Travelers pay 50 thousand for each expedition on the ship of the Lithuanian captain M. Oginskas. euros

The man, who was born and raised in Klaipėda, has been drawn to the sea since school, and by the tenth grade, after getting acquainted with ships and working on them closely, he no longer had any doubts about the field of study. . . Having chosen Naval Pilot studies from Lithuanian Higher Maritime School (LAJM), he still believes that this is the best solution.

Currently, M. Oginskas with a crew of 58 is off the coast of Alaska in the port of Ketchikan. The Covid-19 pandemic also briefly disrupted plans for tourist expeditions. A ship planning to pick up passengers and sail to the Alaskan fjords is waiting for better times.

– Mindaugas, tell me, what are you doing now? (Alaska 4 pm, LT time – 2 pm)

– Let’s talk (laughs). We have been in the port of Ketchikan since the beginning of June, but we are unable to carry out any operations. We had to take passengers and travel to explore the fjords of Alaska, but the pandemic stopped everything. We are on board, the crew is ready to work, but now we are floating and waiting.

There are many restrictions, everyone has to come to Alaska and quarantine for 14 days, then there would be a two-week trip, then there would probably be the quarantine again. People can’t spend that long, so this expedition probably won’t happen unless the situation changes and we can pick up passengers on board.

We will be here until mid-September, then the ship will be ready for the season in Mexico and I will return to Klaipeda. The latest information is that another expedition to Antarctica is planned for November.

– Why are the crew kept on board?

– The National Geographic Orion is a passenger ship and has a certificate package. There must be a certain number of people for the certificates to remain valid. If the owner wants to tie his boat to shore and release the crew at least, the boat loses its certificates. Recovering them costs a great deal of financial and human resources. So we live here, we drive, we observe the situation.

– Tell us briefly about your work.

– I’m the captain of the expedition ship Staff. With travelers, videographers and sometimes scientists, we organize various expeditions to exotic places in the world, such as Alaska, the Arctic, Svalbard, Antarctica, Chilean fjords, several islands in the Pacific Ocean, a bit of Asia, the north of Russia.

Working as a hobby, it would now be popular to call it a vacation. We observe nature, we observe animals, we seek adventure and we want to show people as much wildlife as possible.

For example, National Geographic is planning an expedition to Antarctica and plans to make a documentary about whales or the melting of glaciers.

The cameramen occupy about 20 seats and the rest can be passengers. They buy luxury cruise tickets because this ship is five stars. Depending on the purpose of the trip, passengers are willing to pay 50,000 for two-week expeditions. euros.

– Who so drawn to the sea, taken to work on board?

– I was born and raised in Klaipeda. My dad had a great influence on my choice of studies. He is the captain of small tonnage ships and works abroad all the time.

Depending on the purpose of the trip, passengers are willing to pay 50,000 for two-week expeditions. euros.

In addition, in the tenth grade, together with fellow Vėtrungė Gymnasium, we participated in the Republican Academy Contest “By Sea” and won the main prize: a trip on the DFDS Seaways ferry to Karlshamn in Sweden. At the Academy we tested the marine simulators, and during the trip we saw closely all the work of the ship’s crew, we understood what the day-to-day life of the sailors is like. It made a great impression on me.

Most tenth graders still don’t know much about what they want to do in the future. It was very easy for me to choose: I already knew in school that I would enter the Maritime Higher Education study program at the Lithuanian Maritime School. Other colleagues with whom we won the contest enrolled in other institutes or went to other cities.

– Have studies confirmed your determination to link the future with the sea?

– The first course of study at first glance turned out to be the thirteenth grade, the names of the subjects studied were similar: higher mathematics, physics, but what needed to be learned differed like day and night. And already in the second year, all the topics were maritime: navigation, ship management, ship trip planning, etc. All the fun started after the second year of practice at sea, on boats! Sometimes it happens that students going up on the deck of a ship realize that it is not here for them. And I liked it, I realized it was my thing.

You know, don’t become a captain right away. The ship must be able to do all the necessary work, both scraping the paint and washing the deck, as the ship must be kept at sea from stern to stern. And so in a circle, until you fix one, you see that you have to start over. If you have not passed school for that job, you will not know how to lead the crew later, how to assign the job or the tasks.

– How long did it take you to prove that you could be a captain?

– Becoming a pilot is not enough for higher education, studies, diplomas, a diploma of a maritime degree and certificates from various courses are also required. Got it all from LAJM. After a ship internship, I got the necessary boarding service, passed the final qualification exam, and both diplomas in hand! The next day after graduation, I flew to work on a ship waiting for me in Singapore.

Seven years have passed since graduation, five of which I spent at sea. I started working on a tanker as an assistant duty captain. Although this is a managerial position, I also had to remember the times of the practice of the sea, not only to lead the sailors, but also to work together on the deck of the ship. After a while, I started working on other ships. And I had to go back to studying! Only this time from other crew members who are already working on the ship, as each type of ship has its own characteristics that must be known.

While working on merchant ships, it was possible to get on an expedition ship. As the ship’s navigation area was unusual, the South Polar Circle, this required additional training in ship management and navigation under the Polar Code. This job fascinated me! It is incredibly dynamic! On the expeditions you will meet many interesting people, you will see places that you would only travel in dreams.

Of course, a lot of responsibility, because we navigate in areas that are not well explored, we do not have quality charts, precise depths, so we have to navigate carefully, that’s why we use sonar, We rely on the information provided by previous navigational captains and a database from our own systems. There are many responsibilities, especially when it comes to sailing in Antarctica. Everyone probably knows the story of the Titanic well. So always remember that you are responsible for several hundred souls.

There are many responsibilities, especially when it comes to sailing in Antarctica.

– Can you say that you are doing your dream job?

– Actually, I found my place. I like expeditions because of the nature of the work, I have already worked on five different expedition ships. When working with cargo, you just float the cargo from point A to point B, long trips across the ocean, you just cruise on autopilot, but there is no such action. And here we sail through the fjords, sailing in the palm trees all the time, and sailing on the ice is incredibly interesting, fascinating.

The ship sails between icebergs, a few meters from it and can be touched by hand. We have to offer passengers the most unique experience and bring unforgettable impressions and the most beautiful photos. That’s what we do.

If you see a group of orcs while sailing, inform passengers that you can see orcs playing on the starboard side of the ship a few hundred meters away. Invite everyone to the deck. No matter what time of day, the most important impression is. When tourists step out onto the terrace, they can briefly immerse themselves in the world of wildlife.

– Probably rarely returns to Klaipeda?

– I was in Klaipeda for the last time a couple of months ago. My work with Lindblad Expeditions / National Geographic is stable, I will rest for three months and I will work for three months. I must return home in mid-September, so if there is no pandemic, in mid-November I will fly to the southernmost Argentine town of Ushuaia, where we will receive passengers after a long time and we should sail to Antarctica.

Ushuaia is like a small expedition center where all the ships disembark and pick up their passengers. From Ushuaia, we sailed south through the Drake Strait and explored Antarctica for 7-8 days, then back. This is how we make round trips every 10 days.

– You probably no longer imagine yourself working on the floor?

– I can’t imagine myself anywhere else. I love this profession, I just merged with it. I was wondering if I had to go back to shore, I don’t know what I could do. The Naval Academy has a naval program, and if you don’t want to be at sea for long, you can take commander courses, complete them, and work as a lieutenant on a warship, sail on business trips, and live a normal life.

But the sea attracts me. Even after returning to Klaipeda, the first day I sit in the car, buy coffee and drive to the sea. I suffer from a dizziness that is being repelled by an inhuman force.