Northwest passage

The Northwest Passage is the approximately 5780 km long sea route that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean north of the American continent. It crosses the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas as well as the associated sea lanes through the Canadian-Arctic archipel ago.

Roald Amundsen made his first complete successfully crossing in 1903-1906 via the route discovered by John Rae through the James Ross Strait, Rae Strait and Simpson Strait on the small ship Gjøa.

In this episode of Mighty Jobs we meet the piloting crew of Buksér og Berging in Tromsø, Norway. Their Volvo Penta-powered piloting boat covers around 42,000 nautical miles every year. That’s the equivalent of traveling around the world twice. The Volvo Penta IPS system makes it possible to pilot ships under all weather conditions.

Impatience is triggered when we have a set goal (for example berthing a vessel) but realise it's going to cost us more than we thought to reach it (the vessel is only making 6 knots against the tide and is taking much longer than predicted).

As the world struggles with the Covid-19 virus, the maritime world is being hit hard, not only economically, but also socially and operationally. Iin shipping there are no borders.

"A routine pilot task"

Based on MAIB Safety Digest 1/2025, Case 12, published April 2025 by the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB).

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Container ship MADRID TRADER ran aground in fairway while entering Mar del Plata Port, Argentina, at around 1830 UTC Jan 20, with pilot on board.

Pilot ladder broke when pilot was boarding general cargo ship CREST CRANE at night Nov 5 at Keelung Port, Taiwan, to take the ship out.