Leave taking

 Early this evening, June 17, three ships departed Halifax in short order.

First off was the MOL Experience sailing from PSA Fairview Cove on THE Alliance's AL5 service North Europe / North America from Antwerp to Port Everglades.

 Built in 2007 by Hyundai Ulsan, it is a 54,098 gt, 62,953 dwt ship with a capacity of 4803 TEU including 330 reefers. MOL ships are usually very tidy looking, but there are long rust streaks on the hull from deck drains that tell a tale of hard use.
 

Next along was the cruise ship Island Princess out of New York for Boston. This is the ship's second call this year. The first call was June 6 when it sailed for Boston, Norfolk, Charleston and New York.

Dating from 2003 when it was delivered by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, the 91,627 gt ship has a capacity of 2,214 passengers (double occupancy) and 900 crew.

Last off was the large size container ship CMA CGM Cassiopeia sailing for New York on the OCEAN Alliance route from Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) and Tanger Med, Morocco. The ship departed PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway Pier 41 and by port regulation took two tethered stern escort tugs. The ship must be about maximum size for a single superstructure. Even some smaller ships have the bridge structure well forward to improve visibility, and separated from the machinery space well aft.

A 131,332 gt, 128,550 dwt ship with a capacity of 11,200 TEU, it was built in 2011 by Hyundai Ulsan. Once well underway and outside the pilotage zone, the ship diverted to offshore anchorage where it rendez-voused with the launch Halmar. There could be any number of reasons for this meet up, but as yet I have no details.

 

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