British arrivals, new cruise news and another tanker update

 British Arrival #1 As usual when Cunard's Queen Mary 2 visits Halifax people flock to the waterfront to see it arrive and depart. This morning's (September 25) arrival was delayed, with its ETA at the pilot station changing a couple of times, but eventually picking up its pilot at about 0930 hrs ADT. Nevertheless there were small groups of viewers at various spots along the shore with cameras and smart phones at the ready.

The ship is on a long loop that started in Southampton on September 15 with stops in New York, Rockland ME, and Halifax. It will sail from here for Sept-Iles, Saguenay, Quebec City, Sydney, New York, Newport, Boston, Southampton October 13 and Hamburg October 15.

The ship had the entire Seawall (berths 20 to 22) to itself today, so did not need to use the bright yellow bollard at the end of north end of Pier 20. That bollard, which is visible in today's photo (you may have to squint) is known familiarly as the "Queen Mary bollard" named for this ship's  illustrious predecessor. It has a companion bollard at the south end of Pier 22 which the ship very likely did use today.

As noted in some previous posts, the yellow colour of the bollard represents a maximum load limit of 150 tonnes and is the highest capacity type of bollard in the port. See: May 19, 2022 and May 20, 2022

The small object off the ships starboard bow is likely the tug Dominion Rumbler with the sanitation barge Dominion Branwyn. I saw the duo getting underway September 23 from their base in Dartmouth Cove to service other cruise ships.

The barge is a former Canadian Naval Auxiliary vessel, a fresh water lighter, believed to be YSF 220. If so, it was built in 1956 by Marine Industries in Sorel, QC likely as an ammunition lighter YE 220 and later converted to a water barge YW 220 before becoming YSF 220. When acquired by Dominion Diving it was assigned the less salubrious name Honey Barge but was given its present name a few years ago.
 

British Arrival #2 The second British arrival may not have been as happy a one. The RSS (for Royal Research Ship) Discovery has been working off Nova Scotia for the past weeks, likely for the Bedford Institute. The Discovery put in to Halifax briefly this afternoon, September 25, for a medical evacuation. 

The transfer to the launch Halmar took place at number one anchorage, after which the ship returned immediately back to sea.
  

Cruise News

A new to Halifax cruise ship arrived in Halifax today, September 25.  The French Compagnie du Ponant operates Le Lyrial under the flag of Wallis and Futuna, an overseas collective of France situated between Tahiti and Noumea. The port of registry is Mata Utu.

 Fincantieri's Ancona shipyard delivered Le Lyrial in 2015. The 10,992 gt ship can accommodate 264 passengers and 139 crew. It is on a nine day outing from Montreal to Quebec City, Saguenay, Percé, Cap-aux-Meules and Halifax then on to Boston, Oak Bluffs (Martha's Vineyard), Newport and New York.

More Tanker Update 

Thanks to a well informed source I can report that the "mystery" short return visit of the CB Pacific (see two previous posts), was indeed to discharge a small quanity of cargo. The shore facility reached capacity before the ship offloaded all of its ethanol cargo on a previous visit in August, so the ship carried on with deliveries of other products for Irving Oil (the ship has many segregated tanks and can carry and handle a dozen or so discrete chemicals at the same time). On this recent return visit it offloaded the remaining 5000 cubic meters of ethanol.

The source also reported that the ship has signed a five year charter with Valero, so we may see more of the ship in the future. Valero has a large tank capacity in Eastern Passage, but has not had direct tanker deliveries in several years.

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