Lightering

 

Friday, September 13, 2024

Lightering

 There were four cruise ship in port today, Septmber 13. Due to the limited nunber of acceptable berths for cruise ships the Emerald Princess once again anchored in number one anchorage in the lower harbour and transferred passengers to and from shore using the ship's own "lighters". These small craft, which are slightly larger than the ship's lifeboats, are often used in remote destinations where no port facilites exist or if the ship is too large to enter port.

The Emerald Princess in number one anchorage retrieving a lighter this evening. The ship's lighter boarding area is at the waterline near midships.

(The kayaks in the left middle ground are not among the lighers!)

Due to expansion of the southend container terminal the berths at Piers 30 and 31 are no longer available for cruise ships, and aside from the regular berths at Piers 20 to 23, there are no other berths where cruise ships can dock. Even when those berths were available, passengers had to be bused through industrial activity when leaving or re-boarding the ship as it was unsafe for pedestrians.

The shortage of berths was foreseen last year and the Port of Halifax installed a landing stage at Pier 24, consisting a small floating platform and a ramp up to the pier. Some tents on the pier allow for passengers to be "processed" by Canada Border Services and to wait under cover for buses and taxis to take then on shore excursions. Although new and shiny - the landing stage has the air of a temporary fix (which it is) and a cheap one at that. 

The Port has no solution to the problem of increasing demand for cruise ships space. Although there have been several suggestions, such as docking ships at the Develop Nova Scotia (former IEL) pier in Dartmouth (surely unpalatable), no permanent solution is in the works. [I note that the Emerald Princess is too large to dock at Quebec City's excellent cruise terminal and on September 6 it had to dock some distance away in an industrial zone with no pedestrian access, so Halifax is not alone with this problem, which seems to be world wide, viz. Venice, Alaska, etc.,]

Lighters too-ing and fro-ing from Pier 24 with the bow of the Norwegian Breakaway looming over the end of Pier 22.

As reported in Halifax Shipping News on August 11 the use of lighters (operated by the ship's own crews, and with crew members taking the lines at the landing stage) has quite rightly raised the ire of the Longshore union. The union's contract assigns line handling work to its members. They also note that non-Canadians, operating non-Canadian vessels in Canadian waters is at odds with cabotage laws [in spirit if not in letter].

This is a continuing story, and so will likely result in a follow up post.

Emerald Princess  was biult in2007 by Fincantieri, and its fifteen decks and 113,561 gross tons can accommodate 3,114 lower berth passengers and 1200 crew. The ship was sponsored by Florence Henderson, Marion Ross, Erin Moran and Susan Olsen. (If you don't know who thsese people are / were congratulations - that means you are young.)

.

Peek-a-Boo at 22

 The cruise ships Zuiderdam and Emerald Princess both had pilot orders for 1530 hrs ADT (October 4). They were at adjacent berths (Pier 20-21 and Pier 21-22 respectively) and as far as I could tell, they let their lines go simultaneously.

Zuiderdam had some head lines on the big yellow150 tonne capacity "Queen Mary" bollard at the very north end of Pier 20.
 

As the Zuiderdam came off the pier it headed northward to go around George's Island.

Meanwhile Emerald Princess backed away from its berth out into Number One anchorage to turn outbound, creating a peek-a-boo situation.

 As Zuiderdam came clear, the Emerald Princess became visible in profile view.

 As the Emerald Princess swung round, the sun caught the ship's starboard side.

Soon the Zuiderdam had rounded George's Island and was also outbound.

The Port Authority workboat Maintainer I was returning to its base at Pier 25 after its day's work at Fairview Cove, and just managed to stay clear long enough for a photo.

Zuiderdam is headed for New York and Emerald Princess for Saint John, so will be in sight of each other at least until sunset if not later.

.

Another three cruise ship day

 September 20 and September 21 were both "three cruise ship days" in the Port of Halifax. Today, the 21st, it was Zuiderdam (at Pier 20), Emerald Princess (at Pier 22) and Viking Octantis (at Pier 23.

The two big ships took up pretty much the entire length of the seawall, as they disembarked passengers on the shore side, and waste materials to attendant craft of the water side.

The much smaller Viking Octantis was tucked around the corner at Pier 23...

... where the crew could atttend to some maintenance activities on their boat and launchway through their "hatch back" and side doors.

.

Au revoir to Emerald Princess

The last cruise ship of the season, Emerald Princess sailed after dark this evening.

Looming over the pier 21-22 area, Emerald Princess is the second largest of the big ships that find Halifax a desirable port call every year. It claims 3100 passengers (Explorer of the Sea claims 3114).
Built in 2007 it measures 113,561 gross tons and also has a nominal capacity of 3114 passengers.
The ship made its inaugural visit to Halifax September 25, 2011. Last year it re-routed to the Saguenay River on its way from Quebec City to Halifax to avoid the tail end of Hurricane Sandy. It arrived here November 1, 2012, one day later than its schedule.

An early morning arrival, October 11, 2013. Note the crew man above the bow.

.

It's over... Halifax cruise season ends

Extending from April to November, the Halifax cruise season drew to a halt this afternoon with the sailing of Emerald Princess.
By all accounts a successful one, the season had a few diversions due to weather, but these seem to have been in our favour. The season was originally to end on October 31, but today's ship was delayed a day to avoid storm Sandy.
Several ships that called in Halifax during the season were diverted when the ports of New York were closed due to the storm, and passengers experienced very rough conditions at sea, but there were no serious incidents as far as I have heard.

Seven Seas Overnighter

Seven Seas Navigator extended its October 31 scheduled visit to an overnighter and sailed this morning - still into the teeth of a gale.

With The World due to sail this evening that will leave only Emerald Princess to arrive November 1 and  end the Halifax cruise season. The ship spent an extra night en route, sailing to Port Saguenay, then Corner Brook, to avoid storm Sandy. The ship skipped Bar Harbor April 28 and will also skip Newport on its return leg.

Emerald Princess

Going through the list of cruise ships I hadn't photographed yet this year, I ran across Emerald Princess. Built in 2007 and measuring a beefy 113,561 gross tons and with a capacity of 3,114 passengers, it is one of the larger ships to make regular calls in Halifax. It is scheduled for four visits this year, all in October, and with the days getting shorter, I took the opportunity today to get the picture.
Although fine and sunny it was very windy (see previous post) -perhaps that is the reason that there was scarcely anyone visible on deck for her mid afternoon departure.

Large Cruise Ship Day

As some Maritimers say, it was a large day (meaning beautiful, sunny and warm.)
It was also a large day for the Port of Halifax, with four cruise ships in port and about 10,000 extra people on the streets of town (passengers and crews included.)
Some of the ships were large too, but the interesting thing was that of the four, three were on their inaugural visits to Halifax.
1. Seabourn Sojourn, built in 2010, with a modest capacity of 450 passengers, arriving for the first time in Halifax this afternoon. It will stay in port over night.

2. Silver Whisper, built in 2001, backs out in to the stream and is dwarfed by the two big ships. Built in 2001 it is the smallest ship today, with a capacity of 382.

3. The one they all came out to see, Cunard's Queen Elizaberth is just a year old and claims a passsenger capacity of 2,092. It measures 90,901 gross tons.

4. Although it was built in 2007, Emerald Princess is also making its first call in Halifax. At 113,561 gross tons, it was the largest ship in port today. It sailed at dusk, making an impressive sight.

.