Marine Pilot (Bloomsdale/USA)

For 170 years, the San Francisco Bar Pilots have been navigating the world’s largest ships through some of North America’s most difficult waterways. These state and federally-licensed master mariners are highly-specialized ship captains who rely on navigational experience, ship-handling skills, and local knowledge to transport more than $1.2 billion in goods to and from 200 Bay Area ports, docks, and berths every day. This critical service protects more than 1,000 miles of fragile coastline...

From our deck 12 cabin balcony, some footage of the pilot boat coming alongside Virgin Voyages' cruise ship Scarlet Lady in the Solent between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. If you're expecting action and excitement then brace yourself for not quite that at all, but it is fairly impressive how close the pilot boat gets to the larger vessel, bouncing around on the waves. I did want to see the pilot leap from the ship to the boat but in truth got tired of waiting so if that's the bit...

One of the biggest ships in the world, 23,000+ TEU container ship MSC MIA, contacted gantry crane while leaving container terminal at Valencia, Spain, in the morning Sep 13. Crane collapsed, crane operator sustained injures and was hospitalized.

This is an "only in Astoria" moment we get to see every day.

The latest edition of The New Zealand Pilot has been published (link in article).

The first trip of Captain Erik Dalege, the new President of EMPA - European Maritime Pilots' Association, is in Italy. In recent days, at the Rome offices, he met with the top management of Fedepiloti is Italian.

Pilot boat with 5 people on board collided with breakwater at Kobe Port, Japan, at around 0300 Tokyo time Sep 4. 52-year old skipper of the boat, and 71-year old pilot, died in the collision, 3 crew were seriously injured.

Here’s a cool little video of the rough weather sea trails of ‘Port Láirge’ The Port of Waterford’s new Interceptor 48 pilot boat ready to be delivered next week. We had two days of rough weather, a Force 8 with 3.5m seas putting up some surf breakers over the Daunt and a second day with winds reaching Force 10 offshore, with 55kts of wind and 5m swells, allowing us to properly test her capabilities ensuring she's fully fit for purpose for the pilots and crew. Doing so we captured some...

New guidance for PBAs with trapdoors. Released 4.11.2020 at NZMPA Conference in Dunedin, NZ. Distinct difference to suggestions in many other countries, is that we challenge operators who have the ladder suspended from the accommodation ladder (gangway) and not secured to the ship. SOLAS states that pilot ladder shall be secured to the ship, and securing strongpoints, shackles and ropes shall be as strong as the sideropes.

In this episode, you will be meeting a true leader, an experienced Harbour Master, Master Mariner, Experienced Marine Advisor, General Manager and Non-Executive Director; her name is Captain Jeanine Drummond. We speak about the importance of modern leadership, which is somewhat different from traditional leadership, which has been prevailing in our industry for such a long time. We also speak about the importance of not just trying to blend in but also speaking up to seize the...