COTE D'ALBATRE 2008

I like the humour Laurie, but I don't think the davit would take the bigger (orange) boat.  I think they were carrying out a test on 'launch and recovery' on this small (Orange) RIB inflatable for safety drill purposes etc. More curious on the present ferries is the other form of liferaft/safety system, which is indicated by the line aft of main carried lifeboat, running down hull side in a rectangular fashion just below white canopy stowage, it would be interesting to see this deployed (but not for emergency reasons!).

Why has the Pilot recently started escorting the ferries out of the harbour. Never seen this before!

Newhaven steamers and ferries have traditionally done their own pilotage, to avoid having to pick up and drop pilots off shore. So ships' officers would have to hold a PEC (Pilotage Exemption Certificate) for the ports. One of the requirement for this is minimum number of trips into the port - in most UK ports (and I assume Newhaven) that would be  12 trips, as our two ships are just below the 150m length that would have required 20.

During those trips, a pilot would be required, so we can assume that there are some new officers on the bridge 'learning the ropes', so to speak. Andy-Editor