Port Tampa Pilot Gets Picked Up

Boat builder Metal Shark has delivered a 55’ x 17’ welded aluminum pilot boat to the Pascagoula Bar Pilots Association in Mississippi.

Pelican Pilot Boat offered by SC Chambers

Caught at Cuxhaven, Germany

After spending years at sea, Brett Monthie had to chart the channels in Tampa Bay from memory in order to become a Tampa Bay harbor pilot. And then he spent 30 months in training.

Now that I am a pilot, I know that I will be rated at the debriefing meeting regarding my work, as soon as I disembark. The bridge team and the captain will adjust their safety envelope for the next manoeuvre, according to my performance.

It turns out that supertankers and cruise ships have valets. They're called maritime pilots, and they're among the most elite ship handlers in the world. So where does one go to learn how to park the largest ships in the world? To the Maritime Pilots Institute in Covington, La. There, they use mini-versions of the behemoth boats to teach the basics. All aboard!

She is destined for their pilotage operations at Jebel Ali in the UAE, the Worlds ninth busiest port and follows their first Pilot 60 ‘Murshid’ delivered last December.

The Japanese-flagged container ship ONE Apus has lost 1,816 cargo carriers after it was caught up in a violent storm in the Pacific on November 30, 2020. The vessel arrived December 8 in the Japanese port of Kobe, where shipowners and managers said a full safety inspection would be carried out. The incident is described as the second biggest cargo loss in shipping history.