SHE has been at the centre of one of the biggest and most dramatic rescue operations ever launched in the Solent.

The Hoegh Osaka has played out a staggering maritime saga fraught with twists and turns and hampered by ferocious storms since being deliberately ran aground off Southampton.

Now final preparations are being made for her long-awaited return to the city tomorrow night – more than a fortnight after she set sail from the port.

Today salvage teams are making final arrangements before towing the 51,000 tonne vessel into port after high tide at midnight.

Bad weather The huge operation – which rests entirely on the whim of Mother Nature – is being orchestrated by the Svitzer salvage team and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

Previous attempts had been delayed by last week’s high winds and torrential rain.

But yesterday the critical moment came when the salvage crews pumped out all of the water from the vessel being held at Alpha Anchorage off Lee-on-the-Solent.

Last night they were pumping excess water in the car decks into the ship’s empty fuel tanks to gradually ease it upright.

The MCA announced the ship’s listing had been reduced from 52 degrees to 47 degrees – down five degrees from when it was deliberately beached on nearby Bramble Bank off East Cowes and towed to her current holding position.

An MCA spokeswoman expects Osaka to be towed into port in the early hours of Thursday morning with crews hoping to re-start her engines enabling her to cover some of the final distance on her own steam.

The spokeswoman said: “Operations are progressing well. The weather has been favourable and is forecast to remain so, although the salvors are still working in challenging conditions.

“Preparations are under way to begin the operation to pump the water that remains in the car decks into the empty fuel tanks on the ship.

“The list is now at 47 degrees and we expect it to improve slowly over the coming hours in accordance with the plan.”

A spokesman for Svitzer said safety is of paramount importance but everything is going “according to plan” and added: “They will want to do it gradually to ensure they don’t want to pump too much to overbalance her.

“It’s got to be a buoyancy that is safe.”

The 51,000-tonne ship, which has a cargo of 1,400 cars and 105 pieces of construction equipment, was beached deliberately on Bramble Bank sandbank, near Southampton, on January 3 after it began listing as it left the port.

It floated free from the sandbank on the high tide on January 7 and has since been anchored at a spot two miles east called Alpha Anchorage, near Lee-on-the-Solent.

An air exclusion zone of one mile wide and 2,000ft high has been put in place to facilitate helicopter operations.

The port is expected to remain open during the operation.