Navigation
The Navigation paper tests whether you can plan and monitor a passage, fix the ship's position without electronic aids, and use chart and ECDIS data safely. Kazakhstan examiners draw on STCW table A-II/1 and on Caspian conditions: shallow water, rapid weather changes, and chart datum that is not always familiar.
Passage planning and position fixing
IMO Resolution A.893(21) sets four stages: appraisal, planning, execution, and monitoring. A berth-to-berth plan includes no-go areas, abort points, under-keel clearance, and contingency anchorages. Terrestrial fixes use three position lines; a small cocked hat is accepted, but a systematic error is not. A running fix transfers an earlier position line by course and distance. Charted depths are referenced to chart datum, so height of tide must be added before comparing with draught.
Worked example
You are steering 090°T at 10 kn through the water. A current sets 045°T at 2 kn. Find the course to steer and speed made good. Resolve north-south components: 10 sin C + 2 sin 45° = 0, so sin C = −0.1414 and C = 351.9°T. Along track: 10 cos(−8.1°) + 2 cos 45° = 9.90 + 1.41 = 11.3 kn. Steer about 352°T and expect 11.3 kn over the ground.
Traps
Mixing true, magnetic, and compass bearings; applying variation in the wrong direction; forgetting deviation from the deviation card; using charted depth without tide; and trusting an ECDIS route whose safety contour and cross-track distance were never checked. IALA Region A applies in Kazakhstan: red can to port when entering harbour.