Our UK Technical Manager, Oliver Pegrum (Ollie), is back from a jam-packed but exciting trip to South America. He first visited Colombia to complete 13 installations of our best-selling Mini Data Recorder, otherwise known as the X-VHFR.

His trip took him from the beautiful city of Santa Marta all the way down to Buenaventura.

The installs were for one of our valued customers, Coltugs.

Coltugs currently operate a fleet of 13 vessels in Colombia as part of the regional holding’s significant fleet of more than 60 units. They offer berthing and unberthing manoeuvres, port assistance, coastal and ocean-going towage, and operations in specialised terminals and sonobuoys efficiently across Colombia and in eight other South American countries.

Ollie installed x12 X-VHFRs on Tug boats and x1 on a crew transfer vessel. The X-VHFR Mini Data Recorder is best suited for use on all small vessels under 3000GRT, plus on land-based applications such as harbours and ports.

It was an exciting trip for Ollie; fortunately, he had Orlando from OKS Sistems as his driver, assistant engineer and all-around tour guide, to share his beautiful country with Ollie. Their collaboration made the trip even more memorable.

“I loved the trip. It was busy but well worth it. It’s essential to go out into the field to do installs ourselves; as it helps with overall product development, refining of software and the improvement of installation procedures. I also had a great time working with the Coltugs crews and staff, who were very helpful and welcoming. Additionally, a massive thank you to Orlando from OKS, who drove me around and helped me with the installations.“- Ollie Pegrum

The second leg of Ollie’s trip was to the Panama Canal.

Once there, he met up with AMI Marine’s Managing Director, Martin Cox. The purpose of the visit was to progress the Panama approvals testing process for the SMIDS Pro Panama Pilot System (SYS-0096). Martin and Ollie also met up with local Panama technical partners, Hi Tek Marine, who are fast becoming specialists on this version of the SMIDS Pro system. We are grateful for this partnership as it provides a local presence to all that is happening in the Panama canal approval process for our non-portable piloting aid.

We look forward to sharing developments on the SMIDS Pro Panama Pilot System (SYS-0096) as they progress. If you would like to discuss more with our team, we are always available to answer any questions or queries at enquiries@amimarine.com.

See you next time South America!