Unplanned deviation led to grounding

摘要

Shortly after sunset on a calm evening, a large inbound container vessel was approaching the pilot boarding position about 1 nm northeast of the harbour's breakwater entrance. As the pilot was to transfer from an outbound coastal tanker, he instructed the container ship to move to the starboard side (west) of the recommended track to avoid the tanker and maintain minimum speed, which for this vessel was 7kt. As soon as the tanker had exited the breakwater, the pilot's launch transferred him to the container ship. This operation lasted nearly eight minutes, by which time the vessel was very close to the breakwater and nearly parallel with it. On reaching the bridge, the pilot realised the unfavourable situation but instead of consulting the master or aborting the approach, he ordered half ahead and hard-a-starboard, with the intention of steering the ship around the breakwater head.