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.

1st 24,000 TEU vessel, 1st Containers loaded, 1st Port call Qingdao

"A performance assessment tool for maritime pilotage operations" - by Jørgen Ernstsen, Norway
When the ship is approaching or leaving a port, a local navigational expert, the pilot, is often provided for assisting the bridge team to safely and efficiently navigate the littoral waters.

A good working relationship with the pilot, effective Master Pilot Information Exchange at the start of the pilotage followed by well performing Bridge Resource Management during the pilotage passage, are important factors in a successful pilotage.

Pilot boat at Velsen-Noord crew prepares to join cruise ship Norwegian Prima.

This book investigates the science behind each component of manoeuvring a ship in confined waters, especially in port limits and the art to master it. Based on practical observations and analysis of each major and minor aspect of the manoeuvring of different types of vessels in different types of situations, this book put all relevant knowledge together for the reference of all concerned with pilotage and ship handling.

A glimpse onboard cargo ship on how we do reportings upon entering VTS area and contacting of pilot upon arrival. On this video, the vessel is arriving in port of Bremen, Germany.
How we do it onboard? Watch the full video.