Kevin Vallance began his seagoing career at the age of 16 years with Shaw Savill and Albion Company Limited. After completion of his deck officer cadetship at Warsash School of Navigation he was employed as second mate with South Coast Shipping Company,working on marine aggregate suction dredgers in the limited European trading area.

In 1986 aged 28 years after obtaining a Limited European Trade command endorsement he was promoted to Master with that company, a role which he held for 19 years. At the age of 45 Kevin returned to South Tyneside College to complete his Masters foreign going unlimited certificate of competency. It was during the periods of shore study that he started to be concerned about standards of sea going watch keeping, in particular COLREG’s understanding and application.

In 2006 he became a Trinity House Licensed deep sea pilot, working with George Hammond Shipping. As a deep sea pilot Kevin has worked onboard a variety of vessel types including ultra-large container vessels, tankers, bulk carriers, cruise ships, car carriers and visiting war ships. His specialised local knowledge has also been utilised to assist with VTS services for cable and pipe laying operations and salvage works. This varied work has been with many different and often multi-national crews.

With a passion for safety at sea and in particular with navigation safety, Kevin is currently vice-chairman of the United Kingdom Maritime Pilots Association Technical and Training Committee whom he regularly represents at the United Kingdom Safety of Navigation committee meetings which are held by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

It was after attending an Anglo-French navigation meeting to discuss the possibility of introduction of a speed limit for all vessels in the Dover Strait in 2010 that the idea of this book was first discussed with other concerned people.Initial work with Witherby revolved around revision of the English Channel Passage Planning Guide, to which this book should be considered complementary.