Interview with Eva, multi-skilled officer on the Pourquoi Pas ?
“My name is Eva Castillo. I am a multi-skilled officer on the Pourquoi Pas ? I finished my studies a few months ago, three months. The course is three years in Marseille and two years in Le Havre. Five and a half years in total, as there is a period on board. You can work either on deck, so on the bridge as a multi-skilled officer, navigation or steward. And also to work on the engine as a third mechanician for example.”
“On this boat, I am polyvalent. In the morning I work on the engine. I do all the rounds and I take care of the water management, the water production. After that, we have a lot of small maintenance work to do every day. In the afternoon, I’m at the bridge. There, it’s often monitoring equipment, so AUVs. Launching ROVs like the Victor for this mission. And then managing the navigation and safety on board the ship.”
“At the beginning, I would prefer the bridge and then as time went on, I thought that the machine is quite interesting. If I did this multipurpose training, it was also to keep both for the time being. The school is the ENSM, the National Maritime Academy. There are four sites: Marseille, Le Havre, Saint-Malo and Nantes. Marseille and Le Havre are for all the multipurpose activities. Saint-Malo is for single-skilled machines. Nantes is for everything that is offshore engineering and renewable energy. And in Le Havre you can also find the bridge monovalents.”
“My very first internship was on this boat. Then I was able to do two internships of two months each on the container ships of the CMA CGM company. And then two other internships, so the professional contract, on roll-on/roll-off ships of the Maritime Nantes company, for the transport of rockets in Guyana. And then after my degree, I decided to come back to Genavir, for the science! For the beauty of science and also because I really like everything to do with biology, geology and oceanography. It allows you to combine the two.”
“I would tell them to go for it, without hesitation. The years of study can be complicated, but in the end you find your way. There is a good atmosphere. It’s a job of passion in fact. So I would tell them not to hesitate and to go for it!”
