Frosty Saturday

It was a frosty day with temperatures plunging from plus 8C yesterday to minus 8C or colder today. It did not seem to slow down shipping activity with half a dozen arrivals and about the same number of departures.

Chebucto Pilot was busy and accumulated a bit of frozen spray as it ran back and forth to the pilot station.

An early morning move was Minerva Virgo from Imperial Oil to Irving Oil. The ship appeared to be nearly empty, by late morning and is due to sail over night. A 2006 product of the STX Shipbuilding Co in Jinhae,South Korea, the 28,960 grt, 50,921 dwt tanker is operated by Minerva Marine Inc of Athens.

A regular is Maersk Palaermo making one of the weekly calls on Maersk's Canada Express transatlantic service in conjunction with CMA CGM and NYK Line. The lightly loaded ship is certainly showing signs of the brutal conditions it experiences on that run. The heavily wrinkled bow plates are a result of constant slamming into seas.

Built in 1998 as P+O Nedlloyd Auckland it carried the name Lykes Pioneer from 2000 to 2002, then returned to its original name. Maersk acquired PONL and it became Maersk Palermo in 2006. Although ideally suited in size to its present service, one wonders how long it will stand up to the pounding.
Its capacity is 2890 TEU (including 400 reefers) on 31,333 grt, 37,842 dwt. It is one of the rare container ships built in Europe, a product of Warnowwerft, Warnemunde. It still flies the Dutch flag, as a reflection of its original owners.


As Maersk Palermo slipped away from pier 42, CMA CGM Bianca arrived and turned off the pier , with tug assistance, and backed in to pier 41.

Only the second ship to call in Halifax on the Columbus Loop service, it arrived August 31, 2015. The service was inaugurated officially the next month with the arrival of CMA CGM Melissande September 13, 2015. CMA CGM Bianca dates from 2011 when it was delivered by Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Heavy Industries Co Ltd. The 90,500 grt, 101,433 dwt ship carries 8530 TEU, including 700 reefers, and always arrives in Halifax looking almost fully loaded.

A mid-afternoon arrival was another regular, OOCL Antwerp, looking quite trim in the low sun.

The 66,462 grt, 66,940 dwt ship, built in 2006 by Koyo Dockyard Co in Mihara, Japan can carry 5888 TEU, including 586 reefers. It did not appear to have much ice accumulation on its run up from New York.

All the above ships are typical, if not regulars in Halifax. Today however there was one unique arrival. The multi-purpose cable laying / trenching support vessel Isaac Newton would be an unusual sight no matter where it arrived.

Operated by the Luxembourg based dredging and marine construction giant Jan De Nul Group, the 16,255 grt, 13,433 dwt ship is fresh off a cable laying project between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

The large yellow "basket" on deck amidships carries some of the cable, more is accommodated below deck.

The ship conducted trenching and cable laying (including the use of an ROV) across the Northumberland Strait between Cape Tormentine, and Borden (the former ferry route) of a pair of 3 phase 138 kV power cables, 17 km long. The work started in October and was completed in December 2016.
An impressive ship, built by the Uljanik Shipyard in Pula, Croatia, it can carry 10,700 tonnes of cable, with turntables above and below deck, served by two large heave compensating cranes and numerous other appliances. Alternatively it can also carry 10,000 tonnes of rock for subsea rock installation work using a fall pipe, for depths up to 200m - or a combination of the two modes.
It bristles with thrusters, one retractable, and is equipped for Dynamic Positioning level 2. 

The slides fitted over the stern allow the cable to slip off as the ship progresses.

A gantry on the starboard quarter handles the ROV.

The Jan de Nul Group is multi-faceted, and its web site is very informative. Look for Isaac Newton in  the Equipment Section, under Cable and Umbilical Installation Vessels: http://www.jandenul.com/en

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Three Arrivals

There were three arrivals today, but looking at the pictures it is hard to believe that they were taken in the same day.

Late this morning Bomar Resolute loomed out of the fog once it was well in to the harbour.

As it made its into the Narrows the Angus L. Macdonald bridge was barely visible in the background. The tug Atlantic Oak is accompanying the ship untethered.

Bomar Resolute is taking up some surplus cargo for Atlantic Container Line, and is lightly loaded on its westbound crossing from Liverpool. (HAPAG-Lloyd also uses ACL ships as a transatlantic service).

The ship is loaded well below its deepest draft. As with most German ships it is classified by Germanischer Lloyd, hence the "GL" on its plimsoll mark.

The ship was built as recently as 2007 as Gabriel Schulte, but was renamed Maruba Cristina almost immediately, and carried the name until 2011. It then became Cape Moreton on a charter to Hamburg-Sud until 2014. It then reverted to Gabriel Schulte until last year when it came under the control of Borealis Maritime of London, but still managed by Bernhard Schulte.
A product of the Shanghia Chengxi shipyard, the 35,991 grt, 42,074 dwt ship has a capacity of 3534 TEU including 500 reefers. It is of an unenviable size these days as larger ships push their way into most trades, compacting rates down to unprofitable levels for ships like this one.

Owners are economizing by reducing maintenance to only the essentials - such as painting the draft marks. The ship is still wearing its Hamburg-Sud hull colour, and even repainting the funnel only covered the flanks, leaving the green stripe of the Schulte fleet on the after side.  (The Bernhard Schulte funnel is black with  white S on a red disk centred on a green stripe.)

Within an hour or so the fog had begun to burn off, although there was still some doubt about the continued existence of Dartmouth on the east side of the bridge.

By early afternoon there was little trace of the fog except on the far horizon as Spikeroog arrived and made its way to Pier 9C.

The Antiguan flag ship is owned by Conship Management of Emden, Germany and is arriving from Hvammstangi, Iceland. The 4511 grt, 5488 dwt ship was built in 2013 by Qidong Daoda Marine of Qidong, China and is of the multi-purpose type. Its large hatch covers can carry containers and the box shaped holds can carry a variety of cargo. Prominent ventilators forward indicate the ability to control humidity for such cargoes as grain a, steel and paper. It also carries a pair of 45 tonne cranes for cargo, offset to carry deck loads.

The ship glided into pier 9C, without tug assistance, using its bow thruster, despite a chilly breeze from the north. Waiting on the pier are some metal fabrications that appear to be elements of an undersea cable tank.

By later afternoon the temperature had rocketed up the mid-teens (C) and it looked more like summer as OOCL Antwerp arrived, greeted by jet-skiers.

The tug Atlantic Fir has made up as stern escort tug and the ship makes its way east of George's Island heading for the Narrows and Fairview Cove.

OOCL Antwerp is a post-(old) Panamax ship of 66,462 grt, 66,940 dwt, with a capacity of 5888 TEU (including 586 reefers). Built in 2006 by Koyo Dockyard Co of Mihara, Japan, it is owned by Shoei Kisen Kaisha of Tokyo, and flies the Panamanian flag, but managed by the aforementioned Bernhard Schulte's Chinese branch in Shanghai.

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Busan Express - new to Halifax

1. Maersk Pembroke and Zim Panama at Halterm on Saturday- the pier was working flat out.

Both container piers in Halifax are scrambling with extra traffic brought on by the effects of storm Sandy in the ports of New York/ New Jersey. Both Fairview Cove (Cerescorp) and Halterm have been inundated by extra traffic from ships that could not berth in NY/NJ or diverted because of the effects of the storm.

2. Busan Express arrived this morning at Fairveiw Cove, followed by Atlantic Concert

In all this bustle there was also the arrival of Busan Express, a new to Halifax post-Panamax container ship. Until now Hapag-Lloyd has been using OOCL's post-Panamax ships (some renamed to Hapag names), but this may be the first in Hapag colours. Built in 2004 by Daewoo, in Koje, South Korea, it is a 75,590 gross tons/ 85,810 deadweight tonnes ship with a capacity of 6,750 TEUs. This puts it at slightly larger than the OOCL class of post-Panamaxes.

3. Atlantic Concert sails up the Narrows this morning bound for Fairview Cove.

4. Italy Express sails Friday as OOCL Antwerp gets underway from anchorage to go into Fairview Cove.

5. OOCL Antwerp sails on Saturday.

Windy Day

1. Coriolis II heads up into northeasterly this afternoon.

High winds, rain and a storm surge disrupted normal activity in the port today.

Early this morning Atlantic Compass arrived on schedule, but due to the wind took the tugs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Hemlock to berth at Fairview Cove. In normal conditions the ACL ships don't need tugs.

The mid-morning arrival of OOCL Antwerp was scrubbed and the ship headed out to sea to ride out the storm.

Meanwhile in port the tanker Algonova headed to anchorage in Bedford Basin, where it joined Clipper Lancer. The tug/barge Penn No.6 and Penn No.120 remain at anchor in the lower harbour.

The only other movement was the research/survey vessel Coriolis II that returned to port yesterday after breaking off survey work for the Hibernia cable project. At first it tied up at pier 27, but it was too rough there and so it went out to the anchorages where it steamed up and down for several hours until coming in to pier 25 late this afternoon. With high winds forecast all night and another storm surge around midnight the ship may leave the dock again tonight.

The storm surge resulted in waves breaking over the piers and the pilot boat dock was almost awash when I went by about 1 pm.

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