In Virginia 1 hour alteration Pilot station ETA is not considered unusual. Pilots do request if ETA is earlier they be notified.
Vessels either arrive and contact the pilot tower within the hour period transit with no delay or anchor outside pilotage area, about a dozen miles offshore. Most times 10-20 ships anchored . Quick turn ship like container vessels that require precise docking time will often arrive early & anchor before picking up the pilot. No cost and no 24 hour clock reporting to customs. Often a vessel that visits frequently with short busy port stay aware of the options will use it for brief crew rest.
Another anchorage inside the bay pilot is picked up on arrival & anchors the vessel . Ordering to berth requires a 2nd pilotage and most times agents launch to anchorage is required, Agent boarding for papers to customs within 24 hours . Officials that may board for inspections, light stores, surveyors etc. This anchorage was unofficial for years recently designated formal . Cost more but mostly charged to the charterers account.
In practice majority of pilot orders come from the agent who keeps pilots informed on pending arrivals well in advance of actual arrival. Don’t know of a firm rule on advance notice. Have never seen ETA to be a issue, coordination between people that know and work together well.
Around the world situation can be very different, have seen some outrageous pilot demands, and others so casual you never what’s going to happen.
Say the ship was assigned a pilot boarding time of 0600 hrs. The ship arrives the night before at 1800 hrs. and anchors an hour away from the pilot station. If the next day the ship is late for the pilot and the ETA is revised there’s going to be questions asked as to why the ship was late.
A “timed arrival” is essentially the same thing except the ship is instructed to reduce speed rather then arrive early and anchor.
That’s true and will happen, my experience Virginia if there’s a good reason for delay pilots don’t remark it. Have seen problems in agents offices reporting that cause problems. Pilot still handles the vessel, it usually handled conversation between pilot and agents offices after the fact. It’s mostly FOC vessels with crews you can’t rely on lot of those out there, but agents not always reliable either.
When I started working out if the US saw a whole different situation. Very strict port rules that can cause delay, lack of adequate pilot resources, demands for pilots “bonus” in cash. General opinion only way to be on time is arrive near pilotage waters early & use a good spot to wait.
Situation is very different well run American ship. Way back when I worked for Americans we had very professional officers that took pride in the job.
Today typical tramp ship, Owners never see detail on anything, couple of charterers involved who only care about the expense. Crewing company employs the officers, sometimes good sometimes cheapest they can hire. Liner ships often better but not always. One well know container liner operator who charters most of the fleet has multiple ship managers who use multiple crewing companies. Report on master never seen by anyone that cares .
Yes I am. It was bunkers/steam. Getting info to plan loads and drafts/trim was like pulling teeth, “Chief, I have a purely hypothetical question, that would never actually happen. Suppose you had an extra 50 tons of bunkers you wanted to keep secret from the office. Would you keep them in the forepeak, or the after peak? Just a hypothetical, of course.”
I remember some rather forceful conversations with the C.Eng., when I was mate of a Bulker way back when.
Back in the day on a liner service New Zealand to Europe via Cape Horn at a passage speed of 24 knots. ETA was established as a time and date at the pilot station on departure, one time we were 15 minutes early because the pilot was to seaward of the boarding ground.
I think we used about 185 tonnes of HFO per day.
Steve Jobs was still in his garage and we had a primitive transit Satnav with 8 waypoint.
Just remind the c/e to include it in the numbers and calculations before you get to/ for the shipyard. Even if he thinks otherwise!
The shipyard and port engineer will need it. A good port engineer has been a chief engineer and understands the sleeve. But this info is essential to figure figure out the stability for block placement and other variables for getting into the dry dock.
Need the info to see if they can even get into certain/ the cheapest shipyard too!
Next thing you know you are flying as fast as possible to the shipyard because you are late/ been delayed and blasting off ballast and shifting bunkers to get to a specific draft and trim for a specific tide to just barely make it into the floating dry dock….ughhh I hate shipyards
I shared your “engineering solution” of fitting suction cups to Pilot Cutters with former colleagues. No doubt that was another example of your rapier wit.
My colleagues were mystified and failed to identify humour or any sign of intelligence.
It’s easy to make an error doing this. Particularly making a 180 degree turn away from the destination and going back along the track with strong current ( Kuroshio) or wind.
I used to add distance perpendicular (sea room allowing) to the track which makes the navigation calculation much simpler and errors less likely. The distance to go (DTG) doesn’t change or at least not nearly as quickly.
