Welcome ashore!

What happens when the anchor drops?

Your voyage is over. You've seen countries and ways of life you never imagined. You've had time ashore in some of the most exciting places on the planet and you've been paid to do it all. Now it's time for some time off.

The first thing that will happen is you get a free plane ticket home if your voyage ends in, say, Mumbai or Montevideo. Then you get time with your family and friends.

Generally speaking, for every period spent at sea as a Trainee Officer you will earn a third of that as leave. When you can actually take this leave depends on a number of factors, including the total time spent at college in any particular year. Voyage lengths and operational requirements are also taken into account – they may vary between sponsoring shipping companies.

The longest continuous period of duty on board ship will normally be about three months (but may be longer in some circumstances) and such a period will normally earn one month's leave.

Some companies have routine tours of duty of six weeks or less, earning leave proportionately. However, it must be emphasised that during training, a flexible approach must be adopted to both leave and voyage lengths. This is to ensure training programmes are completed, particularly with respect to scheduled college phases.