OMC International - DUKC® Explained

Pilotage is being able to navigate safely into and out of a harbour/anchorage/port knowing where you are at all times, where your hazards are and a safe route in/out. This is particularly useful if you are heading into somewhere new or a challenging/busy area – or both!

Pilot recruitment has traditionally been based on seniority, and extensive sea experience. However, a more modern approach, hiring younger, motivated candidates with structured training, offers an alternative path with compelling advantages.

Safe Passage in The Singapore Strait is a training package of two videos and an Interactive computer-based learning module produced by the maritime authorities of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The aim is to improve safe navigation in the Strait. It is distributed free of charge worldwide. Copyright is with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (c) 2016.

There are many things in both our everyday and professional lives which we take for granted and never question the origins of, an example of this might be the IMPA recommended ‘pilot mark or pilot line’, which is sometimes seen on the side of vessels indicating where a vessels freeboard exceeds 9 metres.

Ships don't exactly have brakes. Lou Vest, a retired Houston ship channel pilot tells us about a close encounter between a ship and a barge.
https://houstonmaritime.org

The Brightlingsea Harbour Commission of Essex, UK, recently took delivery of a new pilot boat built by Seaward Boat Development Company based on the Isle of Wight.

Perfect Manoeuvre. Maybe it is Kieler Förde or Travemünde but in an any case the Baltic Sea. Greetings to NOK II !

Bermuda’s Department of Marine and Port Services has returned to Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corp., for a new Chesapeake-class pilot boat. The launch will be built to Lloyd’s Register class, with delivery scheduled for early 2023. The Somerset, Mass., shipyard built a 61-foot pilot/rescue vessel for the port service in 2011.

The Arctic magnetic pole does not move anymore. It runs, faster and faster. In recent years, even faster than expected. Therefore, geo-researchers have now had an unscheduled change to their world model and adjust their calculations, so that navigation with compass and other navigation aids such as a Pilot Plug, used by pilots around the world, continue to work.