On Monday, March 23, 2020, Admiral Osama Rabie announced the successful transit of the Italian passenger ship COSTA DIADEMA in the northbound convoy through the new Suez Canal, coming from the United Arab Emirates heading to Italy. Special measures were applied, as 65 Coronavirus cases were reported on board which required piloting the vessel remotely through pilotage team boarded on two escorting tugs in full coordination with the transit control offices and navigation monitoring stations in a first of its kind scenario in the history of the Suez Canal.
CMA CGM Columbia container ship arriving from Shekou port, and transiting thru Hong Kong, destination Singapore
a rare capture of TWO harbour pilots boats to carry two pilots leaving off the container ship
Columbia is only a 300m long 48m wide vessel, only 9200 TEU capacity but it has separate bridge tower and chimney. The ship was built in 2015.
There are many things in both our everyday and professional lives which we take for granted and never question the origins of, an example of this might be the IMPA recommended ‘pilot mark or pilot line’, which is sometimes seen on the side of vessels indicating where a vessels freeboard exceeds 9 metres.
