My name is Laila de Sa and I am First Nautical Officer. I graduated in 2004 as Third Deck Officer in the Merchant Navy Officers University in Rio de Janeiro/ Brazil. I’m a Brazilian 33 years old Officer and I have 12 years of experience at sea.
I started working at sea on tanker ships, from Transpetro, a subsidiary Company of Petrobras, and I traveled a lot abroad in the beginning of my career. I had incredible experiences and some of then were very difficult, such as great cyclones and storms, days and nights of scares, that contribute a lot for what I am today.
I’ve been working for maritime support in Brazil for 8 years. I was already a Chief Officer in Supply vessels and, nowadays I work at Skandi Santos, a super modern subsea construction vessel, DP Class 3, the only one in the world that installs production adapters, Christmas trees and other subsea equipments on the wellheads for Petroleum production and exploration. I work as Senior DPO (Dynamic positioning Operator) for 28 days in a row, 12 hours a day.
I feel happy and fulfilled working here. Despite the workload, the stress that surrounds our profession and the huge responsibility we have, I feel that this is my place and that’s why I’ve been here in this ship for 5 years. And I can’t forget to mention that life at sea is not easy, especially when women are a minority on board, but I love my job. The crew consists of Seafarers team, subsea technicians and Engineers, Petrobras Client, ROV Team and Catering team. We are in a maximum of 120 persons on board, of which only 7 are women, among Deck Officers and Engineers, nutritionists and Catering staff.
The message I give to all women seafarers is Do not think that we’re not able to conquer the world, Believe in your dreams, because we are stronger than we can imagine. We are awesome! Good winds and calm seas to all of you!
(Laila de Sa, Brazil)
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