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When the entire planet is urging people to stay at\nhome to avoid the propagation of the Covid-19 virus, seamen remain at sea\nensuring fruit, meat, wine, television sets and cereals reach their\ndestinations without fail to avoid any shortages. One year on from the start of\nthe pandemic, Marfret applauds its crew members\u2019 devotion to duty. The company\nhas had to overcome the huge challenge of organizing crew changes in a context\nof constantly changing rules, while ensuring its crews\u2019 wellbeing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would like to pay tribute to our seafarers, who for\nmany months have been on the front line of our efforts to transport the goods\nwe consume. Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, and Tahiti have been\nsupplied or a regular basis, despite the low load factors. While millions of people\nhave been in lockdown, our seamen have remained on deck. We organise crew\nchanges at very reactive ports such as Rotterdam and Algeciras and carry out\nPCR testing,\u201d says Marfret managing director Guillaume Vidil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In December 2019, when it took delivery of the Douce\nFrance in China, the company has been made aware of the health emergency. \u201cAs soon as December, we were notifying ships\ncrews and putting in place measures to disinfect common areas. From that moment\nonwards, we prohibited crew members from coming ashore and restricted access to\nships to the strict minimum, including for our agents and port operations\nstaff,\u201d explains head of EHS S\u00e9bastien Blancher. To counter any risk of\ncontamination, Marfret suspended crew changes as from 17th<\/sup> March\n2020. Since that date, even classification surveys, where possible, have been\ncarried out remotely! <\/p>\n\n\n\n The masks come off<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe time spent on board ship has never been more than\nnine months. Marfret organised its crew changes just before the pandemic went\nout of control. Our crewing agencies V Ships and Marlow Navigation were really\nhelpful in arranging flights home for our Russian, Ukrainian and Romanian\nseamen, a huge challenge given the cancellations that followed the closing of\nborders. This was also a problem for many months in the Philippines. Our crew\nmembers conducted themselves in an exemplary fashion,\u201d underlines Marfret\nship\u2019s captain Charles Gauthier. One asymptomatic positive case was detected on\n9th<\/sup> December during a changeover in Santos, Brazil, with local\nauthorities requiring the Marfret Marajo to remain anchored for 14 days, which\ndisrupted sailing schedules. \u201cThe crew stayed quarantined in their cabins and\nwork rosters were reduced to a strict minimum, with longer meal breaks. We monitored\nthings on a daily basis, with temperatures being recorded,\u201d adds S\u00e9bastien\nBlancher. There are two units on hand to provide the French and foreign crew\nmembers with psychological support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To keep its staff better informed, Marfret sends out monthly\nhealth bulletins with advice and information about the pandemic\u2019s progress\ncountry by country. Three days prior to boarding, officers and crew\nmembers must take a PCR test and are particularly careful not to expose\nthemselves to the virus during the last 15 days on shore. \u201cThe seamen are\nunderstanding, since they know all these health measures are for their safety,\u201d\nconcludes Romain Arnone, crewing assistant at Marfret. The only cause for\nsatisfaction for crew members on board is that the masks can come off. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the entire planet is urging people to stay at home to avoid the propagation of the Covid-19 virus, seamen remain at sea ensuring fruit, meat, wine, television sets and cereals reach their destinations without fail to avoid any shortages. One year on from the start of the pandemic, Marfret applauds its crew members\u2019 devotion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":5246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[314,37,258],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlighted","category-news","category-news-nl-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n