Pilotage during Covid.

[Julian Norman]

I have recently retired as a Pilot in S.Wales but was working during the first 6 months of the pandemic when it hit the UK.
We were issued with extra PPE in the form of facemasks, disposable gloves, hand sanitiser and anti-bacterial wipes. Advice that was given included social distancing, no hand shaking, not to accept any drinks or food etc. Lots of stuff that is quite common now but at the beginning of March felt quite weird.
In March when UK cases and deaths were quite low then the perceived danger came from ships and crews arriving from affected areas. Even though they had to declare via their Health Declaration that everyone was healthy, you couldnt take any chances. After a few months the situation changed. With the UK at the peak in terms of cases and deaths then the arriving ships suddenly became very aware that the first person they met after maybe weeks at sea i.e me, was a big perceived risk to them.
The most cautious ship I came across was a Chinese crewed capesize bulk carrier bringing 170,000tonnes of Australian coal to Port Talbot Steelworks. She had been at sea for 42 days so had been observing the world pandemic from a safe distance. As I boarded I was met by crew wearing white disposable paper boiler suits with hoods up, goggles,facemasks and disposable gloves. I had to walk through a disenfectant bath and was not allowed into the accomodation having to access the bridge from walking up the outside. On the bridge the whole bridge team were all wearing the same gear and gave me a very wide berth. Communication can be hard enough at the best of times on a Chinese ship but with all the layers of PPE it became even harder.
After 4 surreal hours and with the help of four tugs who I was able to talk with normally, we safely docked.
This was the extreme, but I fear the friendly relationship I was accustomed to having with visiting ships crews may be affected for some time to come being replaced by suspicion and caution. It isnt helped by the fact that many crew members are working far in excess of their contacted months onboard due to repatriation being impossible with the various quarantines, closed borders and breakdown in air travel.
Definitely not sorry to have retired when I did.

[Mark Keever]

Thank-you for sharing your experience ! This virus does not follow any rule book. Accordingly, we all must be as smart and safe as possible as to protect each other. Here in the U.S., most people have been complete idiots with their cavalier attitude about how to handle this. It does not help that the head clown sets a bad example to his fellow TRUMPANZEES and now, people are dropping like flies. Sadly, the ferryman this winter will be quite busy...

[Captain Kong]

Very interesting Julian,
It seems that the Chinese Seamen have better PPE than my Doctor son who has a 500 covid19 bed hospital
Thanks for sharing
Brian

[thomas michael]

I have recently retired as a Pilot in S.Wales but was working during the first 6 months of the pandemic when it hit the UK.

Definitely not sorry to have retired when I did.

hi julian
thanks for your expert knowledge and experience, it is a pity though that when the chinese knew that they where responsible for the escape of the covid virus, that they never imformed WHO and the rest of the world of the imminent danger about to befall on them,as it could have given us all the chance to protect ourselfs against the obvious, just like the crew on the bulk carrier.
it also hurts that i myself having docked in port talbot on a couple of occasions, that it was not british coal being delivered.
as for caution when traveling between borders and mixing with foreigners, im definitely not going to eat chinese food again.
tom

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Thank-you for sharing your experience ! This virus does not follow any rule book. Accordingly, we all must be as smart and safe as possible as to protect each other. Here in the U.S., most people have been complete idiots with their cavalier attitude about how to handle this. It does not help that the head clown sets a bad example to his fellow TRUMPANZEES and now, people are dropping like flies. Sadly, the ferryman this winter will be quite busy...

hi mark
i presume the head clown your alluding to is mr trump, i believe your in for a surprise,
tom

[thomas michael]

Very interesting Julian,
It seems that the Chinese Seamen have better PPE than my Doctor son who has a 500 covid19 bed hospital
Thanks for sharing
Brian

hi capt kong
well they would have better PPE for after they brought it to life in wuhan, and it then escaped they doubled up their manufacturing of PPE because they knew exactly how dangerous it was,
strange thing about it though, the labority was built with french money and expertise also america and the british had donated money for their research
tom

[happy daze john in oz]

Thank-you for sharing your experience ! This virus does not follow any rule book. Accordingly, we all must be as smart and safe as possible as to protect each other. Here in the U.S., most people have been complete idiots with their cavalier attitude about how to handle this. It does not help that the head clown sets a bad example to his fellow TRUMPANZEES and now, people are dropping like flies. Sadly, the ferryman this winter will be quite busy...

Interesting but how good are the figures in reality.
So far about 2.7% of population have contracted the virus in USA well down on last years Flu numbers. Death at 0.69% is down on normal death totals.
Of course what we are not told is the number who recover.

[Keith at Tregenna]

If we are allowed to speak on this the deaths are huge alone. Thoughts are with family and friends of those lost.

K.

[Captain Kong]

I think China has won WW3 without firing one shot

[Andrew G Knox]

Hi Julian. I'm in a similar position to yourself, having retired a couple of months back. I saw very similar responses to yours as well, ranging from doing the Covid dance to get to the radar, being ostracised in a quiet corner of the wheelhouse to trying to escape from (usually) European captains who had been isolated with crews from elsewhere desperate for company and lacking the concept of social distancing! Must admit I didn't encounter the footbath though. I did find the facemask a bit too obtrusive, especially when you're looking directly at the helmsman and enunciating very clearly so he could lip-read the course as well as listening just to make sure he understood: that and having watched so many of them fiddling about with the masks as they tried to converse on their radios. Luckily we only encountered 2 cases of the virus, one dealt with very well by the owner/agent, the other not so well.

Apart from the obvious disadvantages of lockdowns, I think your sentiment about the timing is probably right!

[j.sabourn]

#8 I think for the present Brian we can discount the A in ABC warfare. This was taught in 1962 not by the author of War of the Worlds but our own Ministry of Defence. The last ones to hear about it will be the general public. JS