by Nick Lee, T&TC Chairman, UK Pilots - published on 4 February 2020
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.
The US Coast Guard "Safety Alert 04-22" has been released. The alert addresses the importance of verifying the correct arrangement of handholds in embarkation gate arrangements aboard merchant vessels.
Exemplary manoeuvre: The pilot should always walk on the side of the pilot boat facing away from the vessel. This prevents the pilot from being trapped between the two vessels in the event of a fall into the water.