As another maiden voyage arrives at the port of Felixstowe, the Ever Govern is fitted with the latest technology in reducing fuel consumption and SO2 scrubber fitted to the funnel to reduce harmful gasses being emitted. The Ever Govern was built in Japan and delivered to Evergreen in July 2019.
On her maiden voyage she arrived to Rotterdam heavily laden but while alongside she had taken a considerable amount of cargo off bringing her draught to just 10.4 metres bound for her next port of Felixstowe. With cargo operations in Rotterdam over running she was late departing which meant she would have a delayed pilot boarding at the Sunk inbound for Felixstowe.
At 13:00UTC, a Harwich Haven pilot boards the Ever Govern at the Sunk Pilot Station for the inbound journey in to the harbour. Once onboard he radios Harwich VTS to confirm he was onboard with a maximum draught of 10.4 metres with no defects from her last port of Rotterdam and inbound for Felixstowe 9. He continued that he would like two tugs for berthing one outside and one inside. VTS replies that was all copied, and continued that there was a ready berth planned port side to Felixstowe Berth 9 and updated the pilot on the wind on the Landguard Gauge, height of tide and any conflicting traffic. Duty tug copied the conversation and awaits the arrival of the maiden voyage vessel.
Svitzer Kent breaks away from the tug pontoon area and heads out of the harbour to be the centre lead aft tug. On approach to the harbour, the pilot radios the Kent and confirms that he would like both tugs on the centre leads fore and aft. Svitzer Deben heads towards the Beach End and awaits them to round the 90° turn into the harbour.
As she enters the harbour, Deben makes her approach to make fast centre lead forward, a weighted heaving line was thrown down to the Deben to attach their tow gear to be sent up to be made fast on the bollard.
The pilot uses the Kent as a brake so gets them to build power astern. The pilot then runs the engine astern. Deben forward, asks the pilot which way he was swinging, he replied that it would be a port swing off the berth.
Reduced to a crawl, the pilot gets the Deben to move out onto the p shoulder and take her around. After a couple of moments the pilot gets the Kent to move out on the starboard quarter and build power to take the stern around. The pilot kicks the engine astern as she swings to give better clearance of the Shelf Buoy for the Deben.
Completing the 180° swing the Deben and Kent back away onto the starboard side in to check position ready to straighten her and hold her against the wind and tide. Very gently she makes contact alongside the fenders, the crew forehand aft throw down a heaving line attached to the spring lines. The springs are lowered down to the mooring gang where they make her fast port side to Felixstowe Berth 9 head out.
