Who has ever been to sea on a ship during a violent storm, knows what threatens to go out on the open deck. In this case, getting on the deck was a must ...

Winter of 2017, the English Channel, near the port of Le Havre. Hurricane wind and large waves. This winter in general turned out to be rich in the number of hurricane winds and storms throughout Europe, on some days even flights of planes and trains in Germany, the Netherlands and France were canceled.

It was on one of these days that the container ship left the port of Le Havre, France. Usually in this weather, in severe storms, the port services do not allow the ships to leave the port. But not at this time.

When leaving the port, or entering the port, to help the captain and navigators on board the vessel raises the pilot-boatmaster, who perfectly knows the peculiarities of a certain port and navigation of ships in the given water area. The pilot should always be on board the vessel, which leaves the port. After the vessel leaves the port, the pilot returns back on the pilot boat.
But in this weather, in a violent storm, no boat will be able to approach the ship. Therefore, a helicopter was called in to evacuate the pilot.

The upper deck is flooded with waves, with a strong winter wind it is difficult to stand on the deck. The air temperature is -2 ° С, and with such a strong wind it is felt as -15 ° С and is supplemented by icy sea water. But the pilot and accompanying sailors must go outside from the protected space of the ship, so that the helicopter can pick up the pilot. While waiting for the arrival of the helicopter, the container ship is already moving away from the coast for a considerable distance. All this time the radio goes to negotiations with the coast and helicopter.

The helicopter is already in direct line of sight. He hangs over the upper deck, where stands a pilot for some time, lowers the evacuation cable. On the cable, the pilot is taken to the helicopter and evacuated to shore so that he can help in navigation to the other ships ...

Hard work of the pilot, of sailors, and of helicopter pilots ...
And this is not a unique case. This is the usual daily marine work.

How it was - watch the video: (When watching a video, do not forget to switch on subtitles in the player settings).

Read, watch and subscribe to our channel "Navigator's Tales" on Youtube!

What can you see on the channel "Navigator's Tales" (Channel Digest):