Pilot on board # 1

Like many seafarers I have long been a keen follower of The Nautical Institute’s MARS programme, and along with many other members I listened to the recent webinar on that topic. One theme which was repeated more than once was that it is better to learn from someone else’s misfortune rather than have it happen to you. Having personally been involved in two near misses resulting from unsafe pilot transfer arrangements in a relatively short space of time, I asked how experiences and knowledge specifically about pilot ladder safety could best be promulgated to avoid repeating common accidents or near misses.

Dangerours work as pilot tries to transfer from pilot boat to Cagliarie to Civitavecchia, Italy in May 2023 in moderately rought seas.

Rotorcraft Pro gives an inside look at Brim Aviation's Columbia River Bar Pilots helicopter ops. CRBP uses an AW109SP to hoist ship captains onto ships crossing the dangerous river bar in Astoria, OR. This is part of a written/photo feature in the September 2015 issue of Rotorcraft Pro Magazine.

Great pictures from Estonia

A good working relationship with the pilot, effective Master Pilot Information Exchange at the start of the pilotage followed by well performing Bridge Resource Management during the pilotage passage, are important factors in a successful pilotage.

A 1,000 Navy Vessels around... Quite often those vessels have the tendency of presenting themselves with a pilot transfer arrangement which is non-compliant.

Recently Capt. Troy Evans did a research into the breaking strength of various securing methods. To quantify the problem of unsafe practices, now is time to have a survey into the number of the various securing methods used worldwide.

From the author: "This is a special video about the transit through the infamous Panama canal. It took me quite some time to make this video. I tried to show as much as I could about the Panama canal and its pilotage waters."