Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Winter Break

 The Oceanex Sanderling has been plowing a regular furrow between Halifax and St.John's since 1988. Sailing from Halifax on Fridays, it normally returns to Halifax by mid-week. Since it was last tuned up in a major refit in Amsterdam in 2022 the ship has been once again capable of two trips a week if necessary, but has not done so to my knowledge since November 2021. In August of last year Oceanex moved its container and trailer operations from the South End Container Terminal to Fairview Cove, and still handles automobiles at Autoport.

This week it moved its schedule up a bit and the Oceanex Sanderling arrived in Halifax yesterday, Tuesday, January 30 and went to Pier 25 instead of PSA Fairview Cove.

It was soon attended by the dive tender Dominion Bearcat, which has been alongside all day yesterday and all day today.  (What appears to be ice in the water at the bow, is snow dumperd there from clearing operations at nearby piers.)

It is also worth noting that the ship has very few containers on deck - somewhat unusual - since it normally has a substantial deckload:

The ship had a more usual deck load when it arrived on Wednesday January 24.

Oceanex has a Saturday, February 3 departure scheduled for the ship, so whatever work is going on below the waterline appears to have been built into this week's schedule.

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