On August 7, 2023, the Garonne Metropolitan Support and Assistance Building (MASB) was in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This stopover was used to carry out a crew changeover. Crew B that made the crossing to Halifax has been relieved by Crew A now ready for the next joint exercises in the North Atlantic.
Participating in the NANOOK-TUUGAALIK mission between the coasts of Canada and Greenland, the relief in Halifax (base port of the Canadian Atlantic Fleet) allows for a handover between the two crews at the mission departure site, thus saving the vessel’s travel times from the France. In this way, once the vessel is taken over by crew A, it will be immediately operational in the area.
Departing from Halifax, the NANOOK-TUUGAALIK mission gives French, Canadian and American navies the opportunity to develop their skills around maritime safety in a polar environment.
Currently, the Garonne is deployed as part of the LANA mission. This mission aims to enrich the mastery of the Atlantic zone, particularly in polar environments, and to test the carrier’s ability to welcome and deploy a group of mountain commandos on land.
But above all, a crew change, what is it for?
Garonne is a double-crew vessel: crew A and crew B. This type of equipment meets two objectives: to optimize the operational time of the vessel in order to guarantee an average of 120 days per year and to improve the work-life balance of seafarers.
Each crew alternates every 4 months between “loaded” period and shore period (called “in preparation”). Each change mobilizes all the personnel of the two crews so that “the stakeholders” are fully in line with the operational and technical continuity of the building.