Crew movements
For container ships and every other vessel calling Port Said, the crew change is a movement Maingate Shipping plans end to end: immigration, airport, transfer, launch, hotel and the prompt report. Partner agent on the ground, Mombasa desk in charge.
Seafarers join and leave at Port Said through Cairo International Airport, with Port Said itself reached by road, and the movement is routine when the file is right. 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.
Port Said is the northern entrance of the Suez Canal, with the transshipment port at East Port Said, and vessels pass without stopping, so crew changes, spares, cash to master and provisions are delivered by launch during the transit, timed to the convoy; 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 Port Said run through Cairo International Airport, with Port Said itself reached by road. 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.
The file that makes a crew change at Port Said work: passports valid for the period immigration requires, seaman's books or seafarer identity documents, the vessel's crew list with the joiners and leavers marked, the letter of guarantee from the agent, and the visa position for each nationality confirmed with immigration for this movement, not assumed from the last one.
The desk files the notification before the flight lands so that the seafarer is expected at the desk rather than explained at it.
At berth the movement is a walk from the gate to the gangway. At the anchorage, a licensed launch is booked for daylight and acceptable weather, and the pilot ladder and the vessel's own arrangements are confirmed with the master beforehand. Where a flight lands after the last launch, a hotel near the port is booked and the transfer runs at first light.
Off-port-limits crew changes for vessels in transit are done outside the port, with the vessel slowing to take the launch alongside and resuming passage within a couple of hours.
Sick or injured crew are taken to hospital with an agent's representative, the owner and the P&I club are informed promptly, and repatriation with a medical escort is arranged when the doctor allows travel. Replacement seafarers are arranged in parallel from Kenya through our crewing desk so that the vessel does not sail short.
Every movement is reported to the owner with the times, the names and the costs, and the receipts follow in the DA.
The vessels that change crew at Port Said are container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, car carriers, cruise ships and every vessel type in canal transit, calling for transshipment containers and the port's other trades, or passing on the routes that make Port Said a convenient stop. Each type has its own rotation: cargo ships change a few officers and ratings per call, fishing and offshore vessels rotate crews in numbers, cruise ships rotate hotel staff on every call.
The canal zone and the Delta, though the port's real business is the transit traffic, which shapes how far the port is from the airport in practice and how much road time the plan must allow.
A few working days is comfortable for most nationalities once the ETA is firm; longer where a visa must be obtained in advance. The desk confirms the requirement when the crew list is received.
Yes, by licensed launch in daylight and acceptable weather.
Cairo International Airport, with Port Said itself reached by road.
Yes. Kenyan officers and ratings are placed through our crewing desk in Mombasa with verified documents, and delivered to the vessel at the port of joining.
Nominate Maingate Shipping and the answer comes from Mombasa with a proforma DA attached.
Crew work sits with port agency and crew management on the same desk.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091