APL Belgium in rough water near the Farallon Islands pilot station.

life of boat pilot

May is Maritime Month at the Port of San Diego and we are proud to highlight some of our hardworking men and women of the Working Waterfront. Meet Captain Lyle Donovan, a San Diego Bay pilot with the San Diego Bay Pilots Association. His work consists of guiding ships in and out of San Diego Bay in a safe and efficient manner. A typical day includes guiding a 650-foot car carrying vessel or a 950-foot cruise ship into San Diego Bay. This entails boarding the vessels by climbing up a ladder,...

Graham Grant, the Port of Cromarty Firth’s Marine Support Manager, has been appointed to the National Council of the UK Harbour Masters’ Association (UKHMA).

On August 5, 2020 at approximately 10:30 pm, Sandy Hook Pilot Captain Timothy M. Murray was involved in an incident while boarding a tanker vessel inbound to the Port of New York & New Jersey. He sustained injuries after falling from a pilot ladder and was evacuated to a local hospital where his injuries proved to be fatal.

Article originally published in SWZ|Maritime September 2022

Through the years, the Dutch Pilots have developed a system of selection, initial education and continual professional training. What is the current state of affairs?

Hooghly river Marine pilotage is one of the toughest and longest pilotage in the world,
pilots here face many challenges daily to enable safe passage of ships from bay of Bengal to the port of CALCUTTA and Haldia.
Pilot embarkation and disembarkation is a vital part , where the pilot climbs up or down a rope ladder ,if the free board is more than 9 meters then combination ladder is used it needs very good physical fitness practice and experience to safely embark and disembark from these...

Taken from aboard the MS Westcott Pilot Boat this is the Algoma Harvester receiving mail on the Detroit River as they head downbound in the early evening hours of September 2nd, 2022
I had just been in Cleveland OH for the christening of the Mark W Barker the newest ship for the Interlake Steamship Company and left there on the 2nd to go to Toledo and see the National Museum of the Great Lakes and then I continued on to Detroit where I made this stop at the JW Westcott Company and met up...