Pilot Boat - River Boyne - 2022

River Mersey Pilot Boat going slowly inbound on the river before turning and heading northbound again.

KITTIWAKE ( MMSI 232008570) is a Pilot and currently sailing under the flag of United Kingdom (UK) Here she is speeding down the River this morning.

Spotted some Pilot Boats in the Port of Auckland, New Zealand and Melbourne & Fremantle Australia (Port codes: Auckland:NZ AKL ; Melbourne:AU MEL ; Fremantle:AU FRE).

Sanmar Shipyards has signed six vessel contracts together totalling US$33.46 million with the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) in Pakistan for four high-performance state-of-the-art tugboats and two pilot boats. The tugs are scheduled to be delivered in 12 months and the pilot boats in 10.

Pilot cutters are used to take pilots between the three pilot stations (at Gravesend, Harwich and Ramsgate) and ships entering or leaving the Port of London.
Three dedicated pilot cutters Patrol, Guide and our hybrid Leader are based at Gravesend. The six cutters used at Ramsgate are operated by a Estuary Services Limited, which is jointly owned by the PLA and Medway Ports Ltd.

Associated British Ports (ABP) the UK’s largest and best-connected port operator, has commissioned a fleet of nine new state-of-the art pilot boats from Goodchild Marine Services, representing an investment of around £9 million to further enhance port operations across its network.

Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation, has taken an order from the St. Johns Bar Pilots for a high-speed launch, based on the successful 40’ Resilient Class pilot boat introduced in 2005. Delivery to the Florida-based pilots is scheduled for mid-2024.

Het Nederlands Loodswezen BV is een organisatie die de aangesloten registerloodsen de middelen verschaft om hun werk uit te oefenen. Zo int het Loodswezen de loodsgelden en zorgt de organisatie voor het transport van en naar zeeschepen. We zien hier een prachtig staaltje inparkeren door de Pioneer in de speciaal daarvoor aangelegde loodsbotenhaven in Vlissingen; naast het Keizersbolwerk. Klaar om de Westerschelde weer op te varen.

A loaded bulk carrier is a bit tricky to handle, do to all that mass: de require a lot of power in order to be stopped. This is why this maneuver are normally slower. Same applies to tankers.

It does not happen very often that we have a Eurochannel bound ship to sea. In this case the MARIA P LEMOS, 333 m with a draft of 20,7 m left Rotterdam underway to the Far East .