Ships in Freeport of Riga

Welcome back to the Fluctus Channel for a feature on the important role of tugboats in navigating the bigger vessels in harbors and canal, as well as the open seas.

Pilot Mohammed Bida is a marine pilot who doubles as the Habour Master, Calabar Port. His skill and precision at work has earned him local and international recognition and double promotion at work. Here's inside Pilot Bida's day.

To monitor the vessel’s progress, the pilot had set up his portable pilotage unit (PPU). He had connected the rate-of-turn generator to the vessel’s pilot plug and had set a variable range marker on the radar with a radius of 0.5 nm.

Follow Puget Sound Pilot Pat Ninburg as he embarks on a routine job, northbound in the Puget Sound -- from Seattle to Port Angeles, WA.

The American Maritime Pilot has a special and important job bringing ships into port safely. In the history of pilots Robert Smalls stands out as one of the most heroic and able pilots in American History.
Watch the full video below:

A video by Capt. Pilot Nasir Khan, Pakistan
Why loud and clear communication is very important.

Tom Mellor - C​hairman of the IHO Electronic Navigational Chart Working Group (ENC WG) and Head of Digital Standards at the UKHO - explains what the IHO's ECDIS and ENC Standards mean.

SOLAS/IMO/IMPA Regulations require additional safety measurements for pilot's boarding and disembarkation since recently. These magnetic holders of two types, one is manually set and the other is a remotely controlled one, fixes both pilot ladder and accommodation ladder (gangway) strongly onto the hull of the ship. Thus, the pilot can climb more safely. We are negotiating with ISO, IMO, IMPA etc in order to standardize these items for pilot safety.

The average harbor pilot at the Port of Los Angeles makes $434,000 a year, but also faces a one in 20 chance of dying on the job, according to a book from The Wall Street Journal's Christopher Mims that was published in 2021.

How an aluminium boat is built.