Watching the Columbia River Bar Pilots in Astoria, OR

Drone footage from King's Lynn.

From our deck 12 cabin balcony, some footage of the pilot boat coming alongside Virgin Voyages' cruise ship Scarlet Lady in the Solent between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. If you're expecting action and excitement then brace yourself for not quite that at all, but it is fairly impressive how close the pilot boat gets to the larger vessel, bouncing around on the waves. I did want to see the pilot leap from the ship to the boat but in truth got tired of waiting so if that's the bit...

AST has announced a new order of 9 iRAMS systems with a long-term client and UK boat-builder, Goodchild Marine Services Limited.

Twin Screw 350 HP Engines achieving top speed of 15 Knots.
Excellent maneuverability and stability.
Effortlessly performing Pilot operations at sea.
www.ahwadiaboat.com

Cromarty Firth Port Authority (CFPA) is seeking a contractor to build and deliver a new pilot vessel as part of a major project to upgrade its fleet of vessels. The contract for the work is currently being put out to tender and interested parties are encouraged to apply before the deadline of 8 May, 17.00.

The San Francisco Bar Pilots are one of the important cogs in our supply chain wheel. They are tasked with boarding the vessels eleven miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge via a rope ladder often in rough seas and taking control of the vessels en route to the Port of Stockton. Once on the bridge of the ship, the Pilot oversees navigation and ensures the safe passage of ships into the Bay and through the Delta until it is secured alongside its berth at the Port. Without these Pilots the...

It has been shown that a majority (51%) of pilot ladders is secured by means of D-shackles, when secured at intermediate length. Previous research (Evans, 2020) has proven that this method has only about 50% of the strength of the pilot ladder when secured at full length (“double ended ladder”), or by means of the “endless-sling” method.

MALDIVES PILOTAGE

Topic: Technical or human error?
Ed Verbeek already published this interesting article about the proportion of human to technical errors on LinkedIn last week.

The European Maritime Pilot´s Association has released the new Newsletter issue 005/2022.