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HONG KONG: When Ritesh Mehra, 43, enlisted for a four-month stint as captain on a liquefied gas tanker last July, he never expected to be stranded at sea until spring.
“It has happened twice that ports do not allow crew changes,” Mehra told Reuters via Zoom from the bridge of the 80,000-ton ship docked outside the Indian port of Haldia.
“My family will no longer trust me. I’ve been giving you the dates when I would be coming home from December. “
Mehra, who has 20 years of experience at sea, is also trying to keep the spirits of her nervous crew of 23 afloat, many of whom are struggling with fatigue and social isolation.
“Being chained to this particular place, you can almost say he’s in jail, it’s affecting the crew now,” Mehra said. “They are thinking more about it than the actual work.”
An estimated 100,000 seafarers are stranded at sea due to the pandemic, the International Chamber of Shipping said last week.
Crew rotation relies on complex logistics, including obtaining transit visas and organizing chartered flights to repatriate sailors when they disembark at an international port.
To maintain effective operations and safety, sailors can only exit a ship when a replacement can be brought on board.
Organizing the correct entry permits and quarantine and testing to take place during the short time a ship is in port can be overwhelming due to coronavirus restrictions.
As a result, crew rotations during the pandemic are often canceled on short notice, while regular shore leave, once a mainstay of life at sea, has also come to a halt.
Near Hong Kong’s busy waterways, visiting ships are often anchored for days while unloading goods onto smaller boats or barges.
The Reverend Stephen Miller, who would normally come on board to give advice and tips to sailors, now comes down to handing out bags with supplies, including SIM cards and snacks. He says he is concerned about the mental health of the sailors.
“You can imagine it for yourself, you’ve been planning to go home, maybe see a little boy for the first time in many months, and then they take it away from you,” he said.
“That obviously leads to sadness, which can lead to depression. If you don’t talk about it, unfortunately it can lead people to think that life is not worth living. “
Mehra finally disembarked this month and returned to India, with his family eagerly awaiting to see him. During his time at sea, he had missed the funeral of a close relative and said his time away had affected his family.
“My youngest son doesn’t speak very well to me,” he said. “There will be things that I will have to take care of. It’s not going to be a very happy homecoming. ” Reuters
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