Meet the BC coast pilots guiding ships into Victoria Harbour

We are barreling right towards what looks like a wall of steel. A coal carrier plows her way through the Strait of Juan de Fuca towards the open waters of the Pacific. The yellow launch, a smaller vessel emblazoned with PILOT, skips directly towards it.

With a quick “HOLD ON!” from the deck crew, the launch veers off to the left and spins itself, almost on the spot, 180 degrees to come alongside the hulking ship.

We exchange waves and thumbs up with the crew three stories above us, as they lower steps and ladders towards the water. With the pilots at the railing, the launch moves in close, matching speeds exactly, and the pilots descend from the deck and step nonchalantly onto the launch.

For most this would be a white knuckling experience, but the British Columbia Coast Pilots and the Pacific Pilotage Authority do it thousands of times a year, in all types of weather, and all levels of rough seas up and down the coastline of BC.

Beginning in 1858 on the Fraser River, ship pilots have guided ships and navigated the waters of the west coast from before Canada was even a country. The British Columbia coast is massive, intricate, and challenging.

An old photo display showing the commissioners and pilots from 1870 to 1916, hangs in the Pacific Pilotage Authority offices near Ogden Point.

“We have the biggest pilotage district in the world, with 15,000 miles of coast line,” said Captain Cal Smith, president of the British Columbia Coast Pilots. “[From] the west side of Vancouver Island, all the way up the inside passage, all the inlets, all the way up to Alaska.”

The BC Coast Pilots and Pacific Pilotage Authority are responsible for all of it. They guide container ships into Vancouver Harbour, bulk carriers to Roberts Bank, cruise ships into Victoria Harbour, and foreign naval vessels through the Salish Sea.

The captains and crews of ships from around the world don't know the exact details of BC’s ports and coastlines, so the pilots are brought out to go aboard and help them.

“[The captain] is leaning on you for your expert local knowledge… when we board out here, we actually take the conduct on for all ships,” Smith said, “and we drive the ship up to Delta Port, we arrange the tugs, do the landing…because we’ve done it so much and we are trained pretty thoroughly.”

With a rise in coastal energy projects, and an increase in shipping traffic, the number of pilots is growing. Eight new pilots come on each year, and there are 125 in total currently—the most there have ever been.

“There is a lot going on,” said Smith, “it is kind of an explosive growth period for us.”

Ernie Westle, the small vessel machinery operator and deck crew on the pilot launch, watches as

the pilot vessel moves alongside a bulk carrier.

With more traffic, busier shipping lanes, and more crowded ports, the level of skill and knowledge needed to navigate these waters safely is immense. The testing and requirements from the BC Coast Pilots and PPA are equally arduous.

“It’s by far the hardest exam I have ever done,” Smith said. “I studied for six years while I was on the tugs and log ships.”

One example of the incredible detail and knowledge base needed to become a pilot is reflected in the local knowledge test: “You basically have to be able to draw the coast (from memory), and you have to be able to name every single shoal under 20 metres, and if you had no radar or GPS how visually you would take the ship through that rock pile with visual bearings…without any aid whatsoever. You have to know where you are.”

After becoming a licenced pilot, each person progresses to a scheduled vessel size progression training that takes six years to complete, before being able to pilot the largest container and passenger vessels that visit BC waters.

With contingencies for just about every scenario, and a full simulator set up in their offices in Vancouver, pilots and pilot apprentices are taken through simulation after worst-case simulation. Smith puts the BC coast into perspective, saying “I’ve sailed all over the world and this is by far the most challenging coast I’ve worked on.”

“We have a 99.97% safety record,” said Smith. “We have a dangerous coast…when you become a pilot you are there for the people of Canada, the environment, and of course the ship owner…and that is why we so thoroughly train our guys, and test them under pressure.”

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This is what it looks like when the pilots and their teams are out in the Victoria harbour.

Derrick Sonne, the Launch Master, guides the pilot launch alongside a bulk carrier as they prepare to pick up a pilot.

The pilot launch moves alongside a bulk carrier at anchor off the southern tip of the island near Victoria.

Ernie Westle, the small vessel machinery operator and deck crew on the pilot launch, prepares a life jacket for the disembarking pilot.

Derrick Sonne, the Launch Master, guides the pilot vessel alongside a bulk carrier.

Ernie Westle watches as the pilot vessel moves alongside the bulk carrier.

Westle prepares to receive a pilot and pilot apprentice, as the pilot vessel moves alongside a coal carrier.

A pilot apprentice descends steps to a ships ladder, as the pilot vessel comes alongside a coal carrier.

Westle reaches for a pilot’s bag that has been lowered to the launch.