Ships in Freeport of Riga

There are some problems that never seem to go away and one is the perennial difficulties in providing a safe way of getting pilots on and off a ship.

Footage of Cosco Thailand, a container ship part of the largest class of vessels able to call at the Port of Melbourne, navigating through Port Phillip Heads en-route to the port.

Harwich, Essex. Several shots of buoys at a warehouse on the quay. Various shots show the Trinity House Vessel 'Siren' setting out to sea to carry out maintenance on buoys; a naval flag showing the Union Jack and the Trinity House Jack is hoisted; officers are seen using sextants and plotting their course on a chart. Nice M/S of a sailor tying on a life jacket. Sailors drop anchor beside a buoy, hoist weather balloons and ring bells on the ship. The buoy is cleaned of mussels and limpets...

Marine pilots must make crucial decisions under extreme conditions. Transferring from a cargo ship to a small pilot boat in hurricane-force gusts can be fatal. For marine pilots, this is the most dangerous moment in their daily working lives: climbing down a rope ladder from a cargo ship in gale-force gusts, and transferring to a small pilot boat. In mid-January, a pilot fell into the sea off Borkum and was taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia. Just a few days earlier, a British...

Many thanks to Capt. Pilot Evan Simkus for the insight into the working day!

The All India Maritime Pilots' Association has released its new journal for May

Research on hydrodynamic interaction indicates that if the speed of the ship near a bank is too high, the rudder may be less able to cope with the forces induced and control will be lost. The Nautical Institute highlights this in its latest Mars Report, in which an LPG carrier hit a barge being towed by a tugboat as a result of hydrodynamic forces.

The Norwegian Coastal Administration has signed an agreement with Aboa Mare to provide a new
course for pilots and VTS operators. By practising together in a simulator, maritime safety along the
Norwegian coast will be reinforced.