Allen Garfinkle — The Making of a Bay Pilot | 8/7/2019

The article was written by Allen Garfinkle, Executive Director – Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun

The individual pilot operates as part of a pilotage organisation. And, as with so many things, the whole is (much) more than the sum of the parts ...

"A routine pilot task"

The practice is essential to the safety of waterway traffic, as it avoids or minimizes accidents that can cost the lives of people, cause damage to the environment and enormous material losses.
The structure is fully maintained by the practicing companies themselves, without the contribution of any public resource, related to the maintenance of the speedboats, the 24-hour operation of their Operations Centers, the training of their employees, the acquisition and maintenance of communication,...

Ahmed is an ideas man. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he came up with a way to protect pilots from infection by driving incoming ships remotely, allowing his team to virtually board foreign ships rather than encounter new people in person, which would have put his colleagues at risk.

Look at Life Vol 01 Transport Pilot Aboard 1963
The story of Britain's pilotage services.

Captain Kevin Vallance awarded the Merchant Navy Medal for services to Maritime Safety.

Great pictures from Estonia

What has the current experiences and developments in Maritime Pilotage Training been like? This session takes a global perspective at the conference. At the panel are: 🌊 John Barker, Senior Marine Pilot, Port of Auckland (New Zealand) 🌊 Captain Hanna Odengrund, Marine Pilot, Sweden Maritime Administration 🌊 Nurul Arrienne, Marine Pilot, Port of Tanjung, Malaysia 🌊 Fatouma Ali Ahmed, First Female Marine Pilot, Port of Djibouti 🌊 Reshma Nilofer, First Female Marine Pilot (India) 🌊...