Offshore Pilot station out of San Francisco

Ever wonder how Pilots board a massive container ship at sea? Well, like this!
This is done year round in every major Port around the world, in all types of weather.

Recording of cruise ship Pilots boarding from boat at speed

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.

A Florida Harbor Pilot encountering the pilot pilot ladder of a submarine. First harbor pilots must make their way offshore through rough seas to a vessel desiring their expertise to safely enter port. Next harbor pilots must negotiate the dangerous boarding accommodations to embark on vessels of every type. Next, the real work begins by using years of experience and centuries of knowledge passed down through the rigorous training process, to safely guide vessels in and out of Florida's...

The IMPA safety campaign on pilot ladders has run for a long time now. In this document the results of the IMPA safety campaign have been analyzed from 2016 to 2020.

Image film

The pilot at Nagasaki Port fell into the water at around 0530 Tokyo time on 5 May while boarding the cruise ship DIAMOND PRINCESS, which was about to enter Nagasaki.

Cateamaran boat approaches for pilot boarding

Swedish Radio News reports about major delays for shipping on Sweden's inland lakes and waterways, such as Vänern, Mälaren and Göta Älv.

A story I shot on the Delaware river pilots, very cool people who have a very important job. Every cargo ship that has to get anywhere up the Delaware River gets a pilot delivered to it while in the Delaware Bay, who guides it up through the narrow shoals