EMPA Newsletter issue 005 published

London Pilots (PLA) have issued an excellent quick reference guide for Pilot Transfer arrangements, which can be used for pilots as well as ship’s crews. Please take not of this document and if you can, try to incorporate it into your procedures.

Ships have reported an increasing number of cases of significant GPS interference and jamming in recent months. The geographic areas with more than one reported incident include the eastern and central Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, and multiple Chinese ports.

China has already submitted proposals to the IMO regarding changes to SOLAS, Chapter 23, and IMO A.1045(27) in early 2021.

Issues like the Covid 19 crisis and the moves towards increased autonomy appear to be driving a renewed interest in Shore Based Pilotage (SBP), nowadays often called Remote Pilotage.

Representatives of sea pilots from 24 nations organized in the European Maritime Pilots Association held their general meeting in Antwerp.

This video shows the reality of pilots in Kenya.

A pilot boat caught fire near the entrance of the Port of Recife, on Saturday morning (15 January). The fire would have started around 11h. In a note, the port authority explained that the two people who were in the pilot boat were rescued by another pilot boat "Serrambi".
The causes of the accident had not yet been identified, but would be investigated.

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Mississippi River Pilot transfer off of south bound ship in the Mississippi River below New Orleans to a Pilot Boat. Pilots climb down rope ladder onto the top of the Pilot Boat while both boats are underway.

Surely, the new invention also reduced the amount of time and hands (manpower) previously required to perform such a task. Now those idling "extra hands" could dedicate the "extra time" that was made available, to take care of other issues important for the community.