Life off the ocean waves
5th Sep 2005, 13:10 GMT
Two years ago Rahul Kulkarni was spending a week on a large container ship, preparing to take over as master from an experienced South African captain. Though he had gained his master's certificate five years before, this was to be his first command. "What I hadn't expected," he says, "was that the captain would just walk off the ship at Manzanillo, leaving me to take it through the Panama crossing." Around the table at the Greenwich Maritime Institute there is a burst of laughter from his fellow students on the MBA in Maritime Management course, now one term into its second year. All the students are experienced mariners who can empathise only too readily with the awesome responsibility that faced Kulkarni as he faced Panama on his own. "I took one look at this huge ship and said to myself, hell, I'm in charge now. And then - well, I just got on with it."