Crew logistics
Maingate Shipping arranges crew changes at Kamsar for owners, managers and crewing agencies: immigration formalities, airport meet and transfer through Kamsar airstrip for company flights, with international connections through Conakry, launches where the vessel lies at anchor, and hotels when flights and vessels do not line up. Our partner agent at the port attends the movement under Maingate's instruction; the Mombasa desk plans and reports.
Seafarers join and leave at Kamsar through Kamsar airstrip for company flights, with international connections through Conakry, and the movement is workable when it is planned ahead. Maingate Shipping handles the immigration formalities, the airport, the transfer to the gangway and the hotel if the timings do not meet, and reports every movement to the owner with times and costs.
Kamsar is the Rio Nunez estuary on Guinea's northern coast, the country's bauxite export gateway, and loading is governed by the mining company's programme and the tide on the estuary, and the largest vessels never come alongside but load at anchor from transshipment barges; the crew plan is built with that in mind, so that a launch is not booked into a swell or a flight into a berth window that will not hold.
Crewing agencies, technical managers and owners under charter all place crew movements here; the desk acts for whoever instructs it and keeps that party's account separate.
Movements at Kamsar run through Kamsar airstrip for company flights, with international connections through Conakry. Joiners are met at the aircraft door where the airport allows it and at arrivals where it does not, and are through immigration and on the road without delay when the file was filed in advance. Leavers go the other way with their sign-off papers in hand.
Flight bookings track the vessel, not the other way round: options are held and changed as the ETA firms up, and the owner is told the cost of each change.
Immigration at Kamsar expects the crew list showing joiners and leavers, passports with adequate validity, seaman's books or seafarer identity documents, and the agent's letter of guarantee. Nationalities that need a visa are pre-notified or obtain it in advance where the rules require; the desk confirms the current position for each crew list rather than relying on a matrix that may be out of date.
Shore passes for crew going ashore during the call and gate passes for the agent's vehicle are issued through the port.
The last mile at Kamsar is the gangway or the launch. Alongside, the boarding officer walks the crew through the gate. At anchor, the launch goes out in daylight with the joiners and comes back with the leavers, and the desk confirms the ladder, the lee side and the timing with the master before it sails.
Where the vessel is not entering port, the desk advises whether an off-port-limits change is workable at Kamsar or better made at the next port on the route. Hotels near the port are used when flights land after the last launch.
A seafarer landed sick at Kamsar is taken to hospital by the desk's representative, admitted against the owner's or the club's guarantee, and reported on daily until discharged or repatriated with a fit-to-fly certificate and, where required, a medical escort. The replacement is arranged from the Kenyan pool while the case runs.
Times, names and costs go to the owner promptly; receipts follow with the account.
Who changes crew at Kamsar: capesize and panamax bulk carriers, transshipment barges and supply vessels, in the trades of bauxite in bulk outbound, with fuel, equipment and supplies for the mining companies inbound. Their rotations differ, so the desk asks the manager for the rotation calendar and works from it, rather than treating every movement as a surprise.
Berth or anchorage decides the last mile; Kamsar's working areas are the bauxite loading terminal fed by rail from the Sangarédi mines, and the anchorage transshipment stations where capesize vessels load from barges.
The crew list marked with joiners and leavers, valid passports, seaman's books or seafarer identity documents, the agent's letter of guarantee and, for some nationalities, a visa obtained in advance or pre-notified for arrival.
The desk confirms with the port and the launch operator; where it is not workable the change is planned for the berth or the next port.
Through Kamsar airstrip for company flights, with international connections through Conakry, with the desk meeting joiners on arrival and seeing leavers through immigration and check-in.
The desk books a hotel near the port, keeps the crew informed, and moves them to the vessel as soon as she is alongside or at anchor.
One instruction, one account, one contact for the master and one for the principal.
The port call, the crew desk and the guides, one instruction line.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091