From Dusk to Dawn - SOHAR Port

Container ship @ Port of Sohar

Among the few marine professions that purse a man's technical skills and value very high, maritime piloting perhaps is in a class of its own. In this career, the pilot is entrusted to maneuver vessels through some of the most challenging and congested waterways while ensuring seamless integration between shipboard operations and port infrastructure.

I have had the privilege of being at quite a number of meetings, conferences and seminars, sometimes representing The Netherlands, but mostly representing the Netherlands pilots. I have had many discussions about the role of pilots and pilot organisations, which lead me to write an article “What is the added value of pilotage?”, published in the February 2020 issue of Seaways.

Spektakulært forsøk. Vanskelig losoppdrag. Svært fartøy. Trang fjordpassasje. #Kystverket #lostjenesten #sikkerseilas/ Spectacular attempt. Demanding maritime pilotage. Huge vessel. Narrow passage. #norwegaincoastaladministration #safeseaways

Women’s rights and gender equality are taking centre stage in 2020. But for some women, the fear of gender discrimination has never stopped them from pursuing their dream and Ms Amelia Pickering, a Harbour Pilot, is one of them.
Inspired by her father, she shares how she started her journey in the Maritime industry and some of the challenges she faced being a female Harbour Pilot.

On October 11, 2018, the Kristin Alexis was performing fleeting work with a crew of six, including a captain, pilot, and four deckhands (two per shift), at the Cooper Consolidated fleeting facility at Convent located at mile 161.5. About 2300, the Cooper Consolidated dispatcher informed the Kristin Alexis captain that their next job was to move the derrick-type crane barge Mr Ervin upriver to the Cooper Consolidated fleeting facility in Darrow, located at mile 175.

In this movie the efficiency of two different pod operation strategies is compared: With azimuth propeller ships the Pods can be used in two ways to control the speed, e.g. for speed reduction: 1. by adjusting the engine orders, e.g. by reducing the RPMs to get lower speed - this means to drive the ship in the same conventional way as for twin screw vessels, 2. by turning both pods either in- or outward (TOE-IN or TOE-OUT) to reduce the forward thrust and therefore reducing the speed – the...

Swedish Radio News reports about major delays for shipping on Sweden's inland lakes and waterways, such as Vänern, Mälaren and Göta Älv.

Qualified pilots are usually employed by the local port or maritime administration, and provide their services to ships for a fee, calculated in relation to the ship’s tonnage, draught or other criteria.