Three Car Carriers times Four

 It is unusual to see three car carriers in Halifax in one day, but it happened today April 5. If that was not enough one of them arrived twice.

The Morning Peace arrived first thing yesterday morning at Autoport then moved in the early evening to Pier 9C and unloaded the usual lot of forestry, agriculture, mining and construction machinery.

This was a return visit for the ship, which called here February 28 also on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean transatlantic route. Since then it went to New York, Brunswick, GA, Goteborg, Bremerhaven and Zeebrugge. A 2017 product of Hyundai Samho, the 66,802 gt, 22,438 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,368 (or 7,549 depending on the source) cars. 

It sailed this morning for New York.

 

Another arrival from yesterday was the Grande Marocco, which last here February 24. This time I was able to take a picture without scaring off the local duck and gull population.

 

Built in 2010 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan, Grande Marocco is a 47,636 gt, 25,725 dwt ship with a container capacity of 800 TEU and a car/van capacity of 2,000. It has a large number of farm tractors and at least two mobile cranes on the open deck. It arrived from the Vigo, Livorno, Savona, and Gioia Tauro.

It was scheduled to sail at noon time, but in fact did not depart until mid to late afternoon, giving Davisville, RI as destination.(On its last visit it went to Baltimore - so this time it may be a diversion.)

With the Grande Marocco intending to sail at noontime, the next arriving auto carrier made its way in to the harbour. Morning Cindy intended to standby in the harbour anchorages, leaving room for the other ship to clear the berth and head out to sea.

Instead, when the Grande Marocco did not sail on the scheduled time, the Morning Cindy put back out to sea rather than anchoring, and made another arrival later in the afternoon. It then proceeded directly to Autoport.

Built in 2012 by Imabari Zosen in Marugame, Japan, the 59,580 gt 18,735 dwt ship has a capacity of 6,142 cars. Its route to Halifax was a little unusual, which may explain why it has not been seen here before. On January 27 it sailed from the Japanese port of Toyohashi and called at Nagoya, Sagunto the made directly for Portbury, UK (on the Bristol Channel), presumably via the Cape of Good Hope. It then procceded to Zeebrugge, Southampton and Marchwood (in Southampton water), sailing March 27. Marchwood is known as a military port.

There will be a let up in auto carrier traffic for a few days, with the next scheduled arrival, the Morning Lady, due on April 9, also from Southampton.

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