A typical day is not necessarily typical at Sea, a whole range of different tasks need to be undertaken depending on the plan of the day and patrol requirements.

From being responsible for a Navigational Watch to being in charge of a gunnery shoot or leading a boarding party on a fisheries boarding... these are only some of the tasks a Posted Officer at sea is required to do on a daily basis.   Also you are in charge of a division, on my last ship I was responsible for 23 people spread over four divisions Seaman’s, Comm’s, Cooks, and Supplies.

Ashore now I am in Charge of a Potential NCO’s Course. This is a six month career course where there are 39 students, who on completion of the six months will be promoted from Able rank to Leading Hand Rank.

The challenges are many and varied, again any number can arise during a patrol or even over a day, from someone in your division who faces a domestic problem that needs advice/help, adverse weather or a search and rescue situation which requires everyone’s complete concentration.

Anything with a bit of adrenalin attached is cool. Whether it is boarding a trawler in very bad weather, a gunnery shoot, exercising ships gunners. Approaching a port with a large concentration of traffic, anything that is challenging really.

Also the opportunity to travel the world, though my career to date I have been lucky enough to have been to many different places, from Singapore to L.A. Argentina, Hong Kong, India and Egypt.

For my Leaving Certificate I took the subjects, French, Geography and Business. Prior to applying for my cadetship I found out that I required a Science subject which I took up in my Leaving Certificate. 

A lot of my training and education through the Navy todate has been Maths and Science based particularly Physics. If I had a choice again I would have gone down this line in school to give me a better foundation. The subjects I chose just made everything slightly harder.

I completed my Leaving Certificate in 2000 and commenced my cadetship. The bulk of a cadetship is academic with numerous exams during the two years on wide ranging subjects such as Applied Nautical Science to Chartwork to Spherical Trigonometry.

On commissioning in 2002 I commenced a three year degree in Nautical Science. I now have a Bsc in Nautical Science from CIT. I also have a Sub Lt Gunnery Officers course completed and my Naval Watch Keeping Certificate.

All of it is relevant from everything I did in school even subjects that you would not think are relevant such as business. A lot of a gunnery officer’s work at sea is the accountancy of ammunition!

While ashore, yes there are very little restrictions on my lifestyle. I am married and play both hurling and football for my local GAA Club Barryroe so therefore I enjoy a good work life balance.

However, while on my Sea Rotation (which ended just over two weeks ago) this obviously becomes more difficult. Being at Sea and away from home for four week periods makes any lifestyle difficult for myself and of course my family. But that’s the career I chose.

Yes of course as technology is constantly changing especially in global positioning systems and communications equipment constant training is needed.

Also, courses in health and safety, risk management and human resourses are very important these days.