Pilot boat docks at historic icebreaker

Check out this footage recently published by Safehaven Marine: This makes me want to become a pilot boat skipper!

The Los Angeles Pilot Service ordered two customized 56′ Camarc Design pilot boats (P/B) built by Vigor Industrial at their Vancouver, WA facility, located on the northern side of the Columbia River. The LA Pilot Service took delivery of the P/B Angels Pilot and Angels Navigator at Vigor’s shipyard on Swan Island in Portland, Oregon in early October.

Vessel's details: IMO: 9496915 Name: POLARIS Vessel Type - Generic: Pilot Vessel Vessel Type - Detailed: Special Vessel Status: Active MMSI: 245142000 Call Sign: PBZN Flag: Netherlands [NL] Gross Tonnage: 2501 Summer DWT: 890 t Length Overall x Breadth Extreme: 81.2 x 13.3 m Year Built: 2012 Home Port: ROTTERDAM Geo location: 51.980840, 4.112364

Take a ride!
On the "EDDAFJORD" it goes in time-lapse through the Great Sea Lock in Emden down the Ems. Video courtesy of the captain.

In the pre-dawn hours and many other times of the day, local pilots safely guide cruise ships and cargo ships into BVI ports. The pilots provide local knowledge to the ships' captains to ensure safe arrivals and departures. In order to do this, it requires the pilot to climb from one moving vessel to the other. While this maneuver is taking place, the pilot vessel must maintain speed and stay parallel to the ship, allowing the pilot's safe transfer from one vessel to the other. They make...

Practicing in the new port before we have todo it for real.

Tom Mellor - C​hairman of the IHO Electronic Navigational Chart Working Group (ENC WG) and Head of Digital Standards at the UKHO - explains what the IHO's ECDIS and ENC Standards mean.

The Master and pilot are dependant on each other for a safe and successful beginning or end of a voyage. They are both operating in a foreign environment.