Very light and empty Cezanne swings for Felixstowe Berth 8 with 2 tugs 5th November 2017

Apologies for the mistake in the opening sequence.

The 299.9 metre x 48.19 metre Cezanne arrives to Felixstowe completely empty from Wilhelmshaven in Germany. The Harwich Haven pilot @rascalmaster boards the ship roughly 12 miles out in the North sea for the inward passage into the harbour.

As they head inbound the pilot radios Harwich VTS to confirm they were inbound for Felixstowe Berth 8 with a maximum draught of just 8.8 metres and would required 2 tugs for berthing, the first one outside the harbour centre lead aft and the second at the Beach End somewere on the starboard shouler but as she only had a 5 metre draught at the bow, the forward tug would have to see where it was suitable to make fast and ti will be a starboard swing.

Approaching the harbour the tugs and pilot go on the working channel 12 on the radio to go through the plan of berthing. The Cezanne, a ship hiding her true identity, gracefully enters the harbour completely empty with water splashing around as her propeller becomes visable. On a Northerly heading the ship begins to misbehave in the brisk WNW wind and starts turning to port so the pilot changes his plan from a starboard swing to a port swing.

Shortly after that the pilot gets the Sky to push up on the bow while the Kent chucks up black smoke as they pick up the pace onto the starboard side. The Sky on the bow builds up to full while the Kent increases to 75% but soon has to go all easy and shorten the line as the new build Milan Maersk on Berth 9 was getting a bit close for comfort. 

Almost swung around the Sky comes away from the ships side into a check position and builds to a 50 check as the bow was still swinging. The pilot comes astern to get closer to the berth while the Kent moves onto the port quarter to take her towards the berth. Shortly afer the Kent switches sides and gets in a check position as the Cezanne swiftly makes her approach on the berth. A few trickles astern and about 30 metres off the berth fore and aft, the pilot steadies her up and gently goes onto the fenders to go portside to Felixstowe Berth 8.

Heaving lines for the spring were thrown to the mooring gang followed by the fore and aft lines before the pilot comes on the radio to say they were all fast alongside and shutting down.