Pilot Boat - Departure from Adelaide, Australia

This is the Ben Madigan pilot boat, one of the hard working fleet of Belfast Harbout pilot boats. ( I'm not sure but I believe this might be a Redbay Stormforce, built by Redbay boat builders at Cushendll. )
These fast, sturdy, boats have to ferry Belfast pilots out to large vessels coming in to Belfast harbour. Piloted vessels range from large tankers, bulk carriers, container ships, ferries and cruise liners, right down to barges and fishing boats. Not only this, Belfast Harbour pilots...

Armstrong Marine USA recently delivered Piloto VIII to support marine pilotage operations in and around the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico.

HURON SPIRIT - PILOT BOAT - Upbound On The St. Clair River Heading Into Lake Huron, To Pickup A Great Lakes Pilot From The JAMNO - POLSTEAM, Passing Under The Blue Water Bridges At Port Huron, Michigan.

A few shots from the day, with Elisabeth-S and H&S Fairness plus the pilot boat. I put music to it as it was such a windy day.

As we all know there is a new regulation established since July 2012, this new regulation refers to pilot transfer arrangements. There are other yearly safety campaigns such as IMPA that include SOLAS V.23 and IMO Resolution A 1045 and Resolution A.1108(29). Unfortunately, in this annual overview there were some accidents reported that could have been avoided.

Tug boats and a digger struggle to free a mega cargo ship, blocking one of the world's busiet shipping pathways.
Dozens of ships are stuck because a container ship almost half a kilometre long is wedged across the waterway.

Experiences of a Pilot: The port's chief pilot talks about his work, "what we do is not well known in the city", and about the risk they run, "on a bad day we can get scared", he says.

The term pilot is defined as, “a person who is qualified and usually licensed to conduct a ship into and out of a port or in specified waters.” The Merchant Shipping Act 1894 states that, “a pilot is any person not belonging to a ship who has the conduct thereof.”

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.