Storm Erik named by the Irish Met Office swoops across the west of the UK causing some disruption and fatally injuring a kite surfer in North Devon. Over the other side of the country in East Anglia, winds were not as strong but causing some headaches for North Sea ports.
CSCL was anchored in the Sunk Deep Water Anchorage waiting for a berth to become available. Just after 7am the OOCL Japan was preparing to sail so the CSCL Globe heaved anchor and slowly proceeds to the Sunk Pilot Station. A Harwich Haven pilot launch heads outbound with a pilot to board. The weather conditions slowed the progress of the launch out to the Sunk but the pilot was successful in boarding.
Shortly after boarding, the pilot radios Harwich VTS to ask for the wind forecast during the day. VTS replies with the increasing winds over the day could turn out very squally and halt large movements. The pilot thinks about aborting the inbound passage and try coming in when the wind drops but after about 10 minutes he makes the decision with the captain and Felixstowe Dock Tower to proceed in with all four tugs but go starboard side to Felixstowe Berth 8 instead of swinging.
The duty tug radios VTS to say all four tugs were ready for the CSCL Globe and it was top priority.
The plan was that the bigger 3212 tugs to go centre leads fore and aft the the 2411's to go on the port quarter and port shoulder.
Svitzer Deben leaves the pontoon with Svitzer Shotley following behind. Soon after the Svitzer Kent leaves the pontoon with Svitzer Sky a few minutes later.
Deben makes fast centre lead aft while Shotley positions on the starboard quarter for the corner. Approaching the Platters Buoy, the pilot gets the Deben to move out on to the port side for a powered indirect at full line load to help steer around the 90° Beach End turn into the harbour. Once safely inside the harbour Shotley moves around the stern to make fast on the port quarter. Sky moves into position to make fast on the port shoulder but on the main deck while Kent makes fast centre lead forward. On a Northerly heading the pilot uses the Deben as a brake to slow her down before running the engine astern.
In the process of going astern the ship begins to twist so the Deben moves onto the starboard side while the Kent moves onto the port side to counteract the twist. Shotley pushes on the quarter to bring her back into position so she could go straight on to the berth.
After a while all the tugs move out to check positions to hold her back from the wind for a soft landing on to the fenders.
ETD Monday 11th February 14:00
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