Batangas Harbor Pilot on call - From home to work

Video by Capt.Harold Janda

What does it take to become a Harbor Pilot in the Philippines

Found on YouTiube. Created by "David McCloy".

Correct method of rigging pilot ladder explained.
As explained, a large number of reports related to the use of pilot ladders which are too long relative to the vessel’s draughts. As a result, the excessively long ladders require shortening up before being deployed for boarding pilots. In these cases, ship crew shortens the pilot ladders, using D-shackles to choke the side ropes at the required height along the ladder’s length. In this method, the D-shackle is first secured to a hard point...

Pilot boat Explorer approaches 2GO Maligaya as the harbor pilot then boards the vessel during a Monday morning arrival to Cebu from Manila
See my photos at https://www.flickr.com/photos/dareleven/

Safehaven Marine build a range of vessels for many different operational roles such as patrol, survey, crew transfer to name a few, but what makes Safehaven unique is that we specialize in pilot boats, with 80% of our production dedicated to just this area, and have supplied over 50 pilot craft all around the world over the last 17 years.

Unedited video of Ketchikan harbor pilots being offloaded onto Ovation of the Seas in July 2026...filmed from the wing accessed via the Solarium.

"Although this should not happen, pilot ladders sometimes suddenly slip one step. Always grip the sideropes firmly and you can handle this!"