The Edmund Steele Pilot Boat (Virgin Island)

Over the course of 4 days this August, I was afforded the opportunity and privilege of riding with the Savannah Bar Pilots for an article I was writing for a major maritime magazine. The pilots are given the responsibility of boarding a vessel in the Atlantic Ocean and safely navigating the vessel up the Tybee Road 9 (a name for the shipping lane that leads into the Savannah River), into the Savannah River, and into the Port of Savannah. The same is done in reverse when a ship is outbound...

Victoria Pilotage Authority, Victoria BC on Vancouver Island. Some skilled captains here in our working harbour. ogden Point Breakwater. Breakwater District.

Finally!!! The last section of the ship was removed from the site and taken to port for final salvage. While there is still a lot of clean up remaining this is a big mile stone in the salvage operation of the Golden Ray which capsized over 2 years ago on 9/8/2019 in the sound of St Simons Island, Georgia. Included is the movement of the section along with footage taken from a boat trip at the site and at the port. Some of my best video in the 2 years I've been filming. So I hope you enjoy...

Wind was blowing strong from the NE and the waves were becoming bigger and bigger by the time we reach a new client.
Crew didn't consider the rolling effect about to happen while changing heading in order to give lee when they prepared pilot ladder, so the requested 1.5m above the water was not that good.
I decided to abort and to give the vessel the chance to shorten it. In the next attempt they did it right and I was able to board safe

There are some problems that never seem to go away and one is the perennial difficulties in providing a safe way of getting pilots on and off a ship.

Watch Orion, one of the two new boats of Jacobsen Pilot Service in Long Beach, Calif. in action. Designed by Tim Nolan Marine Design of Port Townsend, Wash., these boats with waterjet propulsion were built from composite materials at Nordlund Boat Company in Tacoma, Wash. Video courtesy of John Harris.

Practical samples for manoeuvres for ships going astern - as Stern-First-Method SFM. Introduction using as sample from the Master Thesis by Karel Wiegert for an arrival manoeuvre of a cruise vessel in Southampton port with a Twin-screw vessel under strong current. The same manoeuvre with the same ship model was used to show the advantage of Fast Time Simulation FTS using the SAMMON Planning Tool. This goes much faster than the manoeuvres in the real time simulator - and it can even be...

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A Pilot with the San Francisco Bar Pilots boards off the ATB Cape Ann, sailing out of San Francisco.