Page 18 - Loodswezen December 2017

NEW SHIPPING CORRIDORS NEAR WESTERN SCHELDT IMPROVE SPEED AND SAFETY
Pilot
station
Steenbank
rmly
on the
POSITIONED TWELVE MILES OFF THE DUTCH COAST, PILOT STA- TION STEENBANK OFFERS EVEN THE VERY LARGEST VESSELS COMING FROM THE NORTH THE FASTEST ROUTE TO THE WEST- ERN SCHELDT AND THUS TO ANTWERP. THROUGH, AMONG OTHER THINGS, THE DEPLOYMENT OF MODERNISED SWATHS, THE PILOTS HAVE MANAGED TO FURTHER RAISE THEIR SER- VICE LEVELS HERE, IMPROVING SAFETY, SPEED AND COST-EFFI- CIENCY. THE INTENDED CONSTRUCTION OF WIND FARMS DID HOWEVER PROMPT A NEW ROUTING.
Wind force 5: despite the heavy swell, the Cetus, the recently updated swath of the Scheldemonden region, approaches the Northern Ocean with remarkable speed and stability. The gas tanker does not need
to reduce its speed or make a lee for the pilotage vessel: the Cetus effortlessly comes alongside and puts aboard registered pilot Jan Willem Siewe. Just moments earlier, Siewe was aboard the Polaris, the Pilot Station Vessel at pilot station Steenbank on the North Sea that provides round-the-clock assistance to ships coming from and bound for the north. The Polaris offers accommodation and sleeping facilities to about thirty persons. In addition to the Polaris crew, this is where the crews of the swaths and tenders ‘live’; there is also sleeping space on board for pilots. “The interaction between the Polaris and the Cetus is ideal. The swath is ready for deployment 24/7 from Steenbank and is operated by two teams who work an eight-hour shift in rotation. Only in really bad weather - those 6 to 7 days a year that the Polaris returns to the roadstead in Vlissingen - is it no longer possible to serve ships by water, although pilots can still be brought aboard by helicopter. In any case, the advantage of our swaths is that their speed allows them to put pilots aboard megaships further off the coast.”
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18 NAVIGATOR NL 2017 N° 16