A newcomer, among others

 A new to Halifax ship showed up in Halifax today, November 17, along with a pair of previous callers.

ONE Monaco arrived at PSA Atlantic Gateway on THE Alliance's EC5 Asia / North America service, this time east bound from New York. It was here October 14 westbound from Colombo, Sri Lanka, via the Cape of Good Hope, and has since called at the US east coast ports of New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Jaksonvillle, Charleston and New York again.

The seventh of ten ships in its class, it was built in 2018 by Imabari Zosen, Mihara as Monaco Bridge for K-Line. The 150,706 gt, 147,021 dwt ship has a capacity of 13,900 TEU. K-Line joined with the MOL and NYK to form Ocean Network Express (ONE) in 2017 and some of  the ships have been rebranded and repainted to ONE livery. The name change in this case came in 2023. Sister ship ONE Minato is due tomorrow on the westbound leg of the EC5.

The new to Halifax ship is the Spyros V on ZIM's ZCA route from the Mediterranean. Its last port was Messina, Italy and it is bound for New York.

Built in 2011 by Jiangsu New Yangzijiang in Jingjiang, it is a 40,542 gt, 49,891 dwt ship with a capacity of 4250 TEU including 698 reefer slots. It operated as the Bella Schulte for the Thomas Schulte Reederei until 2015 when it was acquired by affiliates of the Greek operator Technomar Shipping Inc, and renamed. The "V" presumably is the Roman numeral, representing the capacity class, similar to MSC's new naming policy.

A repeat visitor, but not a regular one, is the auto carrier Morning Cindy at Autoport on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen North Atlantic route from Bremerhaven and Zeebrugge for New York.

Morning Cindy was built in 2012 by Imabari Zosen in Marugame. The 59,580 gt, 18,735 dwt ship has a capacity of 6,142 Car Equivalent Units. Despite operating for EUKOR (a partnership of Wilhelmsen, Wallenius, American RoRo and United European Car Carriers), ostensibly to carry Korean made auotmobiles, the ship is owned and managed by Japanese interests through a Panama corporation: Excel Marine Co Ltd of Fukuoka.

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Three Car Carriers times Four

 It is unusual to see three car carriers in Halifax in one day, but it happened today April 5. If that was not enough one of them arrived twice.

The Morning Peace arrived first thing yesterday morning at Autoport then moved in the early evening to Pier 9C and unloaded the usual lot of forestry, agriculture, mining and construction machinery.

This was a return visit for the ship, which called here February 28 also on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean transatlantic route. Since then it went to New York, Brunswick, GA, Goteborg, Bremerhaven and Zeebrugge. A 2017 product of Hyundai Samho, the 66,802 gt, 22,438 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,368 (or 7,549 depending on the source) cars. 

It sailed this morning for New York.

 

Another arrival from yesterday was the Grande Marocco, which last here February 24. This time I was able to take a picture without scaring off the local duck and gull population.

 

Built in 2010 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan, Grande Marocco is a 47,636 gt, 25,725 dwt ship with a container capacity of 800 TEU and a car/van capacity of 2,000. It has a large number of farm tractors and at least two mobile cranes on the open deck. It arrived from the Vigo, Livorno, Savona, and Gioia Tauro.

It was scheduled to sail at noon time, but in fact did not depart until mid to late afternoon, giving Davisville, RI as destination.(On its last visit it went to Baltimore - so this time it may be a diversion.)

With the Grande Marocco intending to sail at noontime, the next arriving auto carrier made its way in to the harbour. Morning Cindy intended to standby in the harbour anchorages, leaving room for the other ship to clear the berth and head out to sea.

Instead, when the Grande Marocco did not sail on the scheduled time, the Morning Cindy put back out to sea rather than anchoring, and made another arrival later in the afternoon. It then proceeded directly to Autoport.

Built in 2012 by Imabari Zosen in Marugame, Japan, the 59,580 gt 18,735 dwt ship has a capacity of 6,142 cars. Its route to Halifax was a little unusual, which may explain why it has not been seen here before. On January 27 it sailed from the Japanese port of Toyohashi and called at Nagoya, Sagunto the made directly for Portbury, UK (on the Bristol Channel), presumably via the Cape of Good Hope. It then procceded to Zeebrugge, Southampton and Marchwood (in Southampton water), sailing March 27. Marchwood is known as a military port.

There will be a let up in auto carrier traffic for a few days, with the next scheduled arrival, the Morning Lady, due on April 9, also from Southampton.

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Weather (again)

 Another spell of high winds (accompanied by snow and rain) has delayed some harbour activity today, April 4. The tow out of the fire-damaged MSC Sao Paulo V has been postponed until tomorrow, April 5 when the wind is expected to die down and make towing a dead ship a little more manageable. The MSC Shristi is at Pier 41 taking on some of the containers from the Sao Paulo V destined for Sines, Portugal and beyond. 

Following up on yesterday's observation, since amended, the large crane at the north end of the Pier 41was operating today, so it may only be its ability to raise the boom that is (or was) impaired.

 When the tow does depart, vacating the berth at Pier 42, the Vivienne Sheri D will move alongside. The Canadian owned Eimskip charter anchored on arrival this morning.

In the teeth of a stiff breeze in the Narrows, the NYK Meteor arrived and made its way through to PSA Fairview Cove in Bedford Basin.

The ship is sailing for Ocean Network Express on THE Alliance's AL5 service from Antwerp. The NYK Meteor is another of the familiar Daedalus class built by Hyundai Ulsan - this one in 2007. The 55,534 gt, 65,935 dwt ship has a capacity of as much as 4922 TEU (some sources report 4888) and 330 reefers.

Over at Autoport, the 230 members of Unifor have accepted the latest contract offer and returned to work. Replacement workers were brought in during the five week strike and handled numerous ships. There is now pressure to ban replacement workers. A bill to do so in federally regulated work places was introduced in the Canadian parliament last November. A motion by the opposition to ban replacement workers across the board has been introduced in the Nova Scotia legislature.

Today's arrival at Autoport, the Morning Peace, was due to move to Pier 9C late this afternoon to offload machinery, with another autocarrier the Grande Marocco to take its place and the Morning Cindy is due tomorrow. Press reports state that Autoport handles 185,000 cars per year. (By comparison, the Dundalk termonal in Baltimore - currently blocked due to the bridge collapse, handles more than 850,000 cars per year.)

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More Saturday

With gloomy weather and snow showers in the forecast I thought my early morning shot of Monte Toledo might be it for the day, but conditions improved somewhat allowing for a few more photos.

Over at Autoport it was more business as usual with Morning Cindy in port all day. The Panama flag ship owned by Excel Marine of Fukuoka, Japan arrived from Bremerhaven in the early hours of the morning. Sailing for the Eukor fleet (EURope-KORea) The 59,432 grt, 18,954 dwt ship was built in 2012 by Imabari Shipbuilding's Marugame shipyard in Japan.

It is low tide in Eastern Passage but Morning Cindy is immune thanks to the design of the pier, which allows ship's ramps to remain operational in all states of the tide.

Autoport is once again stuffed full of cars, with Greeen Cove anchored off awaiting her turn tomorrow.

Across on the Halifax side, it was (nearly) all systems go at Halterm, with Maersk Penang at pier 42 and the CMA CGM Cendrillon arriving for pier 41. Oceanex Sanderling was back at pier 36, ballasted down by the stern again - probably to complete bow repairs from ice damage.

Tugs Atlantic Oak and Spitfire III take CMA Cendrillon in hand south of George's Island and turn it to back into the pier.

The 90,931 grt, 109,021 dwt ship, with a capacity of 8465 TEU was bilt by Samsung in 2009. Jusrt a coincidence, but Cendrillon translates as Cinderella in English - no relation to the Cindy at Autoport.

At pier 31 the Pure Car and Truck cxarrier Tosca was finishing off discharging non-car RoRo cargo. It had unloaded its cars yesterday at Autport.

Fairview Cove was all out too, with Atlantic Star and NYK Daedalus sailing early and Itea arriving late afternoon.

 Atlantic Oak moves Itea toward the Fairview Cove pier.

Itea has been calling for ACL since last July. The 39,582 grt, 48,304 dwt ship with a capacity of 3842 TEU is operated by Costamare under Liberian flag.  Built in 1998 by Hyundai, Ulsan, as Bunga Raya Satu, the ship was renamed KY Parissia in 2012 and MSC Itea in 2014. It was renamed Itea in 2016.

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