Texas State Harbor Pilots

Reflections on his work on the Mississippi River (2014)

The pilots make docking mega-ships look easy despite the meteorological disturbance.
Great pictures from Morocco

Drydocking or undocking is always a difficult task, particularly with a “dead” vessel (no power/propulsion) and the wind blowing on the ship's side.

Ladders are the bridges for crossing the rough seas of our lives.
When you are a Marine Pilot at work, hoping and praying that the ladders which let you embark the vessel are stable, safe and not dangerous.
In Memoriam of the late Captain Dennis Sherwood who passed away on Monday the 30th of December.

The arrival of machine learning and artificial intelligence has taken efficiency to a whole new level. Software platforms can now suggest maintenance routines, recommend spare-part changes, and even predict breakdowns of machinery.

What a dangerous situation. Never seen that before.

TOKYO-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Takeshi Hashimoto) today announced that the Japan Federation of Pilots' Association (JFPA) (Note 1) has presented its Best Quality Ship Award for fiscal year (FY) 2021 to two MOL-operated vessels—the LNG carrier LNG SATURN and the bulk carrier TAIYO.

Like many seafarers I have long been a keen follower of The Nautical Institute’s MARS programme, and along with many other members I listened to the recent webinar on that topic. One theme which was repeated more than once was that it is better to learn from someone else’s misfortune rather than have it happen to you. Having personally been involved in two near misses resulting from unsafe pilot transfer arrangements in a relatively short space of time, I asked how experiences and knowledge specifically about pilot ladder safety could best be promulgated to avoid repeating common accidents or near misses.

Operators and supervisors of the operations center (atalaia) of Praticagem da Barra do Rio Grande participated in an update course in online and face-to-face mode. They had classes on nautical charts, electronic charts (ECDIS), radars, portable pilot units (portable electronic navigation equipment) and technical English. "There is no good operation without recurrent training with good tools", says pilotage operational director, practical Bernardo Ramos

Following in a long line of ever more refined and very seaworthy vessels, this small example of a Safehaven pilot boat has been chosen for operations on and around Scotland’s Cromarty Firth.