The Port of Felixstowe will be welcoming the Zhen Hua 23 in March with two state of the art gantry cranes from ZPMC ship yard in Shanghai for Berths 8&9. Her journey is expected to take about 10 weeks to Felixstowe as the ship can not transit the Suez Canal with the cranes onboard so the route she has to take will be around the Horn of Africa into the Atlantic Ocean.
This isn't the first time she came to the port, as Berths 8&9 were in the early stages of being built the Zhen Hua 23 had arrived with 3 cranes for Felixstowe which the booms hanging over the port side, one for Sheerness and one for Gothenburg hanging over the starboard side.
With a storm brewing in the North Sea, the captain of the Zhen Hua 23 wanted to berth alongside Landguard Quay before the storm increased intensity so the storm wouldn't make the ship unstable in the high seas. The ship made her way in safely and berthed alongside Landguard Quay. Safely all so they thought! The winds began to increase to storm force and the Zhen Hua 23 slipped her moorings causing the Gothenburg crane to collide with a crane on Landguard Quay causing substantial damage to both cranes and collapsing Landguard's crane into a heap of twisted metal.
When morning broke the extent of the damage was assessed, closing Landguard Viewpoint to ship spotters.
Almost 10 years on, the Zhen Hua 23 will be making a return to the Port of Felixstowe but not in the same way as before making the headlines again.
Stay tuned...
When I have updates I will let you all know.
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