Weather Woes - revised

 The month of October is usually noted for wind, but up until now this year it has seen unseasonably mild temperatures instead. However the wind has finally arrived and the last two days have been quite gusty. Those breezes resulted in rough conditions at the pilot station making it too dangerous to embark and disembark pilots. Pilotage operations were suspended at some point yesterday during the day and not resumed again until this morning. Some ships wetre thus delayed.

Among those was the general cargo ship BBC Missouri arriving from Schiedam, Netherlands and Santander, Spain. The 9,627 gt, 12,767 dwt vessel was built in 2010 by Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering Co in Taizhou, China. An open hatch, multi-purpose type it mounts a pair of 150 tonne capacity cranes than can work in tandem for a 300 tonne lift.

It was still quite windy as the ship made its way in this afternoon. The tug Atlantic Fir was working stern first and kicking up a lot of spray, but its fore deck was in the lee and dry. BBC Missouri was built in 2011 as Brattingsborg, deleivered sas OXL Rebel but renamed Brattingsborg againlater in 2011. In 2012 it became Clipper Agnes, then reverted to Brattingsborg in 2014, finally becoming BBC Missouri in 2020. 

The ship is registered in Liberia. Its owners are listed as Hono Ship Investment Inc (which is associated with Thorco Shipping A/S of Denmark), technical operators are Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd of England, commercial managers are Weco Projects APS of Denmark, but the ship is sailing as part of the German BBC Chartering fleet, whicn specializes in heavy lifts and project cargoes.

The ship tied up at Pier 27, a general cargo and open pier, but its cargo is as yet unknown (to me). Interestingly the Port of Halifax schedule still refers to to its Brattingsborg.

Things are busy at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. The tanker Acadian completed unloading yesterday then moved to anchor in Bedford Basin instead of going to sea. That left the jetty open for the French cable ship Ile d'Aix to take bunkers.

The Louis Dreyfus managed ship has been in port since October 20 fitting out for a project at IT International Telecom's marine base at Pier 9A.

I took this picture October 25:

With the Iled d'Aix occupying the berth Irving Oil's next caller, Elka Bene came into to anchor in the lower harbour.

 The 30,770 gt, 45,467 dwt tanker is a regular caller at Irving Oil, bringing refined product from Amsterdam. It was built by Brodosplit, in Split, Croatia in 2002 and is operated by European Product Carriers. The ship was built as Asirat but renamed Bene in 2002 and Elka Bene in 2004.

A number of ships hove to offshore last night, awaiting better conditions, among them was CMA CGM T. Jefferson. The 14,414 TEU ship is now due at PSA Halifax late this afternoon - docking after dusk later today oir tomorrow. Also the container ship ONE Hangzhou Bay was delayed from sailing yesterday, but was able to get away this afternoon. but will now wait until tomorrow, Otober 29. Also waiting for better condiitons is the Eimskip vessel Vivienne Sheri D. It went to Bedford Basin and anchored yesterday and may now sail overnight on its return trip to Iceland.

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Repeats and a bonus

 The harbour was busy today June 12, with several ships at the container and breakbulk piers. All are repeat visitors, although one is under a different name.

At Irving Oil the European Product Carriers Ltd tanker Elka Bene arrived after unloading a part cargo in Saint John, NB, likely from Amsterdam.

The ship was last here April 6, 2021

At Fairview Cove it was the MOL Empire . Its last call (which was its first in Halifax) was November 20, 2019 

The ship is on THE Alliance's AL5 service , and will be skipping all the usual US east coast ports and sailing direct for Port Everglades, FL, then for the Dominican Republic and so on to the Panama Canal and the Pacific coast. If it does not get snagged in west coast congestion, it may be back in Halifax August 3 on its return leg to Europe.

Also a familiar sight in Halifax is an ACL ship, ploughing its usual furrow back and forth transatlantic. However it is always good to see one pass west of George's Island for a change, to give a slightly different angle of view.Atlantic Sun doesn't appear too heavily loaded.

At National Gypsum it was the familiar Algoma Integrity ex Gypsum Integrity, which loaded for Baltimore.

The one arrival which may not sound familiar is the bulker Helena G which arrived from Jebel Ali, UAE, with a cargo of reinforcing steel (rebar). It tied up at Pier 9C, where it began to unload using its own cranes and shore based forklifts.

The ship first called here December 25, 2103 and again November 2014, both times under its original name Garganey . The ship was named by its operators CANFORNAV (Canada Forest Navigation) for a species of duck, and on those trips loaded grain.

CANFORNAV ships are regular users of the St.Lawrence Seaway and primarily import steel products and export grain. Garganey was built in 2007 for charter to CANFORNAV and on completion of a ten year term was sold to Olof Brodin Shipowning AB of Sweden. Renamed Helena G it has continued trading to the Great Lakes.

Bonus

The bonus ship today was HMCS Windsor which has been conducting surfaced operations in Bedford Basin for the past several days.

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Tankers and Scrubbers

 Product tankers of the Medium Range size (35,000 to 55,000 deadweight tonnes) are frequent callers in Halifax as they are used to transport "clean" / refined products throughout the Atlantic Basin stretching from the US Gulf and East Coast, Canadian East Coast, and Caribbean to Europe. Therefore to see two in port at one time is not all that unusual. Today there was one such tanker at Imperial Oil and one waiting for Irving Oil.

High Trust arrived April 5 at Imperial Oil.

The ship at Imperial Oil is the familiar High Trust, a ship that was last here as recently as January 29. Built in 2016 by Hyundai Vinaship in Vietnam, it is a 29,935 gt, 49,990 dwt MR tanker operated by the Italian d'Amico group. It arrived from Antwerp with its cargo.

Awaiting its turn at the Irving Oil Woodside terminal Elka Bene arrived at an inside anchorage last evening after a period anchored outside the port.

It is a 30,770 gt, 45,467 dwt ship built by Brodosplit in Split Croatia in 2002. It was launched as Asirat, renamed Bene on delivery and renamed Elka Bene in 2004 when it took up its present charter to European Product Carriers Ltd. Its last port was Amsterdam where Irving Oil has a terminal.

A third tanker, the slightly smaller (Intermediate size) Acadian arrived at Irving Oil this afternoon from Saint John. The 23,552 gt, 37,515 dwt ship was built in 2005 by Hyundai Mipo for the long term charter to Irving Oil. Owners have been variously listed over the years, but are part of the Vroon company, based in the Netherlands. They also manage the ship through Iver Ships BV. However as an Irving Oil "company ship" it apparently had berthing priority.

Irving Oil's five tankers, all sister ships, three under Canadian flag and two trading internationally under Marshal Islands flag, are immediately recognizable by their unique hull colour (some call it "biscuit") and the prominent exhaust gas scrubber fitted abaft the original ship's funnel. The scrubbers allow the ship to burn heavy fuel which is banned from use in ships without scrubbers.

A fourth "tanker" sailing from Halifax today is also worth noting. It is the Asterix the Royal Canadian Navy's chartered supply ship.

Always an impressive sight, the ship carries fuel for Canadian naval vessels, which it took on board from Irving Oil last week. It also carries a variety of other supplies which can be transferred at sea.

Also in port today was the container ship MSC Brianna en route to Montreal. The oft renamed ship was built as far back as 1996 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, Okpo, South Korea.

It is also fitted with an exhaust gas scrubber, which was obviously in use as the ship sailed. The byproduct of the scrubbing process is water vapour, and scrubber equipped ships often leave a vapour trail reminiscent of jet aircraft. It is interesting that the owners were willing to invest in a scrubber system to get a few more years out of an older ship. (The ship is owned by NSM Brianna Shipping Co Ltd and on charter to MSC).

The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) was built on working with older and nearly obsolete ships from other companies. MSC Brianna is typical in that sense. Built originally as OOCL Germany it was renamed APL Germany in 1998, Germany in 2002, P+O Nelloyd Caribbean in 2002, Maersk Doha in 2003, MSC Columbia in 2013 and finally MSC Brianna in 2013. At 51,931 gt, 60,200 dwt it has a container capacity of 4168 TEU, and is just about maximum size for St.Lawrence service.

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