The United Kingdom Maritime Pilots Association (UKMPA), is the representative professional body for Maritime Pilots in the United Kingdom. Almost every ship entering or leaving a port, is required under UK law to engage a duly Authorised Maritime Pilot, who either boards the vessel in port or at sea and takes conduct of the safe navigation of that vessel. This undertaking is critical to protecting the country’s national infrastructure and environment from damage or pollution, supporting the UK’s economy, and ensuring the safe, timely and efficient movement of all trade.

A bulk carrier was departing port with a pilot on the bridge to assist with the undocking and manoeuvre downriver. The operation was also assisted by two conventionally propelled tugs, one forward and one aft.

It has been exactly one year ago that a pilot from Sandy Hook (New York), Dennis Sherwood, died in the line of duty while attempting to board the container vessel Maersk Kensington.
What has happened since then? Has safety been improved for the pilots?

According to media reports from Taiwan, a collision between an OOCL vessel and a Gantry Crane occurred today (03.06.2021).

Over the past two years, RightShip has reviewed more than 21,000 PSC inspections, assessed over 2,500 incidents, and inspected over 4,600 vessels. This is in addition to the reviewing a large number of SIRE reports as part of the vetting process. Despite the industry’s efforts and campaigns to educate, we have observed an upward trend in deficiencies and non-conformities involving pilot ladders and arrangements. The data gathered from RightShip Inspections indicates that the pilot ladder...

The pilot boat in Hvasser is going to pick up a pilot from a tank ship.

#MaidenVoyage #HMMalgeciras
The maiden voyage of HMM Algeciras #10-Hamburg: Look at the sunrise in Hamburg, Germany. The city awakes, but the port never sleeps. The HMM Algeciras, the first largest containership in the world, bids farewell to Hamburg.

A loaded bulk carrier is a bit tricky to handle, do to all that mass: de require a lot of power in order to be stopped. This is why this maneuver are normally slower. Same applies to tankers.

Challenge between SWATH tender "DÖSE" and two 30m mono hull vessels in 2013.

#Anchor #shipanchor #windlass Anchoring is one of the very frequent operations onboard ships. A number of variables and external factors influence the duration and location of an anchoring operation. While the type of seabed is of utmost importance during anchoring, soft muddy grounds or clay bottoms are best preferred. It should be taken care that the anchoring bottom is free of power lines, submarine cables, pipelines or rocks. Various methods on anchoring include consideration of...