Northwest passage

The Northwest Passage is the approximately 5780 km long sea route that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean north of the American continent. It crosses the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas as well as the associated sea lanes through the Canadian-Arctic archipel ago.

Roald Amundsen made his first complete successfully crossing in 1903-1906 via the route discovered by John Rae through the James Ross Strait, Rae Strait and Simpson Strait on the small ship Gjøa.

In this episode of Mighty Jobs we meet the piloting crew of Buksér og Berging in Tromsø, Norway. Their Volvo Penta-powered piloting boat covers around 42,000 nautical miles every year. That’s the equivalent of traveling around the world twice. The Volvo Penta IPS system makes it possible to pilot ships under all weather conditions.

Electronic warfare in the Baltic Sea is escalating rapidly, with GPS and AIS disruptions posing growing risks to maritime navigation. Russia’s hybrid strategy is targeting both safety and stability in one of Europe’s most critical shipping regions. Pilots and crews now face a new reality: navigating under threat.

Time Lapse Video:The deep draught VLCC PISCES STAR is approaching the Port of Rotterdam, after navigating through the Eurogeul and Maasgeul deep water channels in the Southern North Sea. The VLCC is proceeding in Calandkanaal channel to her berth in the Petroleumharbour No. 5.
Before coming alongside the VLCC is stopped and swung in the channel. Four harbour tugs are made fast to assist the manoeuvring vessel. Mooringboats bring the VLCC's steel mooring wires ashore when she is coming...

Text and photos by Tonci Regjo
Pilot for the Split Harbour

USCG Station Yaquina Bay in Newport, OR
Surf Training from 12/19-1/20

Ich bin zu Besuch beim Lotsbetriebsverein in Bremerhaven und unterhalte mich mit dem Ältermann Jan-Helge Jannsen über das Lotswesen in Deutschland. Wir fahren außerdem mit dem Lotsenboot raus und begleiten Lotsen und die Crew auf den Versetzern bei einem Einsatz.

This is the Ben Madigan pilot boat, one of the hard working fleet of Belfast Harbout pilot boats. ( I'm not sure but I believe this might be a Redbay Stormforce, built by Redbay boat builders at Cushendll. )
These fast, sturdy, boats have to ferry Belfast pilots out to large vessels coming in to Belfast harbour. Piloted vessels range from large tankers, bulk carriers, container ships, ferries and cruise liners, right down to barges and fishing boats. Not only this, Belfast Harbour pilots...

Here’s a nice little video of rough weather sea trials that coincided with ‘Storm Agnes’ last week in the Interceptor 48 pilot boat ‘Svitzer Oued Laou’. The storm produced some pretty big waves at the entrance to Cork Harbour, and strong winds during the height of the storm. We managed to capture some cool footage from Roches PT lighthouse. It was fairly rough, although by not coinciding with the ebbing tide conditions aboard were quite comfortable, and our Pilot 48 handled it effortlessly...

Pilot going onboard, using pilot ladder port side, 1,5 meters above the water.