Sec. 08.62.157. Duties of licensed pilots. (a) A person licensed under this chapter has a primary duty to safely navigate vessels under the pilot’s direction and control and to protect life and property and the marine environment while engaged in the provision of pilot services.
—Alaska Statutes

May 25, Nikiski

THE 590-FOOT TANKER Pacific Polaris is discharging the last of a cargo of 330,629 barrels of jet fuel from Ulsan, South Korea. Captain John Taylor, a marine pilot of the Southwest Alaska Pilots Association (SWAPA), will be undocking the tanker and piloting it to Kachemak Bay, where he will get off and the tanker will depart on the Great Circle Route across the north Pacific Ocean back to Ulsan.

Upon boarding, Taylor walks the bridge, looking at gauges, LEDs and screens and checking them against the pilot card, which lists the ship’s specifications and a checklist of equipment. Anchors, yes, port and starboard. Radar, two, yes, although the list says they’re both three centimeters and one is actually ten centimeters. Water speed and ground speed indicators, yes. Engine telegraphs, rudder and RPM indicators, yes. He snorts at the zero degrees typed in next to the constant gyro error on the compass system listed the the pilot card and corrects it to an error of one degree east.

Chatter marine pilots southwest alaska pilots association SWAPA