More Firsts, Updates, but first an Oops

Oops

Following upon yesterday's Firsts (October 29) is a needed correction regarding the new Canadian Coast Guard ice breaking patrol vessel Donjek. 

In fact it was rolled out in two sections (not in one piece as stated yesterday) which were very quickly aligned  ready for joining.

What I saw yesterday was the bow section, which later emerged by itself, then was moved laterally in position in front of the other (western) door. (Although it appeared to have burst through a blue screen, it was some distance away from the roll up curtain/door.)

 

 

This apparently allowed the remainder of the ship to be rolled out and moved well away from the assembly hall.

 

The bow was moved into position in very short order, and was soon aligned ready to be joined. The red and white power plant chimneys and Canadian Tire containers in the background and foreground made for a colourful scene.

It will be interesting to see the ship in one piece and to compare it to the original RCN design. The two CCG version ships will have some differences in accommodation and other features such as helicopter facilities. The recent transfer of the Canadian Coast Guard from the federal government's Department of Fisheries and Oceans to the Department of National Defence, so far at least, does not signal a militarization of the CCG. It will still be a civilian service, with civilian crews, and as such will mean some very different features in these ships.

More Firsts

Among today's (October 30) firsts were an auto carrier and general cargo ship.

The NOCC Atlantic is a member of the Norwegian Car Carrier AS fleet. Built in 2009 by the Samjin Shipbuilding Industries Co Ltd shipyard in Weihai, China, it is a 60,868 gt, 22,500 dwt ship with a capacity of 6754 CEU. It has a 125 tonne capacity stern ramp and four hoistable car decks to make space for oversize loads. It also has a small side ramp.

 The ship is on an unusual routing. Instead of coming from western Europe it is arriving from Pyeongtaek, Masan and Ulsan, South Korea. Asian car makers are beginning to send cars to east coast North American cities directly, rather than facing congestion and other issues with west coast ports. Subaru is reported to be one of the manufacturers.

The general cargo ship is the Lady Diana from the well known Netherlands small ship operator Wijjnne & Barends  (part of the Spliethoff Group). A typical European style ship with box shaped holds, it was built in 2020 by Hexing Shipbuilding & Repair in Wenling, China. The 2862 gt, 4092 dwt ship is gearless and has a traveling gantry to move hatch covers.

The ship arrived from Belfast, so must be carrying aircraft components. A mobile crane was brought in to unload the cargo. (It looked to me like they first rigged some cargo-specific spreaders that stay in Halifax for use by the stevedores, Logistec.)

Update

As reported yesterday the disabled ship AT Revelin completed cargo transfer to the bulker Eva Bright at Pier 27-28, using the latter's cranes. They employed buckets from one ship or the other - more likely the AP Revelin.

 

The Eva Bright then moved to Number 10 anchorage in Bedford Basin...

 

...and AP Revelin was moved, cold move, by tugs to Pier 26, astern of the tug Ezra Sol.

 

 The Eva Bright did not appear fully loaded and the AP Revelin did not appear fully unloaded, so this operation may be reversed to complete the work after the predicted bad weather (wind and rain from post tropical storm Melissa) passes in the next two days.

 Lasts

Cruise ships are making their last appearances for the season, and in a traditional gesture, ships often salute the port in thanks for hospitality on their final departure. This evening (October 30) the Brilliance of the Seas sent out three window rattling blasts when it sailed from Pier 22 and headed for Boston. They may be headed into some rough weather, so Bon Voyage!

The ship was built by Meyer Weft, Papenburg, Germany in 2002. It can carry 2140 passengers (double occupancy) / 2543 maximum berths, with a very busy crew of 848.
 

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Good Things (May) Come in Twos and an Update and a Correction

 It was a day (October 15) for things happening in twos - and they appeared to be, at east on the surface (no pun?), [see last para.] mostly good things.

The early morning arrivals included three cruise ships, but two of them were from Royal Caribbean International. The pair are not sister ships, but carry about the same number of passengers despite their difference in size.

First Pair 

The larger ship is the Brilliance of the Seas, a Radiance class ship of  90,050 gt, built in 2002 by Meyerwerft, Papenburg.It can carry up to 2,543 passengers and 848 crew. Its fleet mate, the 78,340gt Vision class ship Vision of the Seas, came from Les Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Saint-Nazaire in 1998. It can accommodate 2,514 passengers and 765 crew.

 The two ships occupied most of the Sea Wall, with Brilliance OTS at Pier 22 (left in photo) and Vision OTS at Pier 20 (right in photo). As usual with many cruise ships in port, there were lifeboat exercises for the crew, and both ships had boats in the water. The Vision had a couple of its tenders in the water too.

Odd man out in the cruise ship arrivals was Le Boréal from the French operator Cie Ponant. Called a "luxury mega yacht" it is a 10,944 gt ship built for Antarctic cruises by Fincantieri, Ancona in 2010. Its 132 cabins can accommodate 222 to 264 passengers with 134 crew members.

It tied up at Pier 23, with the Brilliance OTS looming over it in the background. The ship flies the flag of the French Territory of the Wallis and Fortuna Islands and it is registered in the exotic port of Mata Utu. The Vision OTS is just arriving - entering stage right.

 

Pair 2 

Another pair of ships made a move today. Although the ships are not related by owner, they are both classed as Supra-Max bulk carriers in the 40,000 deadweight tonne range.

AP Revelin is the ship that "lost its prop" (in fact it may only have lost one blade from its propellor) and has been idled in Halifax since late September. Yesterday (October 14) work got underway to transfer its cargo to the Eva Bright at Pier 27, (see yesterday's post). That work  was suspended today and both ships moved out to anchorages in the lower harbour, to allow the Nirint Lines ship Augusta Luna to come in and discharge its cargo of nickel sulfides from Cuba.

 The Augusta Luna will likely be able to unload in one or two shifts, and when it sails the other two will be able to move back alongside. By comparing the drafts of the two ships, there is still a lot of cargo move.

 Eva Bright is in anchorage number 5.

 

AP Revelin is in anchorage number 3 and will have the tug Atlantic Willow standing by as long as it is anchored without the ability to move on its own.

 

Pair 3

Another pair was the Royal Canadian Navy's harbour tugs Glenevis YTB 642 and Glenside YTB 644 caught returning to HMS Dockyard from the Bedford Basin where they had undocked the HMCS Charlottetown from the Bedford Magazine.

 

Not only is the Navy in the process of replacing the Halifax class frigates, but it is also replacing the Glen class harbour tugs. The three Halifax based Glens (the third is the Glenbrook YTB 643) will be replaced by two tugs, now under construction at Industrie Océan in Quebec.The first of these, the Canso, is fitting out at Groupe Océan's Quebec City facility and may be delivered this year or in the spring of 2026. 

 

Update:(corrected)

There were some errors in yesterday's post (October 14) on the general cargo ship Arctic Rock. Firstly - it seems to have arrived in ballast from Italy and was not carrying aircraft components. I did see the ship alongside with hatch covers removed and stacked on deck forward and aft, but did not see any loading or unloading. Correction: it was carrying aircraft components from Italy -see October 18 post for photo.

 

Crew members appeared to be cleaning the gantry tracks.

 

The offset superstructure is somewhat more visible from the port side. 

 The ship departed at 1300 hrs EDT giving a destination of Wilmington - which one I can't tell - but likely the one in North Carolina.

 

The port of Registry may not be as exotic as that of Le Boréal (see above), but Urk certainly has a distinctive sound to it.

Pair 4

And one last pair - two Royal Canadian Navy inflatables appeared off Black Rock Beach, Point Pleasant  Park, with some marker buoys set out and divers in the water.

 The location is the site of numerous reef balls, placed on the bottom to promote marine growth and fish habitat. The yellow floats may be tethered to the reef balls.

The Navy's Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic is based at Shearwater (Halifax harbour), and this may have been a training exercise. (The ocean water is still quite warm and people were swimming at some beaches on Thanksgiving Monday. Seawater temperature then and today was 15.6º C (60º F).

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Queen Mary 2 rules

The world's biggest ocean liner (but not the world's biggest cruise ship) always attracts attention. And when it is tied up at pier 22 in Halifax it dominates the waterfront. Unfortunately its before dawn arrival and after dark departure prevent any underway photography. However during daylight hours it seems to be in view from every corner.

 Seen from nearby Barrington Street, with the Via Rail train in the foreground,

Seen from the Young Ave bridge, it looms over the grain galleries.

Seen from Inglis Street, it tops an apartment building.

Even from the Dartmouth side of the harbour Queen Mary 2 dwarfs George's Island as the harbour ferry Christopher Stannix makes its way to Woodside.

It also tends to overshadow other cruise ships in the port, displacing them to the commercial piers.

Grandeur of the Seas at left at pier 30-31 and Brilliance of the Seas at right at pier 33-34 play second fiddle, and compete with overhead wires for a clear view.

This is Queen Mary 2's third and final visit of the 2014 cruise season. Its next call is in Quebec City October 24.

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