Geographic rotation

Geographic rotation is the requirement that a vessel call at the nominated load or discharge ports in their natural geographic order along the voyage, so she does not backtrack. In a fixture with several ports in range, ‘in geographic rotation’ obliges the charterer to nominate them in sailing sequence, which limits deviation, extra steaming, and bunker cost. It protects the owner from an uneconomic port order and supports the implied term that nominated ports lie within the agreed range. A charterer wanting freedom to order out-of-sequence calls must negotiate that expressly, often against additional freight.