MSC Krystal arrives to Felixstowe from her last port of Bremerhaven as she sails on the TA2 East Coast America – Northern Europe trade route as part of the 2M Alliance with Maersk.
At about 09:45UTC, 12 miles out on the North Sea, a Harwich Haven Pilot Launch goes alongside the MSC Krystal to board a pilot for the inward journey into the Port of Felixstowe. Once onboard the pilot radios Harwich VTS to say she was inbound for Felixstowe with a draught of 10.7 metres from Bremerhaven with no defects. VTS replies that there was a ready berth planned port side to Felixstowe Trinity 4 then continues with the height of tide and wind on the Landguard Gauge and finally rounds up with the traffic information. The pilot copied all the info and requested one Svitzer tug for berthing. Duty tug copies the order for one tug.
Approaching the HA Buoy, the Svitzer Kent leaves the tug pontoon to assist the pilot with berthing the MSC Krystal alongside Trinity Terminal. The Kent meets the Krystal at the Platters and makes fast on the centre lead aft just before they rounded the Beach End at the entrance of the harbour. Safely in the harbour and on a Northerly heading, the pilot stops the main engine as they glide up the harbour. Passing berth 9 the pilot begins to run the engine astern releasing a plume of thick black smoke from the funnel.
Approaching the berth, the pilot gets the Kent to move out on to the starboard quarter and start taking the stern around to port. Once swung the pilot kicks the engine astern a few times releasing more black smoke, to back her up to Trinity 4. The pilot asks the Kent whether it would be easier to push up or tow in towards the berth. Kent replied that they would have to quite a way up the ships side to push up but they could shorten their gear and tow in so the Kent shortens their gear and move around to the port side and begins to pull the MSC Krystal closer to the fenders before running out of space on the port side. After moving back around to the starboard side, the pilot gets them to push up alongside to the berth.
Final tie up 4 and 2 each end with springs first fore and aft.
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