Hey there, I think my experience can be really valuable for the given job. I might be a bit rusty and need some starting time to get back into shape but your task description more or less exactly matches what I did for years at my university (even beyond my diploma).
I had a look at AIS (as I didn't heard/knew about it before) but more importantly on the lon/lat data you've mentioned but didn't found too much. Given what I found and the problem description, I think the problem, given in the offer description is ill-posed, i.e. not solvable only given lon/lat data.
In order to make an ANN capable of predicting the course of a crude tanker I think you need at least some additional information from the tanker (i.e. size, heading course, speed, m.b. time necessary to change course), in order to enable the ANN to learn that, but that is only my guess from the given problem description.
I don't think it is possible to train a ANN only given lon/lat data as they should not be sufficient for any useful prediction without additional information.
Beside that I think the project can be kinda interesting, given m.b. some more information, like real-time constraints, (necessary) type of ANN to use, area of application etc.. I really look forward to have a discussion about the topic, the task and further opportunities.
Best, Marc.
p.s. Please be aware that I would either use OS Software (like Octave) or, which I would really like, work remotely (ssh) on a given Matlab installation.