Our guest speaker last week was Peter Willyams an experienced Ports of Auckland Pilot .
Peter was born in the Cook Islands but grew up in Howick and attended Cockle Bay Primary, Howick Intermediate and Kings College where he specialised in Science and Mathematics . He commenced sailing by joining Sea Scouts and eventually the family purchased a Sunburst yacht. He was sponsored on to the Spirit of Adventure and then decided on a maritime career. He went to sea in Y1981 as a cadet with the China Navigation Company and studied at the Auckland Maritime School. Peter then joined Gearbulk/KGIS then Saga Forest Carriers and served on the same ship for 11 years .
After time as a 2nd Officer he became a Master Foreign Going Command at the age of 31years. He sailed the world until Y2010 when he moved to Sweden and speaks Swedish fluently. This was a very useful language for him. There were big changes taking place so he retrained as a Marine Pilot working eventually for UK Associated British Ports Authority and based in the Humber region UK. The local river was a challenge with a tidal range of 9metres. There were numerous collisions and groundings in the river estuary so it was a very good training area for Peter.
In Y 2015 he joined the Ports of Auckland as a Marine Pilot. Auckland is a busy port with 3,500 ship movements per annum and it is operational 24 hours per day. Most ships have an 8 hour turnaround time. Peter is on board the largest cruise ships and container vessels that visit Auckland plus naval ships from the USA etc. Most skippers agree to let the Pilot have sole charge when berthing their ships.
Peter has a very responsible job and it was very interesting to hear his background and training required to become a Harbour Pilot.