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).

. 

 

Ship Shape

 Ships rust. That is a fact of life for steel ships in a salt environment. Good coatings on well prepared surfaces can go a long time without major interventions, but eventually re-coating is necessary. Sailors overside touching up paint is a rare sight these days (with the possible exception of some cruise ships) and so painting is generally left until the ship is in drydock. Then the old paint is "blasted" off with an abrasive or high pressure water (silica sand is no longer allowed in most juridictions). The substrate can then be prepared properly and primed before re-coating.

Rust streaked paint is not necessarily a sign of poor maintenenace, but is more likely a sign of hard work and normal deterioration.

A newly painted ship is an impressive sight simply because wear and tear sets in almost immediately and the inevitable scuff marks from tugs and shore fenders are soon acquired.

That is perhaps why I noted some particular contrasts in the harbour today, March 22.

The self-unloading bulk carrier Algoma Vision was something of a vision as it appeared in almost pristine condition as it made its way inbound to Gold Bond Gyspum.

The ship was delivered in 2013 by Chengxi Jiangyin, China as the Balchen. With sister ship Balto it was built to CSL International's Trillium class design of ocean self-unloaders. It measured 43,691 gt, 71,348 dwt. Owned by the Torvald Klaveness company of Norway, it worked in the CSL self-unloader pool with three Trillium sister ships owned by CSL. In 2016 Klaveness left the CSL Pool and its several ships were acquired by the CSL Pool partners. CSL acquired the Balto, renaming it CSL Tarantau and Algoma, already a partner in the pool, acquired the Balchen and renaming it Algoma Vision.

The Balchen was originally painted in Klaveness orange, and continued to carry that hull colour for a time after it was acquired by Algoma, but the paint was in very poor condition and Algoma had it repainted in their deep blue colour.

From September 16 to December 21, 2023 the ship was in Tuzla, Turkey where it had its ten year survey and a thorough reconditioning that included new hull paint. It seems to have been a top quality job with only a few stains showing from deck washdown.

By coincidence the Algoma Vision arrived in time to take the place of its sister ship CSL Tacoma which sailed with another load for Portsmouth, NH. 

CSL Tacoma looks quite tidy too having also been repainted recently. Some stains from washdown are all that show on its hull. Due to its size, the ship cannot take a full load at Gold Bond's Dartmouth dock. Instead it usually loads to maximum allowable draft. Even so it looked a tad light as it sailed late this afternoon.

A ship that showed a bit more weathering was on the move this afternoon.

The CB Pacific is relatively new, dating from 2020 when it was built by Jiangsu New Hantong, Yangzhong, China. it is a 27,250 gt, 37,787 dwt tanker from the smaller end of the MR Range.

The ship arrived from New York yesterday, March 21 and after discharging at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal it moved to long term anchorage in Bedford Basin. (Imperial Oil Esso's terminal is right next door to Irving Oil and tanks from both companies appear in most photos from the Halifax side.)

As a four year old ship, it is not due for a drydocking until 2025 and its paint will likely receive considerable attention at that time. Some Chinese shipyards are not noted for the quality of their paint applications, but they can usually count on five years without serious deterioration to the hull steel. 

A ship that showed more rust streaking sailed this afrernoon, FD Contre-Maître L'Her is painted in miltary grey, so will show rust streaks from hawse pipes and scuppers more than some other colours. It has also been at sea on patrol for some time and has little time for attention. Naval ships might be among the few that do send the crew over over side to paint - given time and suitable conditions. (Some present day paint formulations allow for winter application. Cold paint on cold steel used to be forbidden.) See also rather long footnote.

 It did seem to take a rather long time to get away. They may have been trying to "spring" off the dock, but then the standby tug Atlantic Oak came in to keep the ship alongside in the stiff north wind that was trying to blow the ship off the dock. One tug amidships was not the answer, as it provided an unwanted fulcrum, drawing the ships lines dangerously bar taught forward or aft (from what I could see.)

As all the other civilian tugs in the harbour were working elsewhere, one of the navy's own tugs, Glenside, was called in, although in the end it was not used. 

Visting ships from foreign navies use civilian harbour pilots in Halifax. They also use civilian tugs too as both pilots and tugs "speak the same language", using commonly understood commands with pilots knowing the characteristics of the civilian tugs and their capabilities. Canadian navy ships do not use civilian pilots, and their masters and naval berthing pilots have their own common language and their tugs (which are Voith-Schneider, unlike the civilian ASD tugs) have very different handling characters. Although navy tugs are available in emergencies it is rare to see them in use with non RCN ships - even in standby - like today.

The RCN is in process of replacing these Glen class tugs. Two new tugs for Esquimalt are in Quebec City awaiting "dry delivery" and the two for Halifax are under construction at Industrie Océan in Ile-aux-Coudres, QC. The new tugs are ASD (Azimuthing Stern Drive) types.
 
 ---------------------------

FOOTNOTE As mentioned in my previous post March 16 the vessel is called an aviso, a term that was new to me. Thanks to Royal United Services Institue (Nova Scotia) I can provide some clarification on that word, quote (italics mine):

"A number of European navies keep 'guardships', usually frigates, deployed throughout the globe for the security of related areas (can be read as territories, protectorates and former colonies).  Often the French ships are avisos.  At about the time of Gulf War I, a US/NATO fleet decided to invite guardships in the Caribbean into a major carrier battle group exercise.  The French Navy guardship was an aviso.  Seeking a translation and appreciation of an aviso's capabilities and roles, fleet staff learned that aviso seemed to hark back to dispatch vessels of sailing times (aviso = advice = dispatch?).  It wouldn't be the first modern type of ship with the name of an earlier type; there are, for example, sloop and corvette.  These are useful types of vessels, to deploy on missions when a more capable frigate or destroyer would be too much capability and expense.  Part of a 'balanced navy.'  Canada's Kingston-class serve as that, and they should be replaced by a similar, second tier or second rate to use terms of other nations, ships."

 It is certainly admirable (no pun) that terminology from another era is used for present day purposes. A clean up is required however to purge our vocabulary of such undesirable terms as "tall ships" [which you will rarely see used in this blog as it is not a nautical term]. Nevertheless I do use "ship" to mean many kinds of vessel, not just re square rig type, and "sail" to mean depart even when no sails are involved. What are the chances that the RCN would chose "aviso" as a more or less bilingual term, for the Kingston replacements?

.

Morning Christina and yes winter must be here

 The Eukor car carrier Morning Christina made a late morning arrival today, January 3, and docked directly at Autoport. I believe this is the ship's first call in Halifax, so it is worth a little extra note.

It was close to noon when the ship came into view, but because of heavy cloud cover onshore and clearing offshore it looked more like sunrise.

Imabari Shipbuilding constructed the ship at their Marugame shipyard in 2010. The 59,601 gt, 18,703 dwt ship has a reported capacity of 6,142 CEU. This is the typical size for Eukor ships, but is smaller than the usual such ships we see here. Those larger ships of up to 8,000 CEU usually belong to Wallenius Wilhelmsen - the parent of Eukor (Hyundai and Kia own 20% of Eukor.) The Eukor fleet now consists of about 80 ships. Some pooling of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean's ships and Eukor's ships has always existed - allowing ships to be reassigned as needed.

The size of the ship's funnel suggests that it is equipped with an exhaust gas scrubber system installed in an enclosed structure adjacent to the regular funnel casing.

Such is the demand for auto carriers in Asia than many of the larger ships have been assisgned to Asia routes, and slightly smaller ships such as Morning Christina will be seen on European and North Atlantic routes in additIon to their usual transPacific journies.

As an example of the world wide scope of these ships it is interesting to trace the Morning Christina's position over the past couple of months. It unloaded at Vancouver's Annacis Island October 20, 2023 then called in Nagoya and Toyohashi, Japan en route to the Suez Canal for November 29. It then proceeded to Sagunto (Valencia's auto port), Spain, December 4, Avonmouth (Royal Portbury Dock), UK December 9 and Zeebrugge December 11 to 15. It then followed the usual transatlantic path of Bremerhaven December 17-20 and Goteborg December 21-22.

And now for the other news:

Halifax boasts that it is an ice free port - and that is mostly true, however very thin ice does form from time to time in the shallow corners around Bedford Basin and has little if any effect on shipping. Where there is somewhat lower salinity, and very little wind and no ship traffic to disturb the water - and of course below freezing temperatures - ice does form. It was interesting to see today with a falling tide running in the Narrows that a very thin sheet of shorefast ice had broken free and was heading outbound. As the Navy tug Glenside made its way past the BIO and Pier 9C, there was the tinkling sound of ice cubes. There has been very little snow in Halifax, so the ice was as clear as mirror glass.

Also in port today, at PSA Halifax, Pier 42, was the CMA CGM Paranagua from Montreal on the joint CMA CGM /Maersk  transatlantic run. Ships on this service usually call in Halifax on the weekend outbound from Montreal for Bremerhaven, and run year round. This ship's schedule may have been disrupted by the holidays.

The Port of Montreal still observes the tradition of recognizing the first ship of the calendar year to arrive without stopping at an intermediate port. The event used to take place in the spring when the ice had broken out and it was safe to try for Montreal. The first arrival was often as late as May, but starting in the mid 1950s the first arrival came earlier and earlier until winter navigation became a reality on the St.Lawrence.  

The Helga Dan with its icebreaking bow and ice spotter's crows nest, was the pioneer of winter navigation on the St.Lawrence River. In 1964 it was the first ship ever to reach Montreal in January.It also called in Halifax from time to time with cargo from Sweden for the Volvo assembly plant.

Nowadays the first ship of the year usually arrives in Montreal on January first and the Port presents the master of that ship with a gold headed cane.  (This year it was the Helena G on January 2.)

Winter navigation certainly changed the way the Port of Halifax worked, as it had long been one of the "Winter Ports" (with Saint John, NB and Portland, Maine) that handled the Quebec City and Montreal ships for three to four months of the year. In the pre-container days this meant that a huge workforce of several hundred longshoremen was needed to load and unload ships. Passenger ships were also diverted to Halifax for the winter

Winter navigation on the St.Lawrence, coupled with the opening of the St.Lawrence Seaway was then followed by containerisation but none proved to be the death knell for Halifax. Interestingly Halifax and Montreal maintain a symbiotic relationship to this day, but are still rivals for transatlantic and other cargoes, but now year round. 

 

.

Still waiting for spring in Pictou County.

At the Aecon Fabco shipyard in Pictou the sailing ship replica Hector sits on the ways awaiting its first refit. The assessment of work is to be completed next week. See more on this interesting vessel at http://www.townofpictou.ca/hector_story.html . . The Town of Pictou has recently received financial support to re-open the ship to the public this year when the refit is finished. . Alongside, the navy tug Glenside has completed drydocking and an extensive refit that began last fall. Also at the yard is the tug Mary Steele which is likely there to assist with yard work. The McDermott (Secunda) suppliers Sable Sea and Hebron Sea are also in port in winter layup. .

Meanwhile at nearby Caribou the ferries Confederation and Holiday Island are in winter layup. The season for them normally starts May 1, but Holiday Island is kept in reserve until the height of the tourist season. The white line on the horizon to the right is sea ice.

Northumberland Ferries Ltd has not published its 2011 schedule yet, but when it does it will appear at :http://www.peiferry.com/ [see Update on this topic April 9, 2011]

.