Pilot Boat - Departure from Adelaide, Australia

Here we board the container ship President Kennedy, inbound for the San Francisco Bay.
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pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship 

Day two at the offshore Pilot station out of San Francisco. https://instagram.com/sea_weathered?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

This Pilot Advisory Note (PAN) advises AMSA-licensed coastal pilots and pilotage providers about the existence of counterfeit pilot ladders and associated certification.

Video from Rob Munday Hoist Operator/Instructor at Blackcomb Helicopters & SR3 Rescue Concepts

The P and O ship Adonia leaving Lisbon on 3-11-14. This was the Pilot's second attempt to leave the ship. A smaller cutter found the seas too rough to take off the Pilot so this larger cutter took over.

The Port Phillip Sea pilots launch Torquay out and back again, seen at Point Lonsdale, Vic, Aust.
Ship spotting at Point Lonsdale and other water activities by Wally on Water.

The individual pilot operates as part of a pilotage organisation. And, as with so many things, the whole is (much) more than the sum of the parts ...