Express Athens departure from Felixstowe berth 9 with 2 tugs 17th July 2017. APL Charleston

Ex Hanjin Greece renamed Express Athens due to Hanjin going into liquidation and disburst, the ship which was on charter to them was taken back and put on a 4-12 month charter to OOCL for a cost of $13,000 a day. She sails as part of the Asia-Northern Europe loop 1. For some reason the smaller ships on the alliance only visit Felixstowe and Rotterdam then back to Felixstowe to pick up almost a full load of Empties before sailing via the Suez Canal to Singapore.

The 10114TEU vessel measures 349 metres x 45.6 metres and has a maximum draft of 15.5 metres.

Her departure time was 2200 hours but during the early hours of the 17th her departure was bought forward to 1500.

The pilot boards the Express Athens and orders 2 Svitzer tugs to help with the lift off from the berth. Mooring gang in attendance, the 2 tugs Svitzer Sky and Svitzer Kent leave the pontoon and head for the Athens. Both tugs were made fast on the centre lead fore and aft. Sky aft and Kent forward.

Before the Kent was made fast the crew onboard wanted to slacken and retrieve 2 of the offshore head lines to make it easier to make fast the Kent.

Once all lines were released the pilot gets both tugs to pull straight off at 50% then the Kent increases up to 75% releasing black smoke from the exhausts. 

Edging in to the channel the pilot comes ahead on the main engine releasing a huge plume of continuous black smoke. As she comes ahead the pilot gets the Kent to come in and let go. He peels off to the Felixstowe side while the Sky is held for a few minutes longer and then comes in to let go. Sky retrieves their line and begin to come away from the transom leaving the pilot to help the captian navigate the ship to the Sunk.

Deano C

APL Charleston departs Felixstowe Berth 6 with the help of Svitzer Deben 17th July 2017