I’ve been following the Mersey shipping scene for 26 years and Ive seen many ferries come and go in that time but ive never seen one arrive for the first time that was to be ‘one of ours’ until today.

Thanks to the heads up from a couple of friends last night I found out that the Stena Forecaster was on her way and would be at Birkenhead at 10am today. So I got up early, checked the ship’s AIS at 08:15 and found her treading water off the east coast of Anglesey near Lynas point to collect her pilot for her first ever passage to Birkenhead.

It was a wild night last night and the ship was running a little late by my simple maths but nevertheless I set off with an ETA of 09:45 into Liverpool so I could see the Stena Lagan leave for Belfast and hopefully catch the outgoing Stena Forerunner that had been our temporary vessel since last summer. The Stena Lagan had recently returned to service following her annual overhaul at Belfast so she was looking particularly tidy.

I arrived in time wrapped up well to face the cold and the 49mph winds that were blowing across the river. As the Lagan was due away at 10:30 I figured the inbound Forecaster would be around 11am so I waited…..and waited and waited whilst receiving ongoing reports from a friend on the other side of the river.

The Lagan was running late. Lorry after lorry went aboard with the vessel clearly looking like she was going to have a full load.

The Stena Forecaster had recently completed a charter carrying Airbus components from France to the United States where a new final assembly plant has been built to complete Airbus aircraft largely for the US market and had been back and forth across the Atlantic but has now been replaced by Spirit of Montoir.

The Forecaster could be seen over the horizon near New Brighton at around 11:15 but the Lagan was still loading so the possibility of seeing three Stena Ships together was increasingly lightly and indeed by the time the Forecaster has arrived the Lagan was still loading so she sailed past the berths at twelve quays and down towards Cammell Laird.

At 12:00 the Stena Lagan finally sailed for Belfast closely followed by the Stena Forerunner which was to be returned to her usual North Sea route between Harwich and Rotterdam (Europoort).

Sadly my hope of getting the Forerunner and Forecaster together at twelve quays was thwarted when the Forecaster sailed back towards the terminal and berthed at the North berth which had just been vacated by her sister although I did manage to get them both in several shots together.

Once Stena Forecaster was safely berthed I headed into town for a much needed coffee and when I returned she had been joined by the Ben-my-Chree which had arrived late from Douglas and wa just putting her ramps down.

I decided to cross the river and head to Seacombe for more shots of the two together and the Ben leaving. She was again well loaded, so much so that she too was running late and it was 3pm by the time she sailed.

All in all a very busy time for twelve quays. Welcome Stena Forecaster!