Skua Pilots

ICE PILOTS WITH IMO ADVANCED POLAR CODE CERTIFICATION COURSES 7.11 AND 7.12

SKUAPILOTS is a private Chilean company that offers the service of fully trained professionals with proven expertise to navigate on Antarctic waters. Our Ice Pilots goal is to give unparalleled, exclusive and personalized support and services required by shipping companies engaged in travels and visits to the Antarctic waters area, with passenger and scientific ships and yachts.

You can be assured that the services we deliver will be customized to your specific needs.

Our Mission

Provide high standard assistance in Antarctic navigation advisory with expert and experience Ice Pilots that will support passenger, scientific and logistic vessels and yachts venturing into the Antarctic waters south of the Cape Horn.

Our Vision

To be a highly qualified provider of well trained and skilled professionals to assist and deliver integral solutions that will satisfy the needs of our customers in their planning, navigation and exploration of the Antarctic routes, offering the most exclusive alternatives for the safety, comfort and efficiency of their operations. Our clients, ship owners or operators should enjoy a safe navigation and tourism in the Antarctic waters on passenger vessels (cruises), scientific vessels and yachts.

Our Ice Pilots

Carlos Mackenney 15 years as Authorized Chilean and Fjords Pilot; Several Antarctic summer and winter campaigns as Commanding Officer of CHN icebreaker Almirante Viel. Cap Hornier

Eduardo Echeverria Authorized Chilean Fjords Pilot since 2017; 11 Antarctic campaigns as Commanding Officer of a CHN rescue ship and icebreaker Almirante Viel. Experiences in ATC and COMNAP Meetings.

Francisco Azocar — Francisco Azócar Authorized Chilean Fjords Pilot since 2010; Over 9 Antarctic campaigns as Commanding Officer of a CHN patrol ship and icebreaker Almirante Viel. Cap Hornier

Jorge Huerta 8 years as Authorized Chilean Fjords Pilot; 6 Antarctic campaigns, 5 as Commanding Officer of CHN icebreaker Almirante Viel. Cap Hornier

Jose Valdivia — José Valdivia 9 years as Authorized Chilean Fjords Pilot; Several summer and winter Antarctic campaigns as Commanding Officer of CHN ships Yelcho, Vidal Gormaz and icebreaker Almirante Viel.

Juian Bilbao — Julian Bilbao Authorized Chilean Port and Fjords Pilot since 2009; 6 Antarctic campaigns as Commanding Officer of CHN icebreaker Almirante Viel.

Roberto Garnham Authorized Chilean Port and Fjords Pilot since 2006; Over 9 Antarctic campaigns as Commanding Officer of a CHN patrol ship and icebreaker Almirante Viel.

Pedro Urrutia 14 years as Authorized Chilean Fjords Pilot; 5 Antarctic campaigns as Commanding Officer of CHN rescue ship Galvarino. Cap Hornier

Jorge Montenegro Authorized Chilean Fjords Pilot since 2015; Several Antarctic campaigns among which 5 as Commanding Officer of CHN icebreaker Almirante Viel.

Ricardo García Authorized Chilean Fjords Pilot since 2006; 6 Antarctic campaigns as Commanding Officer of icebreaker Almirante Viel.

Our ice pilot´s main competencies are:

Retired Captains of the Chilean Navy or the National Merchant Marine with a vast experience on board and multiple expeditions in command or advising ships that have operated in Antarctica.

Many years as authorized maritime pilots by the Chilean government to pilot passenger, cargo, scientific ships and yachts along the extended Chilean channels area.

Approved courses in Operations on Antarctic waters, certified by Chilean Maritime Authority. In some cases, Instructor for those courses. IMO advanced Polar Code certified, courses 7.11 and 7.12

Experts in the norms of environmental protection and preservation of the Antarctic continent.

Fully familiarized with the different and specific supports that can be found in the area. Among all the countries in the world, Chile is the nearest to the Antarctic… we are “locals”.

Our Services

SKUAPILOTS will provide Ice Pilots and the necessary navigation advisory services to make your maritime journey to the Antarctic waters a wonderful, safe, unique and unforgettable life experience.

In addition, our professionals can also give you the support you may require in the following areas:

Recurso 23 — SAR (Salvage and Rescue): should an emergency or eventuality occur, our pilots are fully familiarized with the support that can be offered by each one of the local bases, carrying out a smooth coordination with the Antarctica Salvage and Rescue Patrol and with the Port Authorities in the Antarctic Peninsula and Cape Horn.

Recurso 22 — Likewise, because of their experience commanding ships with helicopters in the Antarctica, they have a complete knowledge of the air operations that are characteristic of that complex area.

Recurso 24 — As far as meteorological and glaciological support, our pilots have great expertise to access the best sources of information both in Chilean and in international agencies. Special importance is assigned to the valuable assistance provided by the different bases and Port Authorities that are deployed in the Antarctica as well as in the overall area of Cape Horn. Their data of the real time Antarctic ice and meteorological conditions are vital to make the safest decisions with regards to the routes to take and the moment for each transit. The crossing of the Drake Passage serves as an example of this kind of decisions.

Recurso 19 — Planning and programming of the journeys to places of your interest. Based on your requirement we will put forward the best alternatives, laying our emphasis on our constant commitment to always offer you safer navigation routes and coves.

Recurso 21 — Special assistance that may be required, such as helicopters, conferences for passengers, medical help or evacuation and transfers to faraway places can be organized.

Recurso 20 — It is also worth to mention our Chilean Antarctica mapping availability, both in paper as on CNE to which the UK charts (Admiralty Charts) availability is added.

In summary, our presence and assistance during your voyage, both in the planning and in the daily activities, allows us to provide advice to a vessel captain, with a high level of competence, ensuring that SAFETY is our ruling principle, for the people, for the ship and for the environment, all of which will make your expedition to the Antarctica, an unforgettable adventure.

Our Tariffs

Our tariffs are on a daily basis, in US dollar currency, agreed in advance ―from case to case― between each client interested in taking the trip to the Antarctica and our Operations Management, depending on the project the ship intends to undertake and its dimensions.

Administrative area

Gallery

NEWS

September 9-13, 2019: IMO appointed one of our Ice Pilots, Captain Roberto Garnham, as a Consultant to conduct a workshop at South American level, with support from the Canadian Government, to apply the Polar Code in Antarctic navigation.

January 27th 2020: SKUA Pilots was invited to participate in the annual meeting of Antarctic Policy Council at our country’s Chancellor’s Office on January 27th 2020 and was represented by two of our Ice Pilots. The event was chaired by the Chancellor Teodoro Ribera, and other authorities present were the Defense Minister Alberto Espina and the Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt. The Chief Commander of the Chilean Navy and the Director General of the Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine also attended the event.

March 6th, 2020: “The main tourism authority in Chile, Undersecretary Monica Zalaquett and her closest collaborators, received SKUAPILOTS, opportunity in which we presented them our project and also offered to help in any instance our advice on Antarctic matters is required.”

Contact us now

Antarctica is the most hostile continent in the world. Navigating its waters present very particular difficulties and characteristics. To a geography made up of numerous archipelagos, islands, channels and fjords, large quantities of different types of ice are united. Some ice, permanently generated from the continent, give rise to glaciers, ice barriers or platforms and those characteristic floating masses called icebergs. Others, originated in the freezing of sea water and of quite different properties, form the dynamic "pack ice" that can reach two meters thick. All of the above show the indispensability of having a broad and deep knowledge of the scenario for a safe navigation in these peculiar waters.

Welcome to the Antarctic