Working on all cylinders

 The two container terminals and Autoport were busy today, April 24, and the second cruise ship of the season arrived.

At the Southend Container Terminal PSA Atlantic Gateway there were two ships: Tropic Lissette on Tropical Shipping's regular weekly service to the Caribbean at Pier 42 and MOL Courage back again on the eastbound leg of its EC5 voyage for THE Alliance. The 9060 TEU ship arrived on the westbound leg April 6, and again docked at the Pier 41. Due to its size, it would not be docked at PSA Fairview Cove. It sailed late afternoon for Suez.

Arriving yesterday, the ship took the precaution of using two escort tugs.

On departure today it also used two tugs, to assist in making the swing into the western,, deep water channel.

A smaller fleetmate the MOL Experience arrived at Fairview Cove this morning and sailed this afternoon for Port Everglades on the AL5 service.

The 54,098 gt, 62,953 dwt ship was built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan. It has a capacity of 4803 TEU including 330 reefers. From 2008 to 2010 it carried the name APL Experience before reverting back to its original and current name.

Autoport hosted the SFL Composer. It was last here June 24 last year and is still on dedicated Volkswagen service.

 

Built in 2005 by Minami Nippon, Shitanoe, the 58,631 gt, 18,881 dwt ship was named Excellent Ace until 2012 then Glovis Composer until 2020. It has a rated capacity of 6500 CEU. It arrived from Emden and sailed for Houston.

It was a chillly day for cruise ship passengers, but the Zaandam's passengers were well prepared.  The Holland America ship has been a regular here for several years, and is accustomed to early season trips. 

 

Tied up at Pier 22, with a container crane in the distant background, the Zaandam was preparing to sail late this afternoon.

 Starting in Fort Lauderdale April 18 the Zaandam called in Newport RI April 21, Boston April 22, Bar Harbor April 23 and is due in Sydney tomorrow, followed by Charlottetown April 26, Quebec City April 28 and Montreal April 29. It will be making seven and ten day trips from Boston to Montreal / Montreal to Boston through Halifax until late September.

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RoRo and LoLo

 The term "RoRo", short for "Roll On Roll Off" is widely used to describe ships and cargo such as cars, trucks and trailers that can load or unload on wheels, and which do not require cranes either on the ship or on shore. 

"LoLo" for "Lift On Lift Off" is less used, but is similarly self-explanatory, for cargo that requires the assistance of cranes. 

Today, April 6 saw both kinds of activity in the Port of Halifax.

As for RoRo, the auto carrier Theben sailed after discharging RoRo cargo yesterday at Pier 9C (see previous post) and autos at Autoport today.

The Theben took the western channel outbound as the next RoRo ship for Autoport made its way inbound in the main (eastern) channel. The lobster boat Passage Pride was busy picking through its traps set off Black Rock Beach. [see Post Script]

The inbound Grand Dahlia was built in 2000  by Toyohashi Shipbuilding. The 59,217 gt, 18,054 gt ship has a capacity of 6400 cars. It is operated by Cido Shipping of Korea, and is en route from Goteborg and Southampton.

As for LoLo, that term includes containers, and the container ship MOL Courage arrived on THE Alliance's EC5 service. Instead of going on to PSA Fairview Cove, the ship tied up at Pier 41 at PSA Halifax's Atlantic Gateway.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd built the ship in Nagasaki in 2008 for Mitsui OSK Lines. Although it was launched as MOL Comfort its name became APL Poland on delivery and it carried that name until 2012 when it became MOL Courage. The 87,013 gt, 90,634 dwt ship has a capacity of 9060 TEU including 630 reefers.

It seems that the ship was a little too large to make its way to Bedford Basin where it normally would have been handled by PSA Fairview Cove, so was diverted to the south end terminal instead, where it did not have to clear any bridges, and the berth was available.

A combination RoRo / LoLo ship is ideal for the weekly Halifax / St.John's, NL trade and Oceanex Sanderling has been running that route for 36 years. It normally sails from Halifax on Fridays, but this week it will leave a day early (today, Thursday) to avoid having to pay premium rates for longshore work on Good Friday. It completed loading RoRo cargo this morning at Pier 41 and at mid-day it slid along southward to Pier 42 for LoLo cargo, starting after the lunch break.

Preparations for LoLo were underway at Pier 9C too, but in reality there will be more Lift On than Lift Off. The only lift off from the BBC Challenger was a huge 160 tonne SWL capacity spreader.

The unit was stowed along the ship's starboard rail (and thus not visible yesterday when I only saw the ship's port side) and was lifted off to shore today to be rigged up.

 

The spreader will be used so that the ship's two 80 tonne SWL capacity cranes can be worked in tandem to Lift On the cargo of package boilers that awaits on the pier. 

 

Post Script

The handsome fishing boat Passage Pride is named for its home port of Eastern Passage on the southeast extremity of Halifax Harbour.

An evolved version of the traditional Cape Island design of inshore fishing vessel, its hull is FRP and it has an enlarged deck house for improved shelter and trap stowage. The lobster season in the Halifax area extends from the end of November to the end of May, but most fishers lay up for January to March to avoid the most severe weather. Outside of the lobster season it participates in other fisheries further offshore such as longlining. It is fitted with paravanes (the outriggers are stowed vertically in the photo) that are deployed to give it stability when at sea.

 

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