Most ships spend Christmas at sea. They thus avoid costly overtime charges for working during the holiday. Longshore worker wages can be triple the normal rate if the port or terminal is working. It can often be the case that the terminals or loading / unloading ports are not working, but there still may be charges for security and berthing.
In Halifax this Christmas both container terminals were not working and other port facilities were shut down. The anchorages were available however, and as it turned out three more ships took advantage of that fact. (Two ships, the heavy load carriers the Forte and Triumph have been at anchor since December 15 and 16 respectively.)
Late on Monday December 23 the bulk carrier CSL Spirit arrived from Point Tupper, NS, where it had unloaded a cargo of coal from Puerto Drummond, Columbia. The ship docked at Gold Bond Gypsum shortly after midnight to load. In the early afternoon of December 24 the ship moved out to anchor in Bedford Basin. Most business operations close at noon on Christmas Eve and presumably Gold Bond shut down its operation. The ship remained at anchor through Christmas Day and then this morning, December 26, it moved back alongside to continue loading.
The Gold Bond dock in Wright's Cove, Lower Burnside, is visible from the Halifax side of the harbour, but not the best for photography. The mobile ship loader can be seen well forward, but did not appear to be working when I took the pic at about 16000 hrs.
Built in Shanghai by Jiangnan it is a 41,428 gt, 70,018 dwt ship with an unloading rate of 4,000 tonnes per hour for coal and 6,000 tonnes per hour for ore. Due to water depth at the terminal it will not be loading to full capacity in Halifax. It is due to sail this evening for Tampa.
In a similar way the UBC Tarragona moved out from the PSA Fairview Cove terminal at mid-night December 23 and anchored in Bedford Basin. The ship had been unloading containers (see previous post) despite being a general cargo / bulk carrier, not rated for containers.
The only arrival in Halifax on Christmas Day was the Port Tokyo an Ultramax bulker of 35,825 gt, 63,475 dwt built in 2019 by Imabari Zosen in Imabari, Japan. It anchored in number 5 anchorage in the lower harbour.
The ship is equipped with four cranes at 30.5 tonnnes capacity and carries its own grabs. They are painted yellow and conveniently stowed adjacent the hatches. The ship operates for Portline Bulk International SA, the former Portuguese state shipping copmany (privatised in 1991).
The ship appears to be loaded and arrived from Port Gladstone, Australia (October 30) via Las Palmas (December 12 - 14) and is headed for Sept-Iles, QC. It was due in that port December 25, but presumably ducked in to Halifax to avoid bad weather in the Gulf. It is scheduled to sail December 27. Its cargo (by inference) is alumina (or processed bauxite) one of several bulk commodities handled in Port Gladstone. It is the only signifocant import to Sept-Iles, the location of the Aluminerie Alouette. the largest primary aluminum smelter in the western hemisphere. It is owned by a consortium of international companies with Rio Tinto Alcan the largest at 40%. It is powered by eletricity generated at Churchill Falls, and sold (until now) at a highly discounted rate to Hydro-Québec. Recent negotiations between Newfoundland and Quebec may result in a new contract that will result in Hydro-Québec paying a fair market price to Newfoundland and Labrador for the power. What effect this may have on Aluminerie Alouette remains to be seen.
There was little other activity in Halifax over Christmas, with the ship Oceanex Sanderling overnighting at Autoport until late December 26.
Aside from the idle offshore ships Connector and Symphony and the cable ships IT Intrepid and IT Integrity, there was the coastal tanker Qikiqtaaluk W at Imperial Oil and the container ship CMA CGM John Adams arriving December 23 and sailing late December 26. It remained alongside PSA Atlantic hub over Christmas - an unusual event as the terminal would otherwise be completely shut down.
(Unfortunately for crew who might enjoy some time ashore, the city was blanketed with heavy snow, making it difficualt to get around. Most businesses were closed from December 24 to December 27. The mixed blessing may be that crews did not fall prey to greedy locals who will only exchange US dollars for Canadian at par. This practice is especially inexcusable on two counts - one being that the Canadian dollar is trading at an all time low against the US dollar [around 70 cents] and second that foreign sailors are very poorly paid. It is a shame that some merchants are willing to take advantage in this way, with hard working sailors who have no recourse save the friendly intervention of local citizens and the fine work of the Mission to Seafarers.)
Work resumed on all fronts in the harbour December 26 with the usual array of arrivals and departures.
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