Marine Pilot

Gabon, Baie du Prince, 2012.
Getting that nice fat lady alongside

Containership CMA CGM BARRACUDA ran aground near Kruiningen on the Western Scheldt just before 01:00 UCT, Friday the 13th. Halfway between Antwerp and Vlissingen, she was sailing downstream en route from Antwerp to Hamburg. Directly after the grounding, multiple tugs gathered around her.
UPDATE: The tugs were able to refloat the vessel around 04:00 UCT. She is currently anchored at Everingen anchorage for hull inspection, just south of Borssele at Westerschelde River.
#westernscheldt...

Associated British Ports (ABP) the UK’s largest and best-connected port operator, has commissioned a fleet of nine new state-of-the art pilot boats from Goodchild Marine Services, representing an investment of around £9 million to further enhance port operations across its network.

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.

China’s Hin Lee (Zhuhai) Shipyard has delivered a new pilot boat to the Hong Kong Pilots Association (HKPA).

We we’re out on sea trials with the two newly launched Interceptor 48 pilot boats when the Port of Cork pilot boat ‘Failte’ passed by to undertake a pilot transfer from an outbound ship. It was a nice opportunity to capture some cool video of the action as the boats ran alongside before the ship turned to create a lee for the pilot to disembark. Although the seas weren’t very big, it was blowing hard at the time with gusts of over 50kts recorded at Roches PT lighthouse as we passed.

PortXchange Products B.V., the Netherlands-based digital solutions provider for predictable and sustainable shipping, is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed the migration of users from the Greater Houston Port Bureau’s (“GHPB”) Harborlights Vessel Tracking System (“Harborlights”) to its proprietary PortXchange PilotTracker (“PilotTracker”) platform.

As we all know there is a new regulation established since July 2012, this new regulation refers to pilot transfer arrangements. There are other yearly safety campaigns such as IMPA that include SOLAS V.23 and IMO Resolution A 1045 and Resolution A.1108(29). Unfortunately, in this annual overview there were some accidents reported that could have been avoided.

The construction and commissioning of a new pilot boat for Jacobsen Pilot Service in great pictures.

The Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (BSU) hereby announces the publication of the Investigation Report No. 285/20 on 26 October 2022. The report deals with the contact of the multipurpose ship ELSE with a closed lockgate of the Kiel-Holtenau lock which occurred on 29 August 2020.