The Southeast Alaska Pilots’ Association will hold examinations to select new trainees from April 6-10, 2020, at the Pacific Maritime Institute (PMI) in Seattle. Applications must be either postmarked or emailed by 2/15/20. Minimum qualifications and detailed application information can be found here, but applicants should know that no local knowledge or Alaska experience is required to apply. Depending on initial qualifications, the training program typically takes from 2-4 years.

From a personal perspective, no local experience is required because the training program is a beast. But in a good way. You are definitely going to be pushed, humbled, but then incredibly ready to do the job by the time you finish training. I entered the training program in 2015 with 27 years of sailing experience, 19 of which were as Captain - over a decade of sea time in SE Alaska - and I still was amazed at how much there was to learn about Alaska, shiphandling, bridge resource management, etc. In other words, this is not for the faint of heart, nor for folks trying to find themselves. 4 tough years later, I became a Deputy Marine Pilot, and the hardship made me all the more proud of my accomplishment.

SEAPA, as a pilot group, is unlike any other in the United States in myriad ways, not the least of which is that we can be onboard a ship for days at a time, not hours. We typically pilot cruise ships, bulk cargo vessels, and large yachts. Cruise ships are definitely our bread and butter, and that traffic is expected to continue to increase with approximately 1.4 million cruise passengers expected to move through the region in 2020. Cruise ships are in the region from May through September, so all of our pilots work full-time through the summer, and most of the training program takes place at the same time, but off season cargo work and the acquisition of Federal Pilotage takes up the rest of the year.

There are over 11,000 nm of shoreline in SE Alaska (Dixon Entrance to Yakutat), and you will become an expert in all 11,000 miles as you get Federal Pilotage endorsements for the entire region. You need to be able to reproduce the 5 or 10 fathom curve, soundings, tracklines, place names, ATONs, tide & current information, weather, and other coast pilot information for every chart. Oh, and also completely reproduce the entire light list for that area. Describe pivot point, communications with tugs, using an anchor? No problem. Regurgitate the names, characteristics, nominal range, height and descriptions of up to 47 lights at a time? Bigger problem. (I ultimately found a system that worked for me, and you will, too. Shocking what the brain is able to do when pushed...)

SE Alaska is also home to some of the largest tides and tidal currents in the US, and you will never forget the first time you drive a 115,000GT cruise ship through a channel only 0.07nm wide, 18 knots of wind on the port quarter and a 2 knot following current. Again, this job is not for the faint of heart. And I haven't even mentioned the glacial ice...

Finally, I want to point out that I wasn't the first female SEAPA pilot. I wasn't even the second. I was the 4th, loooong after Captain Kathy Flury became the first female pilot in SE Alaska way back in 1992. She paved the way for the rest of us and I can honestly say that it has been incredibly refreshing to not be a novelty. Also, please read not only Captain Flury's story, but a full issue of stories about incredible women mariners in the latest USCG Proceedings. We all (men and women alike) owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the women mariners that came before us and the ones that continue to lead, mentor and inspire other women mariners, like Elizabeth Simenstad, founder of this amazing community of Sea Sisters!

Feel free to email me with questions about the training program, pilot group, SE Alaska, etc. (The only thing I can't chat about are the exams as I'm helping develop them...)

See you out there!

Jill Russell can be reached at jillfrussell@gmail.com