Halterm tied up and other activity

Two ships that were due to sail from Halterm's South End container facility have been delayed until tomorrow.
Melfi's Catharina Schulte and Eimskip's Selfoss will remain in port tonight. That meant that Nolhanava tied up at pier 37 and did not appear to be working cargo, since pier 36 was occupied by Selfoss - it did not appear to be working either. Oceanex Sanderling which is also in port, will remain at Autoport until midnight then move back to Halterm on departure of ZIM Qingdao.

 The inbound truck lanes numbered about 40 trucks late this afternoon, with more arriving. Border Services has completed scanning inbound containers from ZIM Qingdao and their scanner truck is headed home.

Selfoss is stern in at pier 36, with Nolhanava (barely visible) at pier 37.

The tanker Falcon Maryam moved earlier from anchorage to Imperial Oil dock 3.  

Bad weather on the eastern seaboard this winter seriously messed up Tropical Shipping's two ship schedule, especially in March. Bomar Rebecca's scheduled March 6 sailing was postponed by a week and the whole schedule slid ahead at week. A maintenance period for Asian Sun was also moved along by a week. That maintenance will happen in Halifax, as the ship arrived on Wednesday April 4 and discharged all its containers, then moved to pier 9B. There was therefore no Tropical Shipping sailing this week.

 

Asian Sun flushing its anchor cable at pier 9B with the refitting Fundy Rose in the background.

 Asian Sun was built in 2005 by Jiangdong, Wuhu. The 9956 grt, 13,698 dwt ship has a capacity of 1118 TEU and carries two 45 tonne cranes. Its first name was CSAV Colon, then became Aliança Cordillera in 2007, and Asian Moon in 2008. Tropical announced new ships for the route to be delivered in 2019.

The next Tropical sailing is scheduled for next week on Bomar Rebecca and Asian Sun will be back in service for the April 16 sailing.


Just south of Halterm, the lobster season is winding down and the Eastern Passage based Oralee was not finding much in its traps off Black Rock Beach.

The boat has been lobstering in this area for many years, but has only recently begun sporting the colourful Canadian flag on its bow. It was built in 1973 in Clarke's Harbour, NS.

Out in the Basin HMCS Charlottetown was doing some helicopter evolutions. It was very windy, so likely a good test.

Charlottetown does not seem to be straining on its anchor despite heading up in to a stiff breeze. Note the crash boat, manned and ready alongside.

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Note to Chronicle Herald Photo Editor

A file photo in today's Halifax Chronicle Herald purports to show a fishing boat maneuvering in sea smoke in Halifax Harbour. It is a wonderful shot by staff photographer Tim Krochak, and the boat is indeed steaming through wintery sea smoke, but it is not a fishing boat.
It is in fact the Halifax Port Authority's work boat Maintainer 1.

Built in 1995 by A.F Thériault in Meteghan, NS, Maintainer 1 is tasked with maintaining the fenders along the port's piers, picking up deadheads and other debris, and other general work around the port.
On July 14, 2002 it was struck by the ship Esperanza, and pinned against the pier. On February 16, 2003 it sank at its berth at pier 25 when a through hull fitting froze and burst. In both cases it was repaired, and in the latter the engine exhaust was re-routed through the cabin top.

Just for comparison puropses, here is a fishing boat:

The Oralee is based in Eastern Passage, and it often seen during lobster season working in along the shore at Point Pleasant Park, and usually operating singlehanded. It was built of fibre reinforced plastic in 1973 by R.D.Ross of Clark's Harbour, Cape Sable Island . In this photo it is using a steadying sail aft as its operator baits a trap. It is of the type called a Cape Islander, a common inshore fishing vessel of Atlantic Canada..
CCGS Sir William Alexander passes Ives Knoll outbound in the background.

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Weather watch continued - for some

Halifax Harbour remains closed to ship movements this evening due to high winds. The Atlantic Pilotage Authority did venture out once in the morning for Maersk Palermo for Halterm and again late afternoon to board the car carrier Noble Ace at about 1700 hrs AST, and it docked at Autoport. However as of 1730hrs the weather watch was re-instated and will not be revisited until tomorrow morning.
That did not mean that there was no activity:

1. The lobstermen on Oralee were busy tending to traps close in to Point Pleasant Park. They did have  to keep an eye open for the odd surfer trying to catch The Big One, but otherwise it was quite calm.

2. The bunkering tanker Algoma Dartmouth returned to her home base at Pier 34 after two days at pier 9A where there was no swell and better shelter.



And of course the RCN did not have to worry about boarding pilots, so HMCS Toronto was able to run the dynamic sound range by steaming in and out at a pretty good clip too. It involved some fairly hairy high speed turns in the Number One anchorage area. The great advantage of doing this work today was that there was no other shipping on the area to mess up the ship's sound signature.

3. Starting an outbound run.

4. Returning inbound and reducing speed a bit,

5. Making the turn for another outbound run.

Divers were also working on the bow of the container shipRenate Schulte at pier 37, and by aftenoon the sun was shining brightly.