Enlighten us then. I have no real local knowledge of USN workings in San Diego. All I’m going off of is a) a Twitter post from some rando and b) that the situation developed far deeper than I would expect a pilot (or pilots, whether Navy or otherwise) to go.
Thanks for that, Urs! There’s a moment at about 20:10 in the video where it becomes VERY clear what the FU was - both channel buoys are visible, and its clear the LSD turned waaay too sharply to port, cutting in front of the DDG. It will be interesting to see what the reasoning for that move was.
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It is accurate. Navy here only uses docking pilots that depart the ship at the bridge or join the ship at the bridge (inbound). The DDG had a docking pilot prior to the bridge in this case because they were docking at Coronado (per AIS) data.
In the case of the DDG, you can clearly see the pilot just got on board (tug departing, hotel closed up) as the situation was developing. The LSD had no pilot.
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In my opinion, the LSD made their turn too early, which wouldn’t have been a problem and would’ve set them up to pass starboard(not ideal and should’ve looked out the window and used vhf, but should’ve been obvious if the DDG was also looking out the window), but immediately after the DDG also made a turn to starboard to try to force a port to port passage, then the DDG realized that wouldn’t work, and altered to port to give a starboard passing.
Maybe their bridge teams need more time in a BRM simulator.
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In the longer video, at the 14:00 mark, the LSD (warship 49) makes the initial call to the DDG (warship 92) and proposes a port-to-port meeting which is agreed to (the DDG also makes mention that they are bound for North Island). The DDG picks up their Navy pilot in the vicinity of buoy 14 (not offshore) and shortly thereafter (around the 20:00 mark) hails the LSD with no response. When it’s clear that the LSD is out of position to safely facilitate port-to-port, the DDG are the ones that subsequently make the alteration to port and ultimately make a stbd-to-stbd meeting (while also communicating it).
IMO, the DDG did everything they were supposed to do and seemed to be paying better attention to the big picture, both in terms of comms and the positioning of the ship. That LSD bridge team needs some work.
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They will probably get commendations and promotions for saving 2 ships.
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He was trying to compensate for the current that was pushing Him to Starboard. He just over compensated.
We can thank ADM Vern Clark (ret) for this. The COs & XOs of both ships came in during the SWOS-in-a-Box years.
The DDG ship is flying a pilot flag The LSD is not. It is true that the Navy does not have to have pilots But they are required to have docking pilots in San Diego. Trust me on this one.
In east coast navy town the state pilots often dont board anything smaller than a flat top (and as they are “public vessels” they are not required to have pilots at all). The civil service navy docking pilots board at ERB #3 to put the ship to it’s berth.
Its always a good idea to give anything painted gray a wide berth and not because they have cannons and guns, but because they are a menace to navigation.
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I don’t see that much current being reflected in the buoys, but I wasn’t there. What I do see is the LSD passing fairly close to buoy 16A and turning hard to port, just as the inbound DDG is passing buoy 16 (where he apparently picked up a pilot from the tug visible passing close to 16). The DDG initially turns to starboard to stay on the red side, but quickly discovers the LSD coming right at him, so turns hard to port to avoid.
The LSD continues down the OUTSIDE of the red side of the channel, passing outside of 16 (and eventually 14), staying quite close to North Island. To my eye, this was his intent from the beginning, based on the hard port turn started at 16A. Why they felt the need to travel this way, outside of the marked channel, is not clear at all to me.