Heinrich J arrives in ballast

Arriving for Melfi Lines this morning, Heinrich J anchored until Monday morning. The ship is obviously in ballast, and a check of the Melfi schedule on the Protos Shipping website reveals that is not arriving from Europe.www.protos.ca/

 It appearts to have come directly froim Cuba instead, possibly due to the Christmas time  problems with Renate Schulte, previously reported here. That ship made its last call here last week.

Heinrich J - outbound - but

Melfi Lines' Heinrich J got away for Cuba this afternoon after taking on a large cargo of containers, and the customary second-hand school buses and trucks. Not long after leaving the berth it was apparent that the ship was not going to be making much speed. In fact the pilot boat, which was following it along, made a u-turn and came back to its dock.
I hear that Heinrich J had a "cold fuel" problem, and was operating at reduced efficiency. The pilot boat returned to the dock to pick up a pilot for another inbound ship, and caught up with and passed Heinrich J  well before reaching the pilot station.
After disembarking her pilot Heinrich J proceeding to Anchorage Bravo to rectify matters.
Temperatures of minus 10 degrees C and more for the last two days have slowed down a lot of things in the Halifax area. Ships burning heavy fuel need to heat the fuel to give it enough viscosity to flow properly through fuel filtering systems which remove water and impurities and into the engines.Even diesel fuel can suffer from cold temperature, degrading its quality and trapping impurities and solidifying wax and other impurities.
One aspect of the ship noted on its departure is its asymmetrical appearance.The superstructure looks very different from the the starboard side, with a large forward extension at deck, which I assume to be part of the engine room ventilation system. Also it has a sloped edge to the house on this side only, due to the offset funnel and free fall lifeboat.

Renate Schulte - finally sails, Heinrich J too,

 1. Renate Schulte sailing at noon time today.

Renate Schulte sailed today after spending twelve days in Halifax, instead of the usual one day visit. Sailing for Melfi Lines, the ship arrived on December 21 with hull damage. [see previous posts] (Rumours persist that she acquired some more damage while berthing.) Cutting out the old hull plate, making necessary internal repairs and welding in the new plate took time, and the ship was caught up in the Christmas shutdowns.
Although the repairs were completed before the New Year's Day shutdown, cargo work was not finished and so she was held up again, until loading and unloading was completed today.
She took two tugs on departure, signalling to me that repairs to the bow thruster are yet to follow at a later date. 
All this time meant that the next ship in the Melfi rotation, Heinrich J caught up with Renate Schulte, arriving December 30. It was also held up for a time due to weather and came alongside Halterm on December 31. Its cargo work was also not completed  before the New Year's break, but should be done today, allowing it to sail more or less on time.
There is not a lot of "slop" built into these schedules, so some adjustments will have to be made to allow things to return to normal. Some shipyard time may be needed for Renate Schulte.

 2. Heinrich J arriving on December 30.

Heinrich J. was built in 1998 and is German owned, flying the flag of Antigua and Barbuda. It measures 5850 gross tons, 6770 deadweight.It is rated for 647 TEUs and has two 45 tonne cranes. Interestingly it was built in Portugal by Est.Navais de Viana do Castelo S.A.