202215 Light touch of a buoy while inbound

A tanker was inbound for a port in the early morning hours. A pilot boarded and took the con after exchanging information with the Master. The pilot advised that there was an outbound vessel approaching and that he had agreed with the outbound pilot that they would meet port to port. A slight course alteration to starboard was requested and the speed reduced. A few minutes later, the vessels met at the entrance of the channel. By now, the pilot of the outbound vessel had already disembarked, so pilot to pilot communication was not possible.

As the inbound tanker was conned more to starboard by the pilot to allow the outbound vessel to safely exit the port, it approached the righthand side of the channel and, due to weather and lack of manoeuvrability at slow speed, made soft contact with buoy number 1. The tanker continued its inbound passage and safely berthed thereafter.

Lessons learned

• When entering port, the bridge team and Master often have little time to evaluate the proposed manoeuvre suggested by the pilot. In this case, although not immediately evident as unsafe, the meeting of the two vessels at the narrow port entrance was less than optimal.
• Be aware that in some jurisdictions, pilots can disembark before the vessel has actually exited the port due to various factors such as weather conditions on the outside rendering departure there too dangerous.