Pilotboarding by crane

To minimize the risk of a vessel allision with a terminal gantry crane, the American Harbor and Docking Pilots Association recommends that all terminal operators with gantry cranes adopt the following Best Practices.

Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) and other individual MOB devices have been available for some years now and have evolved to incorporate a variety of different alerting methods and combinations. However, usage of these additional enhancements within UK Pilotage is still in its infancy.

Most harbours require a pilot taking control of the bridge when entering or leaving their harbour, since currents, shoals and traffic maybe tricky. The busy harbour of Las Palmas is no exception to this rule and in this clip you see how these pilots are on standby day and night to safely accompany incoming and outbound ships. Now that the pilot has secured our safe exit from the harbour we are on our own again and ready to head South towards our first station! See: https://www.nioz.nl/en/...

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.

A pilot ladder is a highly specialized form of rope ladder, typically used on board cargo vessels for the purposes of embarking and disembarking pilots.

Editor's note: The pilot boarding seems a bit improvised and unsafe to me, but that's certainly business as usual, isn't it?

Marine pilot

The first half of 2021 is a testament to the organisation of DanPilot, a pilotage company that has been diligently adapting to a smaller market as a result of the fallout from Covid-19.

Pilot Boat 68 heads out in choppy seas in the Dardanelles