Pilot Boarding

March 8th 20201. Bulk carrier Camila outbound from Lough Foyle after carrying grain to Foyle Port at Lisahally. For this video I focused on the Foyle Leader and Foyle Pilots as they chased the ship to the outer portion of the lough where it enters the open sea.

It has been 1 month since the 1st case of coronavirus in the country. All airports were shut down, and mandatory confinement was issued 10 days ago. Nevertheless, Maritime shipping must continue (except for tourist related). The means that us pilots must continue with our duties despite the risks involved with all the ships' crews arriving from different countries. So we need to take all safety measures possible.
This particular maneuver was unberthing a chemical tanker, in loaded...

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.

The pilot leaps to his boat accompanied by claps and exclamations of; "Bravo!".

From that moment on I have been keeping a tally of the non compliant boarding arrangements I see in front of me on a daily base, and off course I participate in the annual safety campaign, conducted by IMPA each october.

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.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/Ministry.for.restoration/posts/pfbid0ZSy9XuEdn8JFe38SCxhieyeLipRuwSE1V3LyzmAuyiGr5GiPAyXfR621vGWnuX8Vl?__cft__[0]=AZWwdGxJa-cQ4D72bQsr4qQjihMs4JfiQsAj9VMhhX55nVSFb0_pApBcc P2q_sfI7y6ppoPJUEA5DRnesMF4WWJL3JtuFHBtmHCjQ0ZjsVpI5S732ivCj_Y1Iu6SF8D58sJjZAKAzDQJWtRG_YQgcGeO&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R https://mil.in.ua/uk/news/frantsiya-peredala-ukrayini-lotsmanskyj-kater/ https://www.shipphotos.co.uk/ship/?ship=pilotine103 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:...

Fathom Safety was established as a not for profit organisation dedicated to improving maritime pilot transfer safety. Here is a guide to pilot ladder rigging. We hope you like it!