Back to Work

 After the Christmas break things begin to get back to normal. Ships put out  to sea, terminals open up and before long there is a return to routine, perhaps even to clear an accumulated backlog.

That has certainly been the case in the Port of Halifax with considerable activity yesterday and today (December 27 and 28)

Two of the three ships anchored in Bedford Basin sailed today - heading in opposite directions. The Boskalis fleet mates Forte and Triumph, in port since December 15 and 16 respectively, ordered pilots for 0830hrs and 0915 hrs AST. That meant the pilot boat only had to make one trip out to Bedford Basin - a one half hour round trip at best.

The Foundation Pilot is the newest pilot boat in service in Halifax, completed this year by the Armon Shipyard in Puerto de Vega, Spain. The 60.54 gt boat arrived in Halifax May 25, 2024 as deck cargo on the Acadia Desgagnés. [see post of that date.]

First away was the Forte heading for Newport News in ballast. The ship shows very little freeboard, even as light ship, and must sometimes see its deck awash at sea.

Triumph followed soon after, heading for St.George's Bay, Newfoundland, (not St.George's Bermuda as AIS would have it.)[The crew member who programmed the AIS will be in for a shock when they arrive in wintery Newfoundland!] The large bay on the southwest coast of the island of Newfoundland is the location of the Port of Stephenville (formerly Port Harmon) where the former military port has become a staging area for offshore wind projects.

The Triumph's deck cargo of wind turbine towers, will be unloaded and stored in Stephenville for transfer to an installation vessel. Work has resumed on the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts after a five month shutdown when one of the (Canadian made) wind blades shattered and fell (in pieces) into the sea. The blade failure was traced to faulty adhesive which was not picked up by QA at GE's factory in Gaspé, QC. Existing blades may have been replaced and new testing procedures have been instituted.

Also in Bedford Basin in was the second ship in two days to load at Gold Bond Gypsum. CSL Spirit loaded and sailed for Tampa December 26 and fleet mate CSL Tacoma arrived this morning.

CSL Tacoma is a regular in Halifax and since its last call November 1 delivered its gypsum cargo to Wilmington, North Carolina, November 9 then proceeded to Puerto Drummond, Colombia to load coal November 14 to 15. I'm not sure why it stopped in Baltimore Decmber 11-12, but it then sailed to Belledune, NB where it unloaded the coal.

The CSL Tacoma, 43,691 gt, 71,405 dwt was built in 2013 by Changxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China and is a Trillium class self-unloader. It can discharge at 4,250 tonnes per hour of coal, 4,500 tph of gypsum, 5,000 tph aggregates and 6,000 tph iron ore.

The oil terminals in Halifax usually work right through holidays and that was certainly yhe case with Imperial Oil this year. The Canadian tanker Qikiqtaaluk W arrived December 24 with product from Sarnia and sailed early December 27 (sorry no photo). Its place at number 3 dock was almost immediately taken by the Malta flagged Aegea from anchorage off Halifax with product cargo from Antwerp.

SLS Shipbuilding Co in Tongyeong, South Korea built the ship as the Mare Di Venezia in 2008. The 29,683 gt, 51,371 dwt Medium Range tanker was renamed in 2018 when it changed hands from Gestioni Armatoriali SRL to Chandris Hellas.

There was also container ship activity, but that may be for another post.

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