Pilots gets off Huron Belle Pilot boat and climbs aboard CSL Assiniboine - 08.04.19

"Rope Ladders" by PTR Holland

It has been shown that a majority (51%) of pilot ladders is secured by means of D-shackles, when secured at intermediate length. Previous research (Evans, 2020) has proven that this method has only about 50% of the strength of the pilot ladder when secured at full length (“double ended ladder”), or by means of the “endless-sling” method.

The US Coast Guard "Safety Alert 04-22" has been released. The alert addresses the importance of verifying the correct arrangement of handholds in embarkation gate arrangements aboard merchant vessels.

Jacobsen Pilot Service and Los Angeles Pilot Station published a notice to all ships to inspect pilot ladders before the pilot boards.

Reason is an incident happened at the port of long beach in July 2020. Pilot ladder rope broke while the pilot was on the ladder - luckily the pilot was able to hold on.

Boarding a vessel at sea is no simple task. This video provides detailed instructions and demonstrations about safe boarding of vessels.

To boost efficiency of Yantian ship arrivals. The amendments represents the first time pilots from Hong Kong and Shenzhen have been allowed to navigate in the other’s respective waters, eliminating the need for a mid-ocean transfer of personnel.

I am not a computer savvy. My knowledge in programming and robotics and those sort of things is nil. I get lost in the sea of social media and easily entangle myself in the web. All I have done for the last 25 years or so is to pilot ships through the Panama Canal. However, during the last couple of years I have done my best to catch up with technology, since it has enhanced our possibilities and improved safety in our field. But still, I have to admit that I am way behind the new guys in this important issue.

Issues like the Covid 19 crisis and the moves towards increased autonomy appear to be driving a renewed interest in Shore Based Pilotage (SBP), nowadays often called Remote Pilotage.

While in many western countries of the world, pilots there have already been preferentially vaccinated against COVID-19, pilots in other countries such as Malaysia are struggling to get vaccinated.

Baltic Workboats latest state of the art pilot boat recently delivered to the Laurentian Pilots in Canada.
More info on the vessel can be found here:
https://balticworkboatsus.com/vessel/pilot-1700-wp/