Page 26 - Loodswezen December 2017

RICARDO FALCAO,
IMPA’S VICE PRESIDENT, WHO LIVES AND WORKS IN BRAZIL, HAS VISITED ROTTERDAM.
RICARDO FALCAO (42) IS NOT ONLY A PILOT ON THE AMAZON RIVER IN BRAZIL, BUT ALSO VICE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNA- TIONAL MARITIME PILOT’S ASSOCIATION (IMPA). AT THE END OF LAST YEAR, MR FALCAO VISITED HIS COLLEAGUES AT NED- ERLANDS LOODSWEZEN IN ROTTERDAM. AN INTERVIEW WITH A PILOT WORKING IN AN EXOTIC PART OF THE WORLD.
Ricardo Falcao (42) has a long track record as a pilot in Brazil. He studied at the Brazilian Merchant Marine Academy in the 1990s. After completion of the training programme, he had several career options, but the one that stood out was being a pilot on the Amazon River.
He wanted to be a seafarer, but did not relish the idea of being away from home for a long time. “Keeping a ship on course in the most wide-ranging conditions”, he told Navigator, “continues to be an impressive experience. As a pilot, you are the one who not only has to deal with the controllable forces on the ship, such as rudder and engine, but also with the uncontrollable forces, such as wind, fog or heavy rain showers”.
EXTREME TEMPERATURES AND HEAVY RAINFALL
His is a story that many pilots all over the world will recognise. Working conditions, though, may differ signi cantly from continent to continent. Pilot Falcao has witnessed this during his visit to his colleagues in Rot- terdam [see text box].
A stretch on the Amazon River - one of the longest rivers in the world - is quite different from a route stretching from the North Sea along the Nieuwe Waterweg (New Waterway) to Rotterdam. “Our pilotage stretch on the Amazon River, its tributaries included, has a total length of more than 1,300 nautical miles. River conditions are constantly changing and we also have to deal with extreme temperatures and heavy rainfall. That is why we always have two pilots on board so we can relieve each other every six hours.”
Pilots exchange a lot of information precisely because of the ev- er-changing river conditions, Mr Falcao explained. On the Amazon, the pilots bring their own equipment on board that enables them to mea- sure depths and make charts. “In our pilotage area we have to know all the various places, banks, islands, depths and shallows by heart, both during the dry and the rainy seasons. In some places, the water level in the river can vary as much as eighteen metres over a period of six months and the current in the river may increase to 3.5 or even 5 knots! Of course, we keep each other informed about all the changes. This is something that is absolutely necessary”.
ALWAYS ALERT
Because they always have to stay alert, pilots have twenty days off after every ten days on duty. It is not only the changing river conditions and the weather that play an important role, but the traf c intensity in the pilotage area also makes the job of a pilot very demanding, Ricardo Falcao explained. Ships of all kinds sail on the Amazon: tankers and passenger ships as well as small shing boats. “On some parts of the river you can nd large coupled convoys of more than 260 metres in length as well as small craft, such as shing boats that are not visible on the radar. We must always be alert while doing our job.”
Pilots in Brazil serve the public interest as the State’s representative aboard ships. For Mr Falcao this has been an important consideration in choosing this profession. “We have a great sense of social respon- sibility in guaranteeing safety and protecting the environment. Pilots attend all training courses as recommended in IMO Resolution A960 in order to be able to keep working safely and ef ciently. We cannot afford to make mistakes.”
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RICARDO FALCAO
After nishing his studies at the Brazilian Merchant Marine Academy in 1999, Ricardo Falcao (42) became a trainee pilot on the River Ama- zon. During the seventeen years that he worked as a pilot he covered more than 600,000 nautical miles on the Amazon River. Since 2006, Mr Falcao has also been active as an instructor for refresher courses for pilots. From 2011 to 2015, he was President of Conapra, the Brazilian Maritime Pilots’ Association, where he is still active as a Director. He became Vice-President of IMPA, the International Maritime Pilots’ Association, in 2014.
For more information, please consult the following website: https://www.facebook.com/praticagemdobrasil/