As the world struggles with the Covid-19 virus, the maritime world is being hit hard, not only economically, but also socially and operationally. Iin shipping there are no borders.

When I was a deck officer back in the early nineties I worked on a ship that used to load grain at different ports along the Mississippi river. The name of the ship was Golden Hope, a 600 feet long dry bulk carrier with a 95 feet in beam. An average size vessel for those days' standards.

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.

A maritime pilot tells us about why he loves switching ships in midstream.

In this video go behind the scenes with Capt. Reid of the Palm Beach Harbor Pilots Association on the nightshift, as he docks four different cargo ships of all different sizes that help support the islands of the supply chain of the Caribbean. The pilots are important to allowing the safe operation in and out of the Port of Palm Beach every day or night and to keep the goods for the islands arriving on time. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to SUBSCRIBE for more videos about Ships! ⚓...

Pilot launch Griffiths onboard and off Point Lonsdale, Victoria, Australia.
Ship spotting at Point Lonsdale and other water activities by Wally on Water.

Up here in the north, we do things a little differently ...

Pilot boat with 5 people on board collided with breakwater at Kobe Port, Japan, at around 0300 Tokyo time Sep 4. 52-year old skipper of the boat, and 71-year old pilot, died in the collision, 3 crew were seriously injured.

This article describes the findings from two studies that utilised an integrated systems thinking framework to understand how pilots make decisions and what factors are perceived to influence their decisions.

Many consider the Bristol Channel pilot cutter to be the finest sailing boat design ever. Fast, seaworthy and beautiful to behold, the pilot cutter is the perfect combination of form and function - a thoroughbred perfectly adapted to a life in one of the Britain's most treacherous stretches of water. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe explores the life of the pilots and sails a perfectly restored cutter to find out just what drove these men and their wonderful machines.