Explosions and major fire on oil tanker MT. JAG LEELA at Belawan, Indonesia.

A pilot boat caught fire near the entrance of the Port of Recife, on Saturday morning (15 January). The fire would have started around 11h. In a note, the port authority explained that the two people who were in the pilot boat were rescued by another pilot boat "Serrambi".
The causes of the accident had not yet been identified, but would be investigated.

Emergency Fire Drill On Pilot Boat

One person was taken to hospital after a small boat caught fire off Seraya Buoy, located in the waters off Singapore's south-west coast, on Monday (Sept 4) afternoon.

A cargo ship lost power while approaching the dock at the Port of Tampa Thursday. Officials said quick thinking by harbor pilots and tug boats got it under control.

The European Union proposed making so-called pilot services exempt from sanctions targeting the transfer of Russian oil that are set to kick in this year to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

Klaipeda is one among few seaports in Europe, where maritime pilots are able to carry out operations in remote mode. As it is attempted to avoid contact with other persons as much as possible during the quarantine, several trials have already been performed in the seaport. They revealed that such assistance for the vessels sailing in Klaipeda Port is effective and safe.

Finnpilot’s present six pilotage areas will be merged to form four pilotage areas. New District Managers have been appointed to head the pilotage areas. At the same time, an Operational Executive Committee will be established for Finnpilot. The organisational change, which was planned in close co-operation with the personnel, will take effect on 1 October 2020.

A handy and simple tool to determine in a minimum time what is really needed as tug assistance, is the Bollard Pull Calculator which calculates in an approximate way the total required tug power for ships in various conditions of wind and current. This tool can be loaded as an app on the smart phone.

The SW England Branch debates the varied and critical role of the Harbourmaster.

The PLA welcomes Sathar Sulaiman and James Kitney as they join as Trainee Marine Pilots.