From the bridge
RSSPractical maritime compliance.
Plain-English writing for commercial operators — USCG rules, Sub M, STCW, cyber, and the free tools we built along the way. No regulatory fog. No SEO filler.
New York / New Jersey Pilotage: Dispatch from Ambrose to the Kill Van Kull
Sandy Hook pilots board offshore at Ambrose and take ships through one of the busiest, most complex harbors in the country — including the Kill Van Kull, a narrow, current-swept reach under an air-draft-critical bridge to the largest container terminals on the East Coast. Here's the dispatch challenge.
NAIS vs. Commercial AIS: Choosing the Data Source for Pilot Dispatch
Your dispatch board is only as good as its AIS feed. Terrestrial commercial feeds, satellite AIS, and the Coast Guard's Nationwide AIS each have different coverage, latency, and cost. Here's how to choose — and why some districts only work on NAIS.
The Master-Pilot Exchange (MPX): What It Covers and How to Standardize It
The Master-Pilot Exchange is the most important conversation on the bridge — and the one most often left to memory. Here's what a complete MPX covers, why investigators look for it, and how to make it a repeatable card instead of an ad-hoc chat.
The Digital Master–Pilot Exchange Card: A Defensible Record of the Bridge Brief
When a loaded ship touches a dock, the P&I club asks what was agreed on the bridge. A sealed digital MPX answers it.
Houston Ship Channel Pilotage: Dispatch in One of the Busiest Waterways in America
The Houston Ship Channel pairs enormous petrochemical traffic with a long, narrow, two-way-restricted channel and frequent fog closures. Dispatching it is an exercise in managing congestion and meeting situations. Here's the challenge and what helps.
Crew Credential Tracking: Why the Spreadsheet Fails a Growing Fleet
Every small operator starts tracking MMCs, TWICs, and medicals in a spreadsheet. It works until it doesn't — and the failure mode is an expired credential discovered during a boarding. Here's why the spreadsheet breaks and what replaces it.
Cook Inlet Pilotage: Dispatching Some of Alaska's Hardest Water
Cook Inlet pairs some of the largest tides in North America with effectively no commercial AIS coverage — a brutal combination for a dispatch desk. Here's what makes the district so demanding and what a purpose-built board does about the tide and the data gap.
Where US State Pilotage Is Required: A State-by-State Orientation
Federal law sets the floor, but state pilotage law decides who actually has to take a pilot in most US ports. Here's how state compulsory pilotage works, why nearly every coastal state runs its own system, and what it means for a pilots association's coverage.
Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Compliance (46 CFR Part 28): What Owners Must Carry
Commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations in the country, and 46 CFR Part 28 sets the safety equipment, exam, and training requirements that follow from that. Here's what a fishing vessel owner has to carry and keep current.
Columbia River Pilotage: Dispatch Across the Bar and the River
The Columbia pairs one of the world's most dangerous bar crossings with a hundred-mile river transit serving multiple ports — and two separate pilot groups who hand off at Astoria. Here's the dispatch challenge of the whole system and what coordinating it actually takes.
Choosing Maritime Compliance Software: A US Operator's Buyer's Guide
Most maritime software is built for large international fleets, priced per vessel, and sold through a sales cycle. If you run 1–50 US-flag vessels under 46 CFR, the evaluation criteria are different. Here's what actually matters.
Chesapeake Bay Pilotage: Dispatch Across a Long Bay to Many Ports
The Chesapeake is a long bay serving Hampton Roads near the mouth and Baltimore nearly 150 miles up — with Virginia and Maryland pilots and a handoff between them. Coordinating a multi-port corridor of that length is the dispatch challenge. Here's how it works.