It was a dark, dank and drizzly May 20 morning for hellos and goodbyes for visitors to the Port of Halifax.

 

Hello

 An inaugural call from the Swan Hellenic vessel SH Diana was the first notable arrival.

Delivered by Helsinki Shipyard in March of 2023, the SH Diana is a "pocket cruiser" of 12,255 gt with beds for 192 passengers in 96 staterooms and a crew of 140. It is a Polar Class 6 ship with many amenities to make it suitable for arctic and Antarctic cruising.

 

 

After the ship's inaugural cruise to the Mediterranean last year it made its way to Ushuaia, Argentina, its base for Antarctic cruises. In March of this year it cruised northward up the South American west coast and in April called in Acapulco. After transiting the Panama Canal it stopped in Santa Marta, Santo Domingo, New York (May 15) and Boston (May 18-19).

 

 

As a smaller ship, it berthed at Pier 23. I noted the docking platform at the bow with several crew members set to send heaving lines to the pier. Also the steel plating at the anchor pockets, to protect the hull during the ship's frequent periods at anchor.

 

The SH Diana is now headed for Greenland, then Norway and eventually the Mediterranean again.

 

Good bye

Two German naval vessels that had been in Halifax since Friday, May 17 put out to sea mid-morning. (See Friday's post for details on the ships.)

The ships were tied up side by side at Pier 20, so the outside ship, FGS Baden-Würtemburg was first to go.

 

 

The civilian tigs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Bear pulled the ship away from its companion and it was soon underway. It was then the turn of the Canadian Naval Auxiliary tug Listerville to move in and retrieve three "Yokohama" type inflated fenders from the inside ship FGS Frankfurt am Main.

Once the Listerville was clear, the same two tugs moved in to unberth the larger ship.

 

 

 

At some point it was decided to call for a third tug and the Atlantic Beaver "stormed in" from its berth across the harbour at Dartmouth Cove. Its job was the push against the ship at midships, to keep it alongside and reduce strain on the mooring lines until they could be let go. (A contingent of Canadian navy ratings was on the pier to let the lines go.)

 

 

FGS Frankfurt am Main carries two helicopters which were in view Saturday, but today they were tucked away safely in their hangars. (The ship can land larger helicopters of the Sea King class.)

 

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MSC Alyssa Makes a Splash

 Arriving today, April 7, on the Mediterranean Shipping Company's Canada Express 2 route from Sines, Portugal for Montreal, the MSC Alyssa faced a brisk headwind. The camera flattens the waves, and so does the wind, but the texture of the water is an indicator that it was very breezy.

The tugs Atlantic Beaver and Atlantic Oak met the ship inside Mauger's Beach and prepared to make up foreward and aft (respectively).

Despite several attempts the heaving line from the ship's bow kept blowing away and the deck hands on the Atlantic Beaver were getting soaked and perhaps dangerously so. 

 Fortunately Azimuthing Stern Drive tugs can work well going astern so the tug master peeled away and turned to come alongside stern first. This provided a bit of a lee for the tug's deck hands to make up their winch line to the ship's heaving line, but not before the tug was inundated with spray. (The winch is on the foredeck).

The Atlantic Beaver's after deck, which is much lower than the bow, took a lot of water. 

With the quantity of water streaming from the clearing ports there may have been more than a foot on deck.

 The white arrow on the ship's hull indicates a safe pushing point for the tug. The light heaving line can be seen draped over the ship's name.

Eventually the connection was made and the ship berthed successfully at Pier 42. (The flock of eider ducks were disinterested spectators.)

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Quiet Day

 Today, March 28, will be a quiet day in the harbour. The only scheduled arrivals are the Atlantic Sail at 1500 hrs and the CSL Tacoma at 2300 hrs. Therefore I have looked backward a few hours to a departure from last evening.With Daylight Saving Time now in effect, and with the days growing longer, it is still light enough in the early evening for some photography.

Last evening's departure was the general cargo ship Fairwind Legion from Pier 9C. (The pilot was called for 1900 hrs ADT).

 Deckhands rig the pilot ladder as the ship clears Pier 9C.

The ship arrived in Halifax March 11 (see Shipfax of that date) and was fitted with fibreoptic cable storage racks (called tanks). With that work completed, the ship sailed for Portsmouth, NH to load the cable.

As a relatively small ship, it was able to turn directly off the pier without having to go to Bedford Basin to turn. It did use two tugs however: Atlantic Beaver and Atlantic Willow.

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Ale for the Basin, Morning Celine for Pier 9C

 A resident of Pier 9C since January 3, [see January 4 post]  the bulk carrier Ale was obliged to move off the berth today January 18 to make way for another ship. The autocarrier Morning Celine will be moving this afternoon from Autoport to unload machinery at Pier 9C. 

Tugs Atlantic Fir (bow) and Atlantic Beaver (stern) tow the disabled Ale from Pier 9C to anchorage in Bedford Basin.

  The hardluck Ale damaged its hull, rudder and propellor in September when it ran aground in Long Pond, NL. It was towed to Méchins, QC for temporary repairs by the tugs Atlantic Larch and Atlantic Fir. In December it was to be taken in tow by the Italian tug Kamarina and headed for Setubal, Portugal for permanent repairs. [The nature of the damage was beyond the capability of the Verreault shipyard to repair due to other commitments for its drydock, and winter conditions.] 

However when leaving the drydock, the ship made contact with one or two of the shipyard tugs and a tanker that was lying alongside. [It did not run aground contrary to early reports]. Then while in the Gulf of St.Lawrence, one leg of the towing bridle parted and the tug and ship diverted to Halifax to re-establish the connection. 

 

The Ale does not have the use of its own engine or steering, so is required to have a tug alongside at all times when at anchor. The tug Kamarina moved to be alongside the ship for the day.

 The tug Kamarina moved to Bedford Basin anchorage Monday, January 16 (date of photo).

Once the Morning Celine completes its operations late this evening the Ale will be returned to Pier 9C nad Kamarina will move back to another anchorage position in Bedford Basin.

In order to unload at Pier 9C the Morning Celine has to dock "starboard side to" because its stern ramp is fixed for starboard side unloading only (like most autocarriers). Therefore it must go through the Narrows to Bedford Basin, turn, then come back under the MacKay bridge to tie up in the correct orientation at Pier 9C. This is now becoming a fairly common sight as RoRo cargo operations have moved from Pier 30-31 to Pier 9C. It is still impressive however to see autocarriers in the Narrows. (Assist tugs are not visible on the ship's port side.) 

Morning Celine has turned in Bedford Basin and is passing back under the bridge and coming alongside at Pier 9C.

Built in 2009 by Imabari Zosen, Marugame, Japan, it is a 60,931 gt, 22,415 dwt vessel with a capacity of 6458 cars. Although actual ownership is shrouded in Panamanian anonymity, it operates for Eukor / Wilhelmsen, currently on the transatlantic turn for Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean. Previous ports include Southampton December 20-21, Goteborg December 26-27, Zeebrugge January 3-8.

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All Out

 Today, December 30, was another busy day in the Port of Halifax with activity at almost every pier in advance of another long holiday weekend. Both container terminals had ships alongside and more due while Autoport had its third ship in as many days.

PSA Fairview Cove had the colourful ONE Helsinki for THE Alliance. When it sailed NYK Romulus took its berth. The coastal ConRo Nolhan Ava was also alongside loading for Argentia, NL and St-Pierre et Miquelon.

 Built in 2012 by IHI, Kure as Helsinki Bridge the 96,801gt, 96,980 dwt ONE Helsinki has a capacity of 8930 TEU according to most sources. K-Line renamed the ship in 2020 as part of the Ocean Network Express amalgamation (in 2017) of the primary Japanese container lines (K-Line, MOL and NYK) to form Ocean Network Express.

The photo shows quite clearly why a second navigating bridge was added above the orginal one. It allows for the required visibility forward when the deck load was increased to six-high container stacks. 

Predictably ONE's choice of hull colour - magenta - has not proven to be terribly practical. The paint has faded due to ultra-violet degradation (and not evenly at that.) and touch ups do not match older paint. Also the usual wear and tear, rust streaks and tug and pilot boat contact scuff marks show up much more readily than on other colours. The problem is most obvious around the pilot door, but also appears at scuppers and drains.

As one of the biggest ships to call at PSA Fairview Cove, this ship made use of the tugs Atlantic Bear (alongside) and Atlantic Oak (tehered stern escort) as it made its way outbound through the Narrows.

 PSA's Southend terminal has ZIM Yokohama alongside with APL Sentosa due on its departure. Oceanex Sanderling was also working at the Atlantic Hub, but moved to Autoport when the berth was free. When there is a space clear tomorrow the smaller Lagarfoss, in Eimskip's Green Line service, will come alongside at Pier 42. In the meantine it anchored in the lower harbour.

Autoport had the SFL Conductor in from Emden, Germany.

Built in 2006 as Favorite Ace by Shin Kurushima, Hiroshima, the 60,118 gt, 17,709 dwt ship was renamed Glovis Conductor in 2012 and SFL Conductor in 2019. It has a capacity of 6500 Car Equivalent Units. The ship gave Baltimore as its destination on departure this afternoon

There was one more notable arrival, but that will be the suject of another post. See "Name Changer".

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