Cruise, Cruise, Cruise and More

 Although it is still early in the season, there were three cruise ships in the Port of Halifax today, April 27: Viking Polaris, Volendam and Norwegian Pearl.

Viking Polaris was back for its second visit. After its first visit April 10 it has covered a lot of territory:  Trois-Rivières April 25, Montreal 16, Toronto 17-18, Montreal 20, Trois-Rivières 21, Quebec City 21, Port Alfred 22, Sept-Iles 23, and Charlottetown 25. It is now off to New York City and will not be back again until August 17.

The 30,114 gt ship, built in 2022 by Fincantieri carries 378 passengers and 256 crew. It sister ship Viking Octantis was here April 18 [qv] en route to a summer's cruising on the Great Lakes.

While in port, the ship discharged some refuse to a barge and exercised its Zodiacs. The workboat / landing craft Tidal Runner was doing tug duty with the barge.

 

Volendam

 A ship that will become a familiar sight in Halifax this year made its first ever call in Halifax today. Volendam, built in 1999 by Fincantieri, Marghera is a member of the Rotterdam class, measuring 60,906 gt with a capacity of 1432 passengers and 647 crew. It replaces sister ship Zaandam which had been calling in Halifax since 2019. The two ships have exchanged routes with Zaandam now doing Alaska tours.

Volendam will take up the east coast run out Boston to Portland, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, Magdalen Islands, Quebec City, Montreal. The latter is a terminal port also. From there, with a new contingent of passengers the ship retraces its way back to Boston via the same ports including Halifax. In all it will make 20 calls in Halifax between now and October 15 when it will make a Mediterranean round trip from and to Fort Lauderdale, its winter base.

Norwegian Pearl was today's first arrival but I did not catch a glimpse of it until it was outbound and then as it was "going away."

 A 2006 product of Meyer Werft, Papenburg, it is a 93,350 gt ship carrying 2,394 passengers and 1,099 crew. (It was refurbed in 2017). Unusual for a cruise ship, it is eastbound transatlantic, sailing from New York April 25. After Halifax it is scheduled to stop in Reykjavik, Belfast, Cobh-Cork, Isle of Portland (Weymouth), Le Havre and finally Southampton May 9.

It was interesting to see how much smoke the two older ships made as they picked up speed outbound.  I don't know if either ship used shore power when they were in Halifax, but I hope they weren't making that much particulate when in port.

And More 

There was other activity in the port today too:

At Autoport the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean auto carrier Tijuca arrived from Southampton and sailed for New York.

Dewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co Ltd built the ship in 2008 at Okpo. A 71,673 gt, 30,089 dwt ship, it can carry 7620 RT43 cars and is equipped with a 320 tonne capacity stern ramp and a small side ramp. It has the usual rounded superstructure forward, but its bridge structure is elevated three decks above the weather deck, which is at least one deck, if not two decks, higher than most autocarriers. While this must improve forward visibility, it is not a feature taken up on newer ships.

Both container terminals were working today. At the South End Container Terminal it was EM Kea on the Maersk / CMA CGM St.Lawrence route from Montreal for Bremerhaven.

 At Fairview Cove it was an 0900 hrs departure for the overnight caller Delphinus C, the former NYK Delphinus. A Dedalus class ship of 55,487 gt, 65,950 dwt, it has a capacity of 4922 TEU. 

One of several sister ships on THE Alliance's AL5 service it arrived yesterday afternoon from Saint John, NB after its usual string of calls from Port Everglades, Panama, Los Angeles, Oakland and back to Panama, Cartagena and Saint John.

 

The tug Atlantic Bear worked the ship all the way through the Narrows as stern tethered escort, ready to pull or brake if needed

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A 5 ship day

 It was a five cruise ship day in Halifax for the first of October. 

Ctystal Serenity after over-nighting in Halifax moved in the early hours from Pier 20 to Pier 27 to make room for the Norwegian Pearl, then sailed in the early afternoon for Sydney, NS. 

Queen Mary 2 tied up at Pier 22, as usual. giving a solid panorama of ships at the seawall.

The World arrived at Pier 23 and Pearl Mist at Pier 24.

The World, arriving from Montreal, will be staying in port over night. It will then depart for US east coast ports, the Caribbean, and the Pacific coast of South America and eventually to Antarctica by the end of the year.

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Lee update

 Although there was coastal flooding and shore erosion due to the storm surge, Post Tropical storm Lee did not create the widespread damage to boats and harbours that last year's Hurrucane Fiona did. That is not to belittle the impact of the storm - it was severe - but perhaps it was as much due to wise precautions as to the somewhat less powerful distrurbance.

As previously noted ships vacated Halifax harbour and went well offshore to the east as the storm tracked across mainland Nova Scotia on Septmber 16. For instance the container ship ZIM Iberia which cleared Halifax on Friday September 15 and was destined for New York, instead headed northeasterly and was spotted on AIS well offshore. Similarly the cruise ship Zaandam which sailed on the 15th got ahead of the storm and made for CornerBrook, NL after a day or more at sea.

The heavy load ship GPO Sapphire, which had been anchored off Halifax made for the shelter of Chedabucto Bay. It likely did not anchor because with its Dynamic Positioning capability, it was able to keep station. The huge windage of its deck load of six wind turbine tower components could have put unbearable strain on conventional anchors and chain.

GPO Sapphire anchored off Halifax on September 13.

Speaking of anchors however, the stress was too much for one of those red white and blue navy trot buoys off Macnab's Cove (on the right and left of the photo above.) It and a green navigation buoy were spotted adrift in the harbour, but were later coralled by tugs.

Coastal tankers sought shelter too with Acadian off Lismore and Big Island to the eastern of the Northumberland Strait. (It was bound for Charlottetown.)

Algoscotia and Mia Desgagnés were in St.Ann's Bay (northeast coast of Cape Breton) and not far away the cruise ship Norwegian Joy (which had been due in Halifax September 17) stood by off Wreck Cove (an inauspicious name under the circumstances.)

That made today (Monday, September 18) a double header Norwegian day in Halifax with both Norwegian Joy and Norwegian Pearl in at the same time. They were joined by the Pearl Mist which must have had a rough time of it en route from Portland, ME.

 Wind gusts of 117 kph (72 miles per hour) were recorded at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport (well inland) and there were power outages all over NovA Scotia and New Brunswick. Ship Centreal Eastern (- the home of Shipfax) was without electricity for 28 hours from roughly 0715 hrs ADT Saturday, September 16 to 1100 hrs Sunday, September 17.

The storm was well passed by Sunday, Septemeber 17, but the only commercial activity in the harbour was the arrival and departure of the EM Kea on the Maersk / CMA CGM St-Laurent 1 service. It would normally have been here on Saturday en route from Montreal to Bremerhavem but can quite likely make up the time on the long transatlantic leg.

By today harbour activity had returned to normal (ferry service had been suspended on Saturday for example) with comings and goings at both container terminals. 

CMA CGM Mexico (15,000 plus TEU) made its call (westbound from Tanger Med) at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, along with Tropic Hope...

 ... and Atlantic Sky at PSA Fairview Cove (west bound en route for New York).

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Mixed Bag

 There was a little bit of everything in the Port of Halifax today (August 29) - with tankers, passenger ships, container ships and both Canadian and United States naval vessels.

The Marshall Islands flagged Midnight Glory arrived this morning from Houston, TX and anchored in the lower harbour. Built in 2020 by the Hyundai Mipo yard in Ulsan, it is a 29,649 gt, 50,324 dwt midrange chemical / product tanker.

As the pilot disembarks to the pilot boat Capt E.T.Rogers, the cruise ships Norwegian Escape (left) and Norwegian Pearl (right) form a backdrop. If the tanker is headed for Imperial Oil, it must wait its turn because the berth is still occupied by the Rita M (see August 27 post) and appears to be nearly unloaded.

 

In the early evening the East Coast arrived from Saint John at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal with more product for local consumption.

 I missed the arrival this early morning of the USS Oscar Austin an Areliegh Burke class destroyer, pennant number DDG 79. I will try for later.

Meanwhile this morning Max Bernays AOPV 432 was conducting more post acceptance trials. It was delivered by Irving Shipbuilding Inc's Halifax Shipyard to the RCN in September 2022, and is expected to sail for Esquimault, BC before year end.

 Max Bernays is the third Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessel of the Harry DeWolf class, and will be the first to be based on the West Coast.

Mediterranean Shipping Company's INDUSA line from the west coast of India via the Mediterranean to the US East Coast was represented today by rhe MSC Beijing. The ship was built in 2005 by Hanjin Heavy Industry + Construction Co in Busan. With tonnages of 91,023 gt, and 105,035 dwt it has a capacity of 8069 TEU including 620 reefers.

On sailing it made a long plume of water vapour in the high humidity evening air.  The ship was retrofitted with an exhaust gas scrubber, which appears to have been installed to port of the orginal funnel structure so as not to sacrifice cargo carrying space. [See the tanker East Coast, photo above, with scrubber fitted aft of the funnel.]

While the MSC Beijing was finishing up at Pier 42 the ONE Blue Jay arrrived and squeezed in at Pier 41.

 The 14,026 TEU ship used three tugs to slow and turn the ship and assist it to back in to the berth.

 

To round out the grab bag, there was one other ship to note, the Oceanex Sanderling which arrived from St.John's this morning and docked first at Autoport. 

 

It then moved to Bedford Basin anchorage for the night and will move to the PSA Fairview Cove Container Terminal tomorrow. Oceanex has relocated its activities to Fairview Cove from the South End Terminal (SECT) as part of a rationalization that also saw ZIM move to Fairview Cove, Transport St-Pierre et Miquelon to move from Fairview Cove to the SECT and some shuffling of other services depending on size of ships.

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Five cruise ships and other traffic - amended

 Welcoming three or even four cruise ships together in the Port of Halifax is not unusual, but having five ships in port at once is rare. Today, October 11, is the only day this season when that number of ships is scheduled to call on the same day.

Staggering their arrival times is required to ensure there are enough pilots and linehandlers available, while still maintaining "normal" commercial shipping activity in the rest of the port.

Norwegian Pearl (2390 passengers, for Pier 20), Sky Princess (3660, Pier 22), Viking Octantis ( 380, Pier 31) and Ocean Voyager (200, Pier 24) were the first to arrive, embarking their pilots between 0630 and 0645 hrs. Seabourn Quest (Pier 23) followed at 0715 hrs ADT.

By the time they were all secured at their respective berths it was wall to wall white on the waterfront.

Viking Octantis arrived as the sun was rising behind heavy cloud. Delivered in December 2021 by Vard Tulcea (a Fincantieri yard) the 30,114 gt ship is rated Polar Class 6 and can carry 378 passengers in 189 staterooms. (Other sources say 380 passengers.) it operates for Viking Expedition Cruises.

The ship sailed to Antarctica for the first part of 2022. Returning via New York it spent the summer cruising on the Great Lakes. Exiting the Seaway October 4 it called in Trois-Rivières, Quebec City and Sept-Iles en route to Halifax.

Ocean Voyager has also been to the Great Lakes this season, exiting the Seaway October 5 and calling in Montreal October 5-6, Quebec City October 6 and Charlottetown October 9. 

The ship is a familar one in all its guises since built in 2001 as Cape May Light by Atlantic Marine in Jacksonville, FL. It has sailed as Sea Voyager in 2010;  in 2015 it became Saint Laurent, and in 2016 the Victory I. The ship was re-labelled Ocean Voyager in December 2021 and returned to service earlier this year for American Queen Voyages. [Yes those are the same ducks in both photos]

The ship was in Halifax April 29 this year (and its sister Ocean Navigator , the former Cape Cod Light, on April 26).

New to Halifax is the Sky Princess a 145,781 gt behemoth built in 2019 by Fincantieri Monfalcone. In addition to its 3,660 passengers it carries 1,346 crew. I did  not get a clear photo of the ship on arrival, but may get one when it sails. (It is the largest ship in the panorama photo above).

Commercial traffic in the harbour continues too, with one unusual move. The general cargo ship Onego Duero (see October 9's post) had been unloading steel rail at Pier 27, but  moved out to anchor in the lower harbour early this morning to free the berth for the Trinitas from Cuba with nickel concentrates.

The ship apppears to be light, but it may still have cargo aboard -if so it will move back to Pier 27 to complete unloading once the Trinitas sails. Both the cargoes of steel rail and the nickel concentrates are transloaded to rail cars at Pier 27, and with Iberian Bulker (the red ship in the panorama photo) at Pier 28, there was no room to work two ships at the same time.

PSA's South End terminal saw the arrival of Eimskip's Skogafoss and theTropic Hope for Tropical Shipping.

Along with sister ship Tropic Lissette, the two ships maintain a weekly service to and from Florida and the Caribbean. Much of the (northbound and southbound) traffic is refrigerated. The 15,215 gt, 20,325 dwt ship dating from 2018 has a capacity of 1145 TEU including 260 reefers and carries two 45 tonne SWL cranes.

 PSA's other terminal at Fairview Cove accommodated THE Alliance's NYK Rumina, a regular caller of long standing.

A 55,487 gt, 66,171 dwt vessel, it is rated for 4922 TEU including 330 reefers.Hyundai Samho delivered the ship in 2010.

 

With its escort tugs, the ship only gently disturbed the placid waters of the Narrows and the Basin as it made its way inbound.

Amendment

The Sky Princess sailed just as the sun was vanishing from the Halifax waterfront, so only the ship's funnel caught a few rays.

 For the record some of the other ships mentioned above, Skogafoss and Norwegian Pearl, as they sailed this afternoon:

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Post post tropical storm Fiona

Post tropical storm Fiona was the most powerful storm ever to hit Atlantic Canada. On September 23 and 24 it tore through eastern mainland Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, southeastern New Brunswick and  southwest Newfoundland. The lowest barometric pressure ever recorded on land anywhere in Canada was measured at Hart Island, NS at 932 millibars (unofficial). Unofficial wind gusts of 171 kph at Arisaig, NS (on the Northumberland Strait) and 177 kph at Wreckhouse, NF were among a dozen or so gusts over 125 kph reorded throughout the region.

 The storm left unaccountable damage to houses, businesses and infrastructure and left a nearly half a million people without power (at one time) and some hundreds without safe homes. I do not wish to ignore the heartbreak and agony suffered by many, but as this blog concentrates on shipping in Halifax, I will stick closer to that topic.

Halifax was spared the brunt of the storm although thousands of trees were down and utility lines severed. Ship Central Eastern, the home of Shipfax was without power for 84 hours - from 2300 hrs Friday September 23 to 1100 hrs today (September 27). There was a longer outage in September 2019 when Hurricane Dorian passed through, about 86 hours - but I wasn't counting that time. Wind gusts of 125 kph were recorded at the Stanfield International Airport - well inland from the port. Sustained wind of 70 to 80 kph in the city (and port area) were recorded in the early hours of Saturday September 24 and near 50 kph for most of the day. There was also heavy rain. 

As per my previous post, most of the harbour was "battened down". Several pleausre craft that had been left at moorings were mauled and some driven aground, but others survived unscathed. Major commercial ships had put out to sea under instruction from the Harbour Master. Both the coastal vessels Oceanex Sanderling and Nolhan Ava remained in port at anchorages in Bedford Basin. 

When conditions improved, and some services restored on Sunday September 25, Oceanex Sanderling returned to Pier 41 (PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway) and completed loading for St.John's. It sailed in the early hours of Monday the 26th.

Nolhan Ava sailed directly from anchorage for Argentia and St-Pierre on the 25th.

By Sunday the 25th it was mostly business as usual in the port even though it felt a bit surreal. Cruise ships Caribbean Princess and  Silver Whisper arrived as did several commercial vessels: ZIM Constanza (westbound from the Med), Augusta Luna (for Nirint with cargo from Cuba) and Atlantic Sail from New York, both of which must have jogged along slowly following the storm.

The warm sunny day was in complete contrast to the previous day, and cruise passengers had an ideal day ashore - where the roads were not blocked by fallen trees and the power had been restored. I think many were shocked by what they saw.

  Monday September 26 was also like a typical day in the port with Zaandam, Insignia and Seven Seas Navigator alongside. There was also a more typical drizzly mist.

The harbour tour boat Kawartha Spirit (and the inevitable Harbour Hopper 5) were also operating after holing up for a few days in safety.

Two commercial vessels returned to port to complete operations. CMA CGM Brazil, which put out to sea ahead of the storm in the early hours of Friday September 23 resumed its spot at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, Pier 41. Morning Chorus had unloaded RoRo cargo at Pier 9C on September 22 (see previous post) and came back in to dock at Autoport to unload cars.

Tuesday, September 27 (today) was even mistier and rainier, but also busy with three more cruise ships: Norwegian Pearl, Star Pride and Voyager of the Seas.

Star Pride is no stranger to Halifax, as per my older post from September 5, 2018. From new in 1988 as Seabourn Pride, the ship was a regular here, and returned after it was sold and renamed in 2014 and refurbished in 2016. It has been refurbed again, this time just last year by Fincantieri, Palermo, with a new 25.6m mid-section containing 50 more cabins, as well as other upgrades. The now 12,995 gt ship (it was 9975 gt) carries 312 passengers (up from 208) and has a staff of 190. It tied up as usual at Pier 23, but stern in.

The big ships tied up at the seawall from Pier 20, 21 to 22.

It was a decidedly gloomy experience for passengers!

Among other interesting arrivals was the Vayenga Maersk which had weathered out the storm anchored off Queensland in St.Margaret's Bay. This unusual bit of navigation is not unheard of but is more commonly used by Coast Guard and Naval vessels.

Vayenga Maersk anchored in St.Margaret's Bay 

(photo contributed, with thanks, by anon).

Another unusual visitor was the RRS (Royal Research Ship) James Cook arriving from Vigo, Spain and docking at the Bedford Institute.

Completed in 2006 by Flekkefjord Slip + Maskinfabriek AS in Norway on a hull built by Crist in Gdansk, Poland, the 5401 gt ship is operated by the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK with nine officers and 13 crew and technicians, and can carry 32 scientists at full complement.

Another sign that things are returning to normal was Develop Nova Scotia's workboat returning the floating jetties to the Halifax waterfront. With a few weeks of good weather left, they are expecting small craft to tie up alongside.

A deck load of gulls got a free ride across the harbour on the jetties. 
 

Navy tugs moved the Sackville back to its summer berth from HMC Dockyard, where it had been sheltered during the storm. As one of the few remaining ships from World War II (and the only corvette) it is also one of the very few ships left afloat that once carried the designation His Majesty's Canadian Ship. With the ascent to the throne of King Charles III all Canadian naval vessels are again His Majesty's Canadian Ships.

There have been numerous other arrivals, departures and moves, not to mention cancellations of cruise ship calls and bypasses by cargo ships. There are too many to account for here. There have also been numerous missed photo opportunities due to limited access to the waterfront. Some areas are still cordoned off for clearing operations and damage repair.

As usual Shipfax will try to stay on top of it all.

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Pax and Box

 The two main "commodities" in the port of Halifax in the autumn of the year are passengers (Pax) and containers (Boxes).  The cruise lines try to avoid the hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean by sailing north to New England and eastern Canada. September and October are usually the busiest months, but the lines seem to be getting off to an early start this year, after two years of shut down.

Container lines usually see an increase in traffic in the early autumn too as retailers stock up for the Christmas buying spree.

Today, August 30, was another "two cruise ship day" with the now familiar Nieuw Statendam arriving from Boston, Portland, ME and Saint John, NB.

The 99,902 gt ship, built in 2017 by Fincantieri, Marghera, can carry 2,666 PAX and 1,053 crew. The Pinnnacle class ship has 1,339 passenger cabins and 589 crew cabins, so sharing is required for a "maximum persons onboard" total of 4,173 souls.

The Nieuw Statendam picked up its pilot at about 0900 hrs, giving the first passenger ship arrival, at 0630 hrs, the Norwegian Pearl, time to tie up, get clearance for passengers to disembark, and to clear the parking areas of a lot of the first armada of buses and taxis. 

Departure times were similarly synchronised with Norwegian Pearl sailing at 1630 for Portland, Maine and Nieuw Statendam sailing at 1930 for Corner Brook, NL.

 The Norwegian Pearl 's cruise also originated in Boston. It then proceeded via Charlottetown, PE and Sydney, NS to Halifax. The 93,530 gt ship was built by Meyer Werft, Papenburg in 2006 and carries 2,394 passengers and 1,099 crew.

As far as the box commodity is concerened much of the activity was concentrated at the southend terminal, PSA Halifax's Atlantic Gateway.

ZIM Monaco embarked its pilot at 0600 hrs and tied up at Pier 42 shortly after 0700. The ship is on ZIM's ZCA (Atlantic) run from the Mediterranean.

It is a 40,030 gt, 50,775 dwt ship built in 2009 by Samsung, Koje, with a capacity of 4,253 TEU.

Pier 41 (the northern portion of Pier C, and with the largest cranes) was left vacant for this afternoon's arrival MOL Charisma a 86,692 gt, 90,390 dwt ship with a capacity of 9060 TEU including 630 reefer plugs. 

Working for THE Alliance's EC5 service, and eastbound, the ship would normally have docked at Fairview Cove. However with the two terminals now under common PSA management, the operators have the option of  berthing ships at the most convenient location. It is possible that the ship's air draft exceeded the harbour bridge clearance requirements, since it did appear lightly loaded (by draft).

It was widely speculated that when PSA took over the operation of Fairview Cove that it would shuffle  the lines with the larger ships to the Southend and those with smaller ships to Fairview Cove. Aside from the occassional "one-of" shifts such as this one, no permanent moves have been detected yet.

MOL Charisma was launched by Mitsubishi, Nagasaki in 2007. It was delivered as APL France and operated with that name until 2010 when it reverted to its orginal name.

Footnote

The Eimskip charter Vantage did indeed sail late this morning after working containers at Pier 42. The ship arrived from Reykjavik on Friday, August 26, ostensibly on the Green Line route to Portland, ME. However the ship moved to Pier 36 where it was idle until this morning. Meanwhile Eimskip's regularly scheduled Green Line ship Skogafoss arrived yesterday, and seems to have picked up some of  Vantage's cargo before sailing to Portland. [See previous posts]

(File photo from Jume 11, 2022)

Eimskip's schedule shows the ship on Green Line service, arriving in Thorshavn, Faroes Islands on September 7, then shifting to the Purple Line service running between the Faroes and Scrabster, in the north of Scotland.

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