Friday Night Locker Room’s Steve Wilson on Board Port Canaveral Pilot Boat
WATCH: One of the jobs of a harbor pilot with the Canaveral Pilots Association is to help operate the larger ships as they leave Port Canaveral. During a recent tour of the Port, the Friday Night Locker Room’s Steve Wilson was aboard a pilot boat operated by Captain Don Pretlow that followed the cruise ship Carnival Liberty as it departed Port Canaveral on a cruise.
BREVARD COUNTY • PORT CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – One of the jobs of a harbor pilot with the Canaveral Pilots Association is to help operate the larger ships as they leave Port Canaveral. During a recent tour of the Port, the Friday Night Locker Room’s Steve Wilson was aboard a pilot boat operated by Captain Don Pretlow that followed the cruise ship Carnival Liberty as it departed Port Canaveral on a cruise.
Pretlow’s main job, at that time, was to pick up Pilot Nathan Sherr, who was aboard the cruise ship giving directions to the helmsman, and bring him back safely. Pilot Sherr co-captained the Carnival Liberty out of the Port.
Pilot boats pull up alongside a much larger ship and transfer a person, via ladder, to their boat; all while moving at a speed of approximately seven knots. And, they do it in all kinds of weather.
According to Pretlow, “There are a lot of different dynamics as you get closer (to the ship).” He went on to say, as the pilot boat gets closer, “it will kind of push you off a little bit. Then you get really close alongside, it will actually want to pull you in.”
To operate a pilot boat safely requires knowledge, precision, and expertise. The Port Canaveral Harbor Pilots are the best of the best; they prove it every day.
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