Be A San Francisco Bar Pilot: Pilot Trainee Training Program

The latest summary from PTR Holland on the subject of pilot ladders. Here is the most important information on maintenance, use and replacement & insepection record book.

The operators of Egypt's Suez Canal say technical or human error could have caused a huge container ship to run aground. Engineers are working round the clock to refloat the Ever Given. The vessel has been blocking one of the world's busiest shipping lanes for the last five days. The chairman of the canal authority hopes a dredging operation will free the ship in the next few days.

There were some astonishing pictures in the press some weeks ago of a Royal Marine employing a jetpack to launch himself from a RIB to land on the deck of a ship with extraordinary precision. You cannot imagine that it would be a feasible proposition to equip pilots with such a device, but it did cross my mind after reading a horrible catalogue of disgraceful seamanship and poor design exhibited in what ought to be the simple matter of keeping pilots safe as they board and leave ships.

The Navigator - Issue 29 is now available to read for free.
This issue looks at Pilot safety and can be downloaded or read online.

Pilots are expert ship handlers who possess detailed knowledge of local waterways. They are transported by high speed "Pilot Boat" or helicopter from shore to an inbound ship and from an outbound ship back ashore. Most ports have compulsory pilotage.

Footage filmed by DFS Williams on the Edmund Gardner pilot ship 1968-69.
The Edmund Gardner is now the largest object in National Museums Liverpool's collections and can be seen in dry dock opposite Merseyside maritime museum. Find out more about it here:
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/collections/edmundgardner/

LOC, part of AqualisBraemar LOC Group, is pleased to announce it is launching a new digital solution to enhance safety of marine operations within ports and harbours.

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...