Difficulties Of Embarkation

Pilot jumping onboard the Carnival Luminosa at Cairns from the pilot boat .

The “DangerousLadder” page on facebook is nowadays a very well known community in the maritime world. It is steadily growing towards 3000 members, which will be the next milestone membership-wise.

Latest Version: Necessary knowledge about pilot ladders by PTR Holland. Very good summary! Download free of charge.

Video showing marine pilot navigating a cargo ship from Port Botany.

Before you, you see my third article on pilot boarding arrangements. After my two previous articles ‘1000 ways to secure a pilot ladder’ and ‘1000 ladders around’, I have received a lot of feedback and also questions to get deeper into the matter of combinations and embarkation platforms.

Take a look at the first UK 'hybrid' pilot boat built in the UK by Goodchild Marine for the Port of London Authority. Video from 2019.

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...

Accidente del JOLLY NERO en Genova,

If you fancy seeing what it’s like aboard during some rough weather sea trials, here’s a pretty cool little video of our Interceptor 48 pilot built for the Port of Sines. Some really great Arial drone footage and interesting POV (Point of view) with narration from aboard her in 5-6m seas and in 50kt winds 25 miles offshore.
How difficult is to land a drone back down on the boat in 5-6m swells and 45-50kt wind gusts? Pretty damn difficult as it turns out! Sometimes we fail as you’ll see at...