I know in some commercial ports (and other sorts too, but we're talking about merchant traffic) on our seas, you can have a wait if the port capacity is reached (same for lock/canal passages) and one aspect of that follows with one TMLer's definition of pilot as 'harbour pilot' basically... if you don't have enough harbour pilots to help bring in the bigger vessels (and ships crew MUST be supervised by a harbour pilot, then that's another reason the port can seem at capacity (same effect, you can just treat this as one of the cases of 'port beyond capacity').

I can verify that there where times when my four boats and the tender had time to loiter at sea before being brought into port while waiting for the local pilot to guide us in. The trip into and out of Rosyth, Scotland was a very interesting one.

However, in Timothy's and Alex's AARs the ship's pilot maneuvers the craft into and out of port including landings and take-offs from the downport, achieving orbit/deorbiting, and/or docking/undocking at the highport

That's a good point and one I slightly fudge. Having spent two years on a ship (please, no one search for that phrase in the archives and tell me how many times I've said it.... sorry), I'm familiar with taking on pilots and have a suspicion I've told anecdotes about such here previously.

However, unless there was some plot point that required It (hmmmm....) I don't have port pilots as a matter of course, mainly because I would want a pilot PC to have something to do. This is a bit of a fudge and might be something I would revisit and think about if we were visiting higher tech worlds (perhaps fortunately, our corner of Aramis subsector isn't well stocked with them) but in general I'd say it's much more exciting - even if it's a relatively Routine task - for the pilot (or in a recent session, the Captain) to take the controls and have the possibility of rolling very low.

Having said that, our pilot is currently an NPC so perhaps there's *more* role-playing opportunity in having a pilot come aboard and interact with the crew! I was a lowly deck department oik standing at mooring stations almost exclusively so I didn't usually get to meet the pilots coming aboard. But I'll bet they're a mixed bag. Perfectly professional of course, but a mix of temperament and 'character'. (I'm also reminded of the James Bond film I just watched the other night when a CIA agent (I think) Bond has met takes over as 'pilot' on the baddie's ship and crashes it into the dock.) (I think it was Licence to Kill but the whole lot of them are being shown at the rate of twice a week at present here on tv so they're blurring a bit).

I also have vivid memories of being on sea watch and actually at the helm when we sailed into Singapore harbour. I can't recall if we eventually took on a pilot - possibly not as we spent three weeks at anchor on one visit - but I do recall the officer of the watch going out on a bridge wing to yell very loudly at a sailing (junk?) that got right in the way when it shouldn't! I was under strict instructions to pay *very* close attention to every order I was being given in that approach and respond instantly. (Not that I'd have normally been lackadaisical but it was impressed on me how close/tight/tricky this entry was. It said something for my general attention to doing exactly what I was told that I was selected to be at the helm for those moments. (The boatswain liked me on derrick duty for the same reason. Especially after I made a Sunday service children's talk out of the 'spiritual applications' of driving the derrick winches!)

I should add that I'd love to spend more time on this thread and wade through the relevant text, but work has got to that 'extremely busy' part of the year as I prepare lectures (virtual and video) for the new students, so perhaps another time. THe above is quite enough of a break and I really must get back to it.