"A new documentary short by Sam Eckholm shows how San Francisco Bar Pilots board massive container ships 11 miles out to sea, with their small pilot boats pulling up along side, and the pilots having to just jump over to a ladder without any harnesses or safety equipment, and climb onto the ship. They then take over from the captain of the ship in order to safely guide the ship through the channel and to one of a half dozen ports in the Bay,"
"They're a team of 60 skilled maritime pilots who are part of an organization that dates back to 1850, essentially to the founding of the city itself. For as long as ships were traveling into San Francisco Bay, ship captains without the specific local knowledge of currents, winds, and water depths particularly around the channel leading into the Bay, and the huge San Francisco Bar, a horseshoe-shaped sand bar under the water about five miles out from the Golden Gate."
The San Francisco Bar Pilots are a 60-member team of local maritime experts whose organization dates to 1850. Pilots transfer from small pilot boats to massive container and cruise ships offshore—often about 11 miles out—by climbing ladders without harnesses, then assume navigational control to guide vessels through the channel and across the horseshoe-shaped San Francisco Bar to Bay ports such as Oakland, San Francisco, Redwood City, and Richmond. The pilots handle roughly 8,000 entries and exits annually, facilitating more than $40 billion in trade. The role requires precise knowledge of currents, winds, and water depths; similar bar pilots operate at other major U.S. ports.
Read at sfist.com
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