Apart from negotiating some semi-submerged obstructions on the approach, there were no problems berthing on the inside of the landing stage on my trip. The waterjet-propelled vessel is quite manoeuvrable. However, it was an ebb-tide that afternoon. THAMES SWIFT is specially designed to use V shaped berths commonly found around the port to provide safe and easy boarding and it is to one of these that she berths on the Tilbury side, on the inside of the stage. Berthing must be a bit more difficult when making a stern-tide fetch.
Embarking and disembarking is very easy at the Tilbury side, where ship's deck and berth are dead level. Not so at the Gravesend terminal, where the large step twixt ship and berth will present difficulty to less-mobile and eldery passengers or those with heavy baggage (such as those coming off or heading for a cruise ship at Tilbury)