Pilotboarding by crane

To minimize the risk of a vessel allision with a terminal gantry crane, the American Harbor and Docking Pilots Association recommends that all terminal operators with gantry cranes adopt the following Best Practices.

Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) and other individual MOB devices have been available for some years now and have evolved to incorporate a variety of different alerting methods and combinations. However, usage of these additional enhancements within UK Pilotage is still in its infancy.

For the safety of maritime pilots

It is not often that this blog is used to show bad practice, however in this case some pictures tell a whole story. Ship is compliant by design for rigging a combination. How about the operator(s)?

A pilot ladder is a highly specialized form of rope ladder, typically used on board cargo vessels for the purposes of embarking and disembarking pilots.

The pilot for the port of Cairns jumping off the pilot boat and getting onto the cruise ship. 
Carnival Luminosa December 2024 

photo and article by Luis Vale, Portugal

A pilot boat entering the port of Miami.

What does a Bristol Pilot do? This is a short film we made for Bristol Pilots LLP to show what it is these guys do - from climbing up the side of oil tankers in the middle of the night, to bringing in huge ships through a lock with inches to spare either side - the Bristol Pilots do an amazing job.