Originally Posted by
DirectTo
I have a stupid, non-nautically-informed question.
I went on a cruise a couple of years ago. It was a Caribbean cruise that left out of Galveston, Texas. We called in four ports (Cozumel, Roatan, Belize City, and Cancun).
In all four ports, a good thirty minutes before we would anchor, whether at a pier or in the open ocean, a small boat would come out and deliver a local pilot to I assume steer the ship into waters he was familiar with. We would always be well out in the ocean when this happened.
That was the first thing I thought when I saw the pictures is a local pilot obviously would have been much more familiar with the port. Are they not always used?
I can't directly answer your question but I pilot instructed a cargo boat second officer. He told me about sailing and about what you mentioned. When they got close to port there would be a local pilot that came onboard to direct the ship the rest of the way. Not sure if the Costa Concordia was close to port or soon to be in port. Anyways, that is a good question if a local port captain was on deck or soon to be arriving.