Our reporter, a passenger ferry captain, writes: “As per the timetable, we arrived at the standby location for the port at the required time. It was daylight, with good visibility and a stiff wind. We worked, as usual, on the pre-arrival checks and verifications as we closed on the berth. When I called the port per the pre-arrival checklist, I was informed that a large passenger liner had just let go and that I might have to ‘slow her up’ (referring to my vessel). However, given the proximity to the berth, the other boat and the increasingly confined waters, it was clear that I would have to lose speed quicker than I safely could. So, I had to opt for a rapid turn upwind (to avoid being set onto the nearby lee shore). I continued my turn and completed a 360, and during this time, the passenger liner was clear of the port and the berth we were aiming for. Our distance from the breakwater was approximately 3 cables when we started the turn.

For each port of arrival, we plan two abort positions. We had passed the first, where ‘Standby’ is rung on, the crew called to stations, pitch response is verified, and hand steering is engaged. We had not yet reached the second abort position (approximately four cables from the first), so a direct abort was still viable.

Shortly after passing the first abort and confirming the items mentioned, I called the harbour for permission to continue into the berth. I was given the all-clear whilst being advised of a departing cruise ship that might be leaving. The operator told me I “might want to slow her up a bit”, but it was now clear to me that I would need to abort the arrival to avoid a close-quarters situation with the cruise vessel, which was manoeuvring off her berth. Given the proximity of the lee shore to starboard, I elected to turn to port/upwind and gain distance from the shore, together with slackening speed to a minimum.

With the above avoidance measures well underway and having the desired effect, I communicated with the cruise vessel to establish which general direction they intended to take upon clearing the harbour to allow me to plan the rest of my manoeuvre and not result in additional unnecessary risk. With them advising a course to the east initially before turning to the north, I elected to complete a full 360, allowing time and space for the cruise ship to exit the immediate harbour area and for me to generally pick up the standard approach to our berth for arrival.

The main hazards were the proximity of the lee shore, with easterly winds, something that is factored into the passage plan to allow extra room, including the shoaling waters to the south of the berth; this knowledge allowed me to decide on early, positive and bold avoidance measures quickly, rather than allowing the risk to increase by proceeding onwards, even at a reduced speed, and allowing an unnecessary close quarters situation to develop.

As my vessel is on a timetabled service, we arrive and leave at the same time every day, weather permitting. Despite this, the cruise ship was allowed a departure that directly clashed with our arrival. A clash in movements such as this should have been avoided with a simple telephone call or email. After that, we could have timed our arrival later, thus preventing the situation above entirely.

It’s worth noting that the bridge team worked very well together in the initial arrival, the abort actions, and the passage/arrival resumption and subsequent safe berthing.

The port berthing officer was attending to a large container vessel’s berthing when he received a radio message from the mooring team to quickly head aft to investigate a serious incident during mooring operations.

The aft mooring launch sat at the stern of the containership, waiting for the third line to be lowered to them. Instead, the two lines that had been run ashore and were fast on the bollards were slackened off by the aft mooring team and dumped into the water. The launch tried to move away from the lines to avoid getting tangled. When the launch was almost clear, the ship heaved up on the two lines again, only to catch the mooring launch, lifting it out of the water and crushing against the underside of the ship’s flare. The two launch crew considered abandoning the craft, as the prolonged shouting and blast of their horn did not affect getting the crew’s attention. Finally, the ship’s after mooring crew realised what had happened and slackened off the lines. Other than the boat crew being severely shaken by the incident, there were no injuries to the crew but some damage to the mooring boat.

The pilot boarded a very large container ship at 0200 before it navigated into harbour. The wind was NNE 10 knots, the tidal current was to the SE, and visibility was good. The pilot noted after the incident that language difficulties reduced the effectiveness of spoken communication.

At about 0350 (1 hr and 30 mins after high water), the container ship commenced her swing to port off the berth. By 0405, with the swing completed, the vessel appeared to be setting south under the influence of wind and tide.

The vessel’s stern swung towards the quay and got close to one of the jetty cranes, so the pilot manoeuvred the vessel to avoid contact. They needed someone to report distances to the quay and other infrastructure as it was less than 10m from the jetty and a mooring dolphin. Three tugs were directed to pull the container ship away from the jetty, but it became apparent that the vessel had drifted due to wind and tide and had grounded on a charted shallow patch. The port authorities were informed, and a fourth tug was despatched to push onto the vessel’s port quarter. With this assistance, the ship safely manoeuvred off the shallow patch at 0506 and subsequently berthed without further incident after extensive checks on the hull’s watertight integrity.