Boxing Day activity

While still a holiday for most, there was activity in the harbour today:

As dawn broke, the container/cargo ship Zeelandia could be seen at anchor off Chebucto Head. It will wait until 2300 tonight to take its pilot, docking at pier 30-31 just after midnight. There will be no holiday overtime pay for the longshoremen, December 27 is just another working day. The ship is a regular caller for Nirint Lines.
Here is how she looked on a very hot day in June sailing up the  St.Lawrence:

Before dawn the autocarrier Hoegh Masan arrived at Auoport and began unloading the usual little white vans, but also Toyotas and other brands of cars.

Dating from 2008 the former Maersk and CSAV ship is on at least its fourth visit to Halifax this year, as the the auto trade continues to boom.

Soon after sunrise the unfortunately named FPMC 21 sailed. It arrived on the 23rd and was last here November 30. 

The pilot boat A.P.A.No.1 heads out ahead. The regular boat Chebucto Pilot is in refit.

The  Liberian flag tanker was built in 2009 and takes its name from the Formosa Plastics Marine Corp of Taipei, Taiwan.

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Pot pourri

There was a mixed bag of shipping in Halifax today, with an equally mixed variety of weather.

Atlantic Concert made a very brief visit to Halifax this morning. The ship emerged from the fog once inside the harbour and was tied up at Fairview Cove by 0800. It sailed again before noon, having discharged a variety of RoRo cargo that included numerous European camper vans and two A4 class steam locomotives.

Thanks to protective tarps, we will not see them in all their glory. They are returning from England after a two year stay, where they were restored to their original LNER livery and numbering. They will now be transferred to rail cars and shipped back to their North American homes in St-Constant, QC and Green Bay, WI. For more on these 1937 vintage steam locomotives see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A4_4489_Dominion_of_Canada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A4_4496_Dwight_D_Eisenhower

The next ships were just emerging from the fog when I saw them.

Seasalvia is another product tanker, a product of the STX Offshore + Shipbuilding yard in Jinhae, South Korea. It was built in 2013 and measures 29,925 gross tons, 50,908 deadweight. It had been anchored off Halifax since about May 6. It is headed to Imperial Oil's number 4 dock.

Following along by a few minutes, Western Regent joins the fleet of seismic ships gathering in Halifax for BP. Built in 1992 by Ulstein Werft it is a UT 747 type, and will be one of two streamer vessels working on the BP project.
Western Neptune arrived after dark last night, and it will be the other streamer boat.

Western Neptune is a UT 753 class ship, built by Ulstein Werft in 1999.It will tow long cables that pick up the echoed sound waves from the "gun boats". The data is collected and sent by satellite for analysis.

It had cleared off a bit by noon time when the next ship hove into view.

Ocean Charger flies the flag of the United States of America, but was built in 2000 in Portugal by Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo, as Virgo J. It was almost immediately renamed Industrial Charger, by its German owners, a name it carried until 2009. It is now operated by Pacific-Gulf Maritime of Terrytown, LA, and registered in New Orleans.
  

The ship is fitted with a pair of Krupp cranes, each with up to 120 tonne lifting capacity. It tied up at pier 9A where it will be fitted out to carry subsea cable. The ship's holds will receive special metal framing to carry the coiled cable. Called tanks in the cable business, they will ensure that the cable is kept in good condition and not kinked or bent beyond its minimum radius.

By late afternoon, when the sun was blazing happily between the clouds, it was time for Hoegh Masan to sail from Autoport.

Built in 1998 as Maersk Teal and renamed in 2008, it carried the name CSAV Rio Salado from 2011-2012. It has been a regular caller in Halifax since new.
 
The sun, and warm air temperatures (over land it reached 19C in Halifax) brought out the usual quota of  the foolhardy.

Despite a water temperature of 5C and an air temperature over the water of 8C, this sail-boarder was clad only in swim trunks. With no pfd or any means of staving off hypothermia in the event of an accident, he was certainly putting his own life at risk.
The Coast Gard has started its summer rescue patrols in the harbour - I hope he did not need them.

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Hoegh Masan - "new" visitor to Autoport

A different name to add to the list of ships visiting Autoport is Hoegh Masan. It arrived and sailed today after unloading Ford Transit mini-trucks and loading North American vehicles for export.
The ship was built in 1998 as Maersk Teal (and I am certain it called here under that name). It was renamed Hoegh Maran in 2008 but carried the name CSAV Rio Salado for a time in 2011-2012.(and may have called here under that name too.)

A few export autos are lined up on the ship's stern ramp at Autoport. The ship loads and unloads at the same time.

Although owned by Hoegh Autoliners of Singapore (a branch of the Leif Hoegh company of Oslo) it is managed by Maersk's Singapore operation (Maersk is Danish.)