Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
association in the world for federal licensing. He passes a detailed local knowledge exam
and performs multiple supervised ship movements in every port in the
SWAPA
service area
for state licensing. The process is excruciatingly slow and it can take anywhere from two
and a half to five years, until 2006 all of it without pay. That only gets them to deputy, but
at least then they're earning a paycheck. A minimum of five years and more training later,
they are fully licensed pilots qualified to take oil tankers in and out of Valdez, the pinnacle
of the
SWAPA
pilot's craft.
And the training never stops. According to Ward, a
SWAPA
pilot's continuing education
includes an annual Coast Guard physical, renewing their federal license every five years,
their state license every two years, a simulator evaluation every five years, a manned
model course every six years (
SWAPA
was the first marine pilots' association in the world
to require a manned model course), and an
ARPA
, or Automated Radar Plotting Aide re-
view every five years.
Oh yes, and for the federal license, sea time in the amount of 365 days in five years,
and for the state license, sixty days of seatime per year, or 120 days in two years.
January 27, Homer
The pilot boat
Katmai
leaves the boat harbor on a windy, rainy night and proceeds over
an oily swell to meet the 701-foot container ship
Horizon Kodiak
carrying 9,426 tons of
general cargo in 549 containers bound for Wal-Mart, Safeway, JC Penny, Sears and other
stores, first in Anchorage and then to Kodiak.
At 2030
SWAPA
pilot Captain Vince Tillion and pilot trainee Captain Bryan Vermette
rendezvous with the
Horizon Kodiak
, climb the pilot ladder twelve feet to the deck, walk
aft to the house and climb six flights of stairs to the bridge, where they are greeted by
Captain George Engberg. Tillion observing from the background, Vermette walks the
bridge, checking all the radars and dials and gauges against the pilot card. Tillion and Ver-
mette tell Engberg they'll take the con at Nikiski and ask to be woken half an a hour be-
fore they arrive.
They're both on the bridge well before that. “Pilot has the conn,” Vermette says. “Pilot
has the conn,” Engberg says. “Pilot has the conn,” the helm answers. Fifty-eight miles dis-
tant, the lights of Anchorage are already bright on the northern horizon.
