Crew logistics
For general cargo ships and every other vessel calling Tanga, 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 Tanga through Tanga airstrip for light aircraft, with international connections through Dar es Salaam or Kilimanjaro, 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.
Tanga is a bay port on Tanzania's northern coast, historically a lighterage port and now served by upgraded alongside berths, and a quiet port compared with Dar es Salaam, which means berth windows are easier but specialist contractors may need to travel in; 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.
The airport for Tanga is Tanga airstrip for light aircraft, with international connections through Dar es Salaam or Kilimanjaro. Joining crew are met on arrival, taken through immigration on the agent's pre-notification, and driven to the port or the launch pier. Leaving crew are collected from the gangway, taken through immigration with their sign-off documents and checked in for their flight.
Flights are held until the ETA is firm and rebooked without fuss when the vessel slips; a crew change fixed to an optimistic ETA is the commonest way a movement fails.
The file that makes a crew change at Tanga 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.
Where the vessel is not entering port, the desk advises whether an off-port-limits change is workable at Tanga or better made at the next port on the route.
Medical cases at Tanga follow one rule: the seafarer sees a doctor first and the paperwork follows. Hospital, guarantee, daily reports to owner and club, fit-to-fly certificate, escort and flight home are the desk's work; the vessel's schedule is kept by arranging a replacement in parallel.
The owner receives a prompt report of each movement, and the DA carries the receipts.
Tanga sees general cargo ships, small bulk carriers and product tankers. The desk plans a two-person officer swap on a bulk carrier and a twenty-person rotation on a purse seiner with the same file discipline, scaled to the numbers: more vehicles, more hotel rooms, a larger launch, and immigration warned of the size of the movement.
The port's working areas are the deepened quay for direct alongside working, the lighterage anchorage still used for some cargoes, and the crude oil export terminal at Chongoleani nearby, and the gate the crew use depends on the berth the vessel is given.
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.
Case by case; the desk confirms with the port and the launch operator for each movement.
Tanga airstrip for light aircraft, with international connections through Dar es Salaam or Kilimanjaro.
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.
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