Overnight from 25 to 26 September 2011, the GRANDE SIERRA LEONE docked at the Unikai terminal at the Port of Hamburg for the first time. It is the first sailing of the newbuild in the West Africa service operated by Grimaldi Lines. The GRANDE SIERRA LEONE joins the “Southern Express” service of the Grimaldi Lines, which now operates with a total of six ConRo ships and links Hamburg with the West African ports of Casablanca, Dakar, Conakry, Lome, Pointe Noire, Luanda and Douala. On the south-bound leg, the port rotation includes Amsterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Bilbao, Leixoes and Lisbon. The deployment of the GRANDE SIERRA LEONE allows Grimaldi to step up the frequency of departures to West Africa from ten to eight days.