SEATTLE — Even 30-year sea captains can get a little sweaty.
They undergo refresher training in realistic ship-steering simulators at Seattle’s Pacific Maritime Institute. In a simulator, they can face towering waves, strong winds and imminent collisions with surfacing submarines. The view from the bridge is so realistic there’s even a shadow from a spinning radar antenna.
They call it “the pit experience,” said Dale Bateman, the institute’s assistant director.
“Your pits start to get a little warm,” he said. “The sweat starts to roll down your brow.”
Many Washington State Ferries workers, especially the higher ranks, go through the simulators for basic training and refresher skills. On Tuesday morning, the agency invited reporters into the simulators as part of a promotional campaign to recruit new employees.
More than 62 percent of the state’s ferry captains are at least 55 years old, as are more than half of the deck crew.
As the housing market collapsed, new folks — contractors, bank tellers, people in their 40s — joined the ferry system, said Greg Faust, director of marine operations who also was a captain. Many of the captains are likely to retire within the next decade. That means others will move up in rank, opening up about 60 positions, particularly at entry level.
You have to be able to work with the public. That’s different from a lot of maritime jobs, he said, where people can go to sea and get away from society.
For those who navigate vessels, the point of the simulation is to throw at them everything they might experience in real life, ferry Capt. Mike Schilling said. When a person exceeds his limit for stress or multitasking — essentially, when he fails — he and others learn important lessons.
Plus, it’s better for those failures to happen in a simulation, he said, and not while operating a $150 million piece of equipment with 2,000 passengers on board.
“If you hit the dock really hard, you don’t have to rebuild the dock,” he said.
To become a captain, Schilling had to memorize every route in the state ferry system, including the varying water depths.
“You internalize the waters through which you’re navigating,” he said.
It’s common for those who work in the pilothouse to become close, like a second family, Faust said. They’re basically on a floating island, after all, and even if they’re over “the same piece of water” every day, together they overcome challenges and dangers involving tides, weather and traffic.
Also, “you’ve got a 360-degree water view all day long,” he said. “It’s just beautiful.”
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
Work for the ferries
Washington State Ferries is hiring entry-level seamen. A fitness test is required. Men and women are encouraged to apply. Seamen start at about $47,300 a year, while captains, who have at least five years of sea time, make about $100,000.
More info: www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries
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