a land-based job, moving back to Ireland, working on the pilot boats in Dublin Port for a period of around six months before moving ‘upstairs’ to the VTS department.

Dublin Port is the busiest in the country, so Danielle and her colleagues could be dealing with up to 50 vessel movements in and out of the Port during a 24-hour period, including regular traffic, like ferries, as well as tankers, container ships and in the summer, increased numbers of cruise ships and pleasure craft.

A FAST-CHANGING BUSINESS

There is no such thing as an average day, Danielle insists, and you don’t always know in advance how many vessels are confirmed to sail on that day, given the dynamic nature of the shipping business. “I have a log-in to the system at home and can check before I leave my house but things can change quickly,” she notes. “Some of the ships coming in today, we only confirmed those bookings this morning. Some ships might be waiting for a berth to become free before they come in, so you have to plan that and let them know what the situation is. You do spend a lot of time planning, working closely with the Shipping Desk, who are constantly liaising with shipping agents all day long and getting the latest information. Our job is to try to slot everybody in, moving them as safely and efficiently as you can, but the weather and tides can have an impact.”

One minor delay, something as simple as a ship not being ready to move when the pilot climbs on board, can have a knock-on effect on all other traffic: “You’re constantly reassessing, your traffic image is always changing and you have to take it as it comes, to a certain extent. If the weather isn’t good, it makes it a lot harder, because you could have strong winds, which make it a lot harder for ships to hold position.”

EXPERIENCE AT SEA

All VTS operators in Dublin Port have experience at sea, which gives them a distinct appreciation for how vessels move and the challenges they face: “Having worked on ships, you do have an appreciation for what goes on on- board ships and how they work.”

The ferry captains and some other regular visitors to Dublin Port traditionally have a Pilot Exemption Certificate (PEC), having completed an oral exam with the Port Authority, and a Certificate of Competency set by the relevant national authority (Department of Transport for Irish Seafarers), which means that they don’t need a pilot to enter or exit the harbour. But all other vessels typically require the services of a pilot to guide them into and out of the Port.

“I will give the ships the information on where to meet the pilot, and the pilot boat will bring them out and they climb on board and guide the ship into the Port,” she explains.

Most VTS operators have experience of Dublin Port, having come from either the pilot boats or tugs, and are familiar with both the Port itself and its weather, experience which serves them well when allocating time-slots for each vessel, as they can allow extra time in strong winds, for example. Bad weather, however, can present serious challenges.

“When the weather is really bad, pilotage gets suspended because the seas are too rough for the pilot to get on board,” Danielle reveals. “You might have the ferries and other regular runners sailing because they have pilot exemptions and they don’t have to get a pilot on board, but the Port gets quite full with those ships that need a pilot. Generally, the ships don’t want to sail when the weather is that bad though. Once it gets to a certain point, ferries won’t sail and that’s the captain’s decision. But if it is on the limit where they are still working, it gets very busy in here,” she grins. “Suddenly, every vessel wants a tug and we try to get them in as efficiently as possible.”

LEISURE CRAFT ON THE WATER

The summer brings a different challenge, dealing with the amount of pleasure craft using the channel, particularly when they don’t contact the VTS , with contravenes the Guide to Port Entry regulations. “Some sailing boats don’t call in to VTS and some don’t always take the route we want them to follow, so it becomes harder to keep all the ships moving safely and efficiently,” Danielle notes.

Danielle and some of her colleagues from Dublin Port Company have visited many of the capital’s yacht clubs and given talks on the importance of safety and communication with the VTS in Dublin Port. “They have been very receptive,” she admits. “But sometimes you could have a ferry coming in and have jet-skis and kayakers where they really shouldn’t be. But we have a good team, and I can ask the pilot boat to go over and talk to them.”

Occasionally, things go wrong, such as mechanical failure with ships’ engines, and it is then up to the VTS operator to ensure the rest of the maritime traffic is made aware of the situation and guided away from the non-moving vessel. There is always a tug on 15-minute stand-by to assist any vessel that needs help. “If a ship is having an incident on board, I need to be conscious of all the other ships, and informing them what is happening with that particular vessel,” she notes.

Some days, the job can be quite stressful, Danielle admits, but the sense of camaraderie within the Harbour Operations team means that she never feels she’s on her own, and the adrenaline rush of directing traffic through a busy modern port more than makes up for it.

REGULAR TRAINING ON EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

All VTS operators at Dublin Port receive continuous training, regularly attending South Shields Marine School in Newcastle, England, for updated learning, particularly in simulating emergency situations.

“We do simulator training whereby they put us in a port, dealing with different emergencies; maybe it’s a busy channel and a ship blacks out or there’s a man overboard. You deal with all sorts of emergency scenarios, and you go through a checklist of how you need to react and escalate it. It helps you to build a risk assessment in your head for things you need to think about.”

In the event of an emergency, Danielle can always draw on the vast experience of her colleagues in Dublin Port Company, from the Harbour Master to the pilots and the tug boat captains. “If there is something I don’t know, there is always someone to ask for advice,” she says. “Some of the guys on the Harbour team have worked here longer than I’ve been alive, so they’ve seen it all.”

MORE WOMEN JOINING THE INDUSTRY

Danielle is the only female VTS operator in a team of five, but she feels there are more and more opportunities for women to join what has traditionally been a male- dominated industry.

“At sea, I would have usually been the only female, but just as I was leaving ships, it was changing,” she recalls. “There were more women taking roles on board and they were a lot more open to it. Even in the Maritime College, in my year there were four girls, which was the most they ever had. There are a lot more women in the industry now. Here in Dublin Port, there is one female pilot, one female working on the pilot boats and myself here in VTS. I’ve never felt held-back by the fact that I’m female, which probably comes from my parents telling me I could be anything I wanted to be. But the industry is definitely opening up. There was a feeling in the past that once a woman had a baby then she couldn’t go to sea, but I know some females who work at sea and have kids at home. It’s becoming more normal.”

While she doesn’t miss being at sea for long periods, having worked in the Caribbean for a number of years, Danielle does admit to missing the sunshine and the thrill of going to exotic locations. “I worked on ships from when I was 18 until I was 26 and really enjoyed it. I had a great time and saw all kinds of edges of the world, but I don’t think I’d go back,” she smiles. “I just bought a house and I’m happy to settle down. And I’m really happy working in Dublin Port, part of a great and very close team. If there is an issue, everybody pulls together, so I’m never worried coming into work. And there’s great job satisfaction going home. The only thing I miss about being on board ships is the fact that there was no commute,” she laughs.

“You have days where you look at the bookings list [of ship movements] and wonder how you’re going to get through them all, but those are the days when everyone comes together and really works as a team. As long as you keep the information flowing, people are fairly receptive. It’s always busy, though. In the winter, your main issue might be the wind; in the summer, it’s the leisure craft. You’re always kept on your toes. But it is a really rewarding job.”