Applied Weather Technology Guides Mercy Ships with Latest BVS Marine Voyage Optimizatio...( Mercy Ships'...),Health

Mercy Ships' Crew Uses BVS 5.6 Onboard Software to Navigate the Safest, Most Fuel-Efficient Route and Protect Sensitive Medical Equipment as They Bring Hope, Healing and Hospital Services to the World's Poor

Sunnyvale, Calif. (Vocus) March 16, 2009 -- Applied Weather Technology (AWT) today announced that Mercy Ships, the leader in using hospital ships to deliver free, world-class health care services to the poor, recently used the latest version of AWT's BonVoyage System (BVS) to help the Africa Mercy navigate the safest and most fuel-efficient course while en route to the ship's current assignment in Benin, West Africa. AWT first began donating the BVS graphical marine voyage optimization system to Mercy Ships in 2000, and since that time has continued to provide Mercy Ships with complimentary data, system upgrades and support.

Mercy Ships' Captains and navigation crew use BVS to check weather and sea conditions to help ensure crew and vessel safety, and prevent encounters with inclement weather that could damage sensitive medical equipment on board. Mercy Ships serves the urgent surgical needs of the world's forgotten poor and has performed more than 41,000 life-changing operations since 1978.

"Hospital equipment is highly susceptible to damage. We're loaded with a CT scanner and X-ray machines that are not designed for being bounced around," said Captain Tim Tretheway, Master of the Africa Mercy, the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship. "We use BVS to find the routes with the most moderate conditions and then we'll take those routes. It's simple to check conditions ahead. You flip on the flat scre
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