That's the breaks

Thanks to some well timed breaks in the fog and driving rain, there were a few photo ops of harbour activity today.

The cruise ship Sirena arrived and tied up at pier 22. Although there was not a great deal of wind at the time of arrival, the ship took two tugs to berth. It is very unusual for cruise ships to take tugs - they have lots of thrusters and usually make out fine by themselves. Since most cruise ships are painted white they also hate to get fender scuffs by using tugs.

Sirena loiters in mist in the anchorages awaiting tugs.

 

Whatever the reason, the ship had to wait until tugs became available. Atlantic Oak had just sailed the tanker Acadian from Irving Woodside, and it became available first. However the other tugs were moving Energy Panther from anchorage to Irving Woodside, and it was some time before Atlantic Willow was freed up to assist.

Underway again towards pier 22, with one tug on the port bow, it will take its second tug just off the pier.

Sirena is a new name for Halifax. The ship was built in 1999 by Chantier Atlantique, St-Nazaire as R Four for the ill-fated Renaissance Cruise Line. It became Tahitian Princess in 2002 and Ocean Princess in 2009. Now owned by NCL Bahamas of Miami, it received its current name earlier this year when it received a major refit. It has a stated capacity of 850 passengers.

The Energy Panther - see yesterday- is the first non-Irving tanker to tie up at Irving Woodside. Its last port was given as Ijmuiden, Holland, so even Irving Oil with its massive refining capacity in Saint John, is now importing refined products. The company recently purchased a refinery in Ireland, so it seems likely that they will be moving product around the oceans.

Another tanker arrived last night and anchored in Bedford Basin. CPO France is smaller than the usual handy-size, medium range tanker we are accustomed to seeing. Built in 2008 by Hyundai Mipo, it comes in at 23,353 grt, 37,304 dwt.

 CPO France appears to be carrying very little cargo.

Operated by Offen Tankers of Hamburg, it was due to move to Imperial Oil this afternoon during a period of heavy rain. However for a brief shining moment late this morning it was in a spot of sun in the Bedford Basin. However I was not quick enough to get there to capture the event.

So how foggy was it?
CMA CGM Tancredit was sounding its fog horn, and was almost invisible until it got right up to Halterm.

It was even foggier later in the afternoon when OOCL Kaohsiung arrived. It was sounding its fog horn all the way through the harbour and up into the Narrows.

The ship became visible as it neared the MacKay bridge

It finally emerged into a clear patch in  Bedford Basin.

All in all a fine day for ship watching.

Big Sunday

With ten arrivals and six departures, today was an unusually busy day for a Sunday. Tomorrow, although it will be a holiday, Canada's Thanksgiving Day, the port promises to be even busier, so I will cram much of today's activities into one post.

The early riser was rewarded with an impressive sunrise, even though cloud cover actually blocked out direct sunlight for the rest of the day. I like sunrises, but don't usually see them unless they coincide with ship arrivals.

Eurodam leads the inbound parade at sunrise.

A triple arrival at sunrise was worth getting up for, so I took it in this time. In the lead, Eurodam was followed by Albatros and finally CMA CGM Tancredi.

Eurodam is a regular caller in cruise season, but on departure passengers were given a pair of treats. First was Atlantic Oak going full speed in reverse. The tug was outbound to meet the arriving OOCL Washington (see later) and because of that timing, Eurodam took the western channel, giving the second treat coming close to the shore off York Redout.

  

 Next inbound was Albatros.

Albatros came in east of George's Island to tie up at pier 20.

Albatros has now reached the veteran status. Built in 1973 by OY Wartsila, Helsingfors as Royal Viking Sea, it was lengthened in 1983, adding a new 93 foot long mid-section. It became Royal Odyssey in 1991, Norwegian Star in 1997, Norwegian Star 1 in 2001, Crown in 2002 and Albatros in 2004.
 

Royal Viking Sky was one of the best looking ships of its day.

The albatross was thought to be the bearer of bad luck by ancient mariners, but it must have been good to current operators Phoenix Reisen, since this is the second ship to carry the name for them.

The first Albatros' ancestry was well hidden by many changes to convert it to cruising.

 
The first Albatros was also a veteran. Built on the Clyde in 1957 by John Brown as Sylvania, it was the last of four Cunard transatlantic liner sisters initially operating to Quebec and Montreal in summer and Halifax in winter. It was also given the R.M.S. designation as it carried mail on its regular liner service.

In 1961 it was transferred to year round operation Liverpool to New York, It was sold in 1968 becoming Fairwind, the Sitmar Fairwind in 1988, Dawn Princess in 1988 (and refitted for cruising), and Albatros in 1993.
In 2003 it was renamed Genoa for its trip to the breakers in Alang, arriving there in December of that year.

A well loaded CMA CGM Tancredi takes its tugs off Halterm.

Another first time caller for CMA CGM's joint service followed the cruise ships. CMA CGM Tancredi is another 8530 TEU ship (including 700 reefers). Built by Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Heavy Industries in 2011, it measures 91,498 grt, 101,386 dwt. Owners Danaos Shipping Co Ltd of Piraeus operate it on long term charter to CMA CGM.

A pair of Algomas at pier 25-26.

A rare arrival for Halifax in recent years, is a ship with grain. Algoma Mariner arrived from the Great Lakes mid-morning and began to unload what seems to be a partial cargo. Before unloading operations began, the ship bunkered from fleet mate Algoma Dartmouth.

 No matter that she is old and worn, Hudson is still a classy ship.

After hydrographic work south of Nova Scotia CCGS Hudson returned to the Bedford Institute. I will be sad to see this classic ship go, which it will do, probably next year*, when its replacement is completed. First steel for the new ship was cut by Seaspan in Vancouver in June. [*Oops, replacement due in 2020 ar the earliest - see comment below. First steel was cut of the trawler type researchers.]

Speaking of classics that will go: Princess of Acadia remains tied up at the old Coast Guard dock in Dartmouth, but has been kept in ready condition. It was said that this was to enable the ship to sail to the breakers under its own power, and that will likely be the case. But in the meantime, as reported by the Ottawa Citizen, the ship will be used in naval exercises starting next week. It will pose as a "vessel of interest" in counter-terrorism training operations south off Yarmouth.

Last inbound ship of interest for me was OOCL Washington, which arrived for Halterm, taking CMA Tancredi's berth. (It took the western channel to allow room for the inbound.)

The OOCL ship called here for the first time September 29 at Fairview Cove on the G6 westbound service. Now that it has discharged at US ports and is on the return eastbound leg, it is high in the water, and berthed at Halterm to avoid bridge clearance issues. Built in 2010 by Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Industries in South Korea, it measures 89,097 grt, 99,631 dwt. Its container capacity is 8,063 TEU, including capacity for 1400 reefers.

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