Weekend Round Up

Halifax harbour is always bustling at the height  of summer, but mostly with tourist and recreational activity. Commercial activity goes on, but at a reduced level.

I wasn't the only one that had the idea of taking a picture of the same subject.

Asphalt Sailor arrived Thursday and remains tied up at Pier 9B. The small tanker is no stranger to Halifax. On its first two calls here in 2014 it loaded asphalt in transfer operations from other tankers. It made two calls here in February of this year, both times to deliver asphalt to the McAsphalt facility in Eastern Passage.
On this visit the ship is in ballast.

A passenger takes a panorama of the Halifax skyline from the upper deck of the cruise ship Insignia

as it prepares to leave on Saturday. Note the container strapped down on deck below the funnel - it was not there last year before a fatal fire in the engine room. 

The cruise ship Insignia called on Saturday. This the ship's second visit to Halifax - it's first was October 12, 2014.  Not long after that, on December 11, 2014 it suffered an engine room fire shortly after tying up in Castries, St. Lucia. Two contractors and one crew man died but all 656 passengers managed to flee the ship and were flown back to Miami. The ship was sent to San Juan, PR for repairs.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/cruiselog/2014/12/23/oceania-insignia-around-the-world-cruise/20822857/
No official report has been issued yet, and there are still questions about the crew's emergency response.

Insignia outbound at dusk Saturday evening.

Meanwhile down the shore, Lunenburg welcomed the replica of Hermione, a French frigate of 1779 on the return leg of its voyage from France to the USA when it tied up near the finally rebuilt Bluenose II.

Did anyone miss the irony of this visit? This perfect replica, built with authentic materials and methods, and through public subscription, did not embarrass the French government one iota - nor presumably cost them much, if any, in money. (The government's investment was more than recouped with tourism dollars and was part of a larger project to restore Rochefort.)

Instead the high profile and ridiculously well organized project makes everyone look good.
Perhaps next time Nova Scotia?  http://www.hermione2015.com/


Normal harbour traffic on Saturday included the tanker Jo Provel, on its way to Come-by-Chance, NL with a load of crude oil.

Amid more political talk about pipelines and western oil and the North American Free Trade Agreement, here  is crude oil being imported to the refinery closest to Newfoundland's own offshore oil.
Flying Norway's International registration flag, the ship was built by STX in Jinahae, South Korea and measures 42,203 grt, 75,013 dwt - very small as crude oil tankers go. After a Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspection for Asian gypsy moth, the ship sailed in the early afternoon.

Speaking of refining, the bunkering tanker Algoma Dartmouth sailed for Point Tupper again to load more bunker fuel. The commodity is no longer available in Halifax because Imperial Oil is not refining it here, nor apparently, willing to import and store it on its vast tank farm site.

Algoma Dartmouth normally carries large pneumatic fenders on its starboard side when delivering  bunkers, but these are removed when it heads to sea.

Sunday morning was the time chosen to move HMCS Ville de Quebec out of the graving dock at Halifax Shipyard. It was then positioned at the Machine Shop Wharf for completion of the shipyard portion of its FELEX refit. It began the 18 month process last November.

Tugs Atlantic Larch (stern) and Atlantic Willow perform the cold move from the graving dock.

The graving dock will now be prepared for the next ship in the FELEX sequence, HMCS Toronto, the last of the seven six ships from the Atlantic fleet to undergo the modernization program. (There are also "stand alone" projects being done on the ships, not part of FELEX - these are generally done at HMC Dockyard after the ship leaves the shipyard.)

The entire program is due to be complete by 2018 (including the five six west coast ships which are being refitted at Seaspan in Vancouver.)

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Re-paving in the Basin

In a semi-repeat of the July 12 operation there was another transfer of asphalt cargo in Bedford Basin today.
[See http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2014/07/bunkering-in-basin.html for the July operation].

The smaller of the two tankers, Asphalt Sailor was also here for the July operation and received cargo from a larger tanker. In July it was Asphalt Eagle, but this time it was Asphalt Star. A similar ship of 28,559 grt, 46,432 dwt, it was also built by Onomichi Dockyard, but in 1996. It carried the name Asia Pioneer to  1997, then Seajoy to 2001, before signing on with current operators Chronos Shipping of Greece.

Both ships arrived at anchor about midnight last night, with Asphalt Star anchoring and Asphalt Sailor berthing alongside. A pair of large rubber fenders of the Yokohama type, were positioned between the two ships.

Late this afternoon when the transfer operation was completed, the tug Atlantic Willow came in to assist Asphalt Sailor to get away.

Asphalt Sailor was first through the Narrows, It was then the turn of Roseway to marshal the two fenders and take them back to Dominion Diving Ltd.
 

A mountain of gypsum ore looms above the treeline on the Dartmouth shore as Roseway makes for the Narrows.

 

Finally after weighing anchor, Asphalt Star sailed into the Narrows and out to sea.  Both tankers are specially fitted to carry asphalt, and to keep it heated and liquid during transit.

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Cargo Transfer in the Basin - Updated

Two tankers met in the Bedford Basin this morning for a transfer operation. Bunkering happens frequently in the Basin, but this is different.

First to arrive was the handymax tanker Asphalt Eagle owned by Chronos Shipping of Athens, and flying the Greek flag. A typical product of the Onomichi Dockyard in Japan, measuring 27, 284 grt, 46,178 dwt. Since it was built in 2004 it carried the names Iver Eagle to 2005 and Seto Eagle to 2009. It is understood to be under charter to Sargent Marine, of Boca Raton, FL, the world's largest asphalt tanker operation. ]The company is presently embroiled in an internecine feud between father and two sons against a third son, but that may not be relevant to this particular ship arrival.]
[For all you need to know see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Sargeant_III  and: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304744304579248483324834704 ]

No sooner had it secured at anchor, in came the much smaller 6,292 grt, 9,240 dwt tanker Asphalt Sailor. The Marshall Islands flag tanker was built in 2006 by Kraljevica Shipyard in Croatia, and is owned directly by Sargent Marine.  It came alongside and tied up to the anchored Asphalt Eagle and transfer operations began soon after.

No oil booms were deployed, which indicates to me that the smaller tanker may be bunkering the larger one. If it were a cargo transfer operation I assume that there would be more stringent precautions taken against a spill. However, the larger tanker's hose boom is in use, so it may in fact be a cargo transfer

I do not recall a foreign tanker ever bunkering another ship in Halifax. From the 1980s or so, only Imperial Oil provided bunkering service in Halifax. Before that Irving Oil and Foundation Maritime also did bunkering. When Imperial stopped refining in Halifax last year, Sterling Fuels took over port bunkering service, chartering the Algoma Dartmouth, which had previously been used by Imperial. Sterling has been acquiring diesel fuel from Imperial, but they send the Algoma Dartmouth to New York for heavier fuels. To date it has made three such trips.

As for cargo transfers, they are equally rare. There have been instances where ships with damage came in to Halifax and transferred their fuel to other ships, but there has not been one of those in many moons either.



Update: A closer look from a different angle reveals a transfer hose slung from Eagle's boom.

Update 2, 2014-07-13
Both tankers ailed this morning and it was obvious by the draft marks on Asphalt Sailor that it has indeed transferred cargo from the Asphalt Eagle, so it was not a bunkering operation.

Asphalt Sailor was the first to go, and it was well down on its marks, indicating that it had loaded cargo from Aspahlt Eagle. Note the elaborate heating plant amidships to keep its cargo in liquid state to allow for pumping. Its destination is Providence, RI.

Next along was the tug Roseway with two fenders, one on each side, which had been used to keep the two ships apart during the transfer. There was no oil boom used.

Asphalt Eagle took some time to weigh anchor, but once underway made its way through the Narrows, giving Portland, Maine as its destination.

As stated previously petroleum cargo transfers in Halifax are not unheard of, but are rare except in case of emergencies where casualties have to be lightered off, or for ships to reduce draft. There have been transfers to ice class tankers for transit up the St.Lawrence. It is rare however to have a transfer for what appear to be solely convenience or commercial purposes.

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