A day in the life of the Marseille-Fos pilots alongside Mélissa!

April 10, 2026

Mélissa, a trainee general officer at the ENSM site in Marseille, looks back on her day spent with the Marseille pilots.

“On Saturday 7 March, Quentin Thomoux and I had the privilege of spending a day alongside the pilots at the Port de Bouc station.
During the day, we were able to discover how a pilot station operates (assigning ships from the lookout, deploying pilots, manoeuvres, etc.). We boarded three vessels: the LILAC PROMENADE from the NYK Group, the cement carrier CAPO NERO, and the bulk carrier FLORENCE B from SOGESTRAN. All these vessels were different in terms of their manoeuvring capabilities, draughts, etc.

Thank you to the captains of the three vessels we boarded for welcoming us onto their bridges and taking the time to explain the manoeuvres being carried out.

I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the pilots at the Port-de-Bouc station for allowing us to join them on board.

Thank you for taking the time to explain each of the manoeuvres to us. Thank you also to the pilot boat skippers present for allowing us to carry out manoeuvres as we approached the vessels.

Paul Aragones, thank you for breathing new life into this project with the ENSM”

Credits: Mélissa Azor

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)