Ships may make short or long visits to Halifax. Ranging from a few hours to weeks or months the length of the stay depends on a number of factors. Today, October 11 saw what was a very short stay for one ship and a range of stays for others.
The short stay was the familiar miniature cruise ship Pearl Mist arriving at Pier 23 around 0800 hrs ADT and sailing again at 1430 hrs.
The Pearl Mist eases in alongside Pier 23 using its bow thruster. With only three cruise ships in port today, the landing stage at Pier 24 is not needed.
The Pearl Mist was mostly built in Halifax, and completed elsewhere. Despite such an inauspicious beginning, it has had a successful career calling in many smaller ports.
The second cruise ship, the Silver Shadow tied up at Pier 20 for a longer than usual stay. Also coming alongside for 0800 hrs it will remain in port until 2230 hrs this evening. Most ships are in and out in eight to ten 10 hours. [no photo]
The third cruise ship, which arrived at the pilot station at 1230 hrs and came alongside Pier 22 at about 1330 hrs was the Arcadia. [click for Wikipedia entry]
Unusually it had the tug Atlantic Willow assist in berthing. Black scuff marks likely ensued as the tug was not wearing the white canvas apron that used to be mandatory for berthing white ships. Cruise ships rarely need tugs in Halifax unless the weather is averse (which it was not) or the ship has a malfunction (possible).
The Arcadia will remain in port overnight and all day tomorrow - also unusual - and is scheduled to sail at 1630 hrs October 12.
Another arrival is likely to be in port for several days. It is the "Supramax" dry bulker Eva Bright.
The ship came from the Jiangmen Nanyang Ship Engineering Co Ltd in 2023, measuring 25,130 gt and 40,577 dwt. Typical of ships of its type it carries four cargo cranes and grab buckets.
The ship tied up alongside the AP Revelin at Pier 27 for no other possible purpose than to transload the latter ship's cargo. The AP Revelin lost its propellor off Nova Scotia and was towed in to port September 21 and was anchored for a time then moved alongside on October 3. I assume that its cargo must be offloaded before it can go to drydock for installation of a new prop and possibly repair to damage resulting from the loss.
The transloading process will take several days at best, and is likely weather dependent, so may extend into weeks. [see Footnote]
What may also extend to a longer stay if past performance is an indicator, is today's move of the multi-purpose ship Nord Logos from Pier 9B to anchor in Bedford Basin.
Since its most recent arrival on October 6 it has loaded cable racks, and will now wait for its appointment at the factory in Portsmouth (Newington) NH to load fibre optic cable.
The Nord Logos may be a familiar sight to Basin watchers. It was last anchored here from December 11, 2024 to January 10, 2025 - also awaiting its turn for Portsmouth. The former Thorco Logos was also in port (on and off) from November 4, 2018 to February 10, 2019, also loading cable tanks and standing by to go to Portsmouth. It had a similar lengthy stay in 2017.
Footnote
The Port of Halifax has a large grain storage facility which is also used to store and export wood pellets. Pellets arrive in Halifax by truck and grain arrives by train or by ship. In recent years ships bringing in grain from the Lakehead, and sometimes corn from Windsor or other Great Lakes ports are self-unloaders. As a result the port's own offloader - called the grain leg - has fallen into disuse, and may no longer be serviceable. It is many years since it has been used, and I believe the last time it was used was to unload a ship that was damaged, and had to have its cargo removed. It may be easier to off load the AP Revelin directly into the Eva Bright than to re-commission (and sanitize) the grain leg and transfer the cargo (whatever that may be, and I don't know, but assume it is grain) through the grain elevator.
The grain leg (at right) at Pier 25-26, is no longer in use, except a s pigeon roost, now that self-unloading ships bring in grain cargo.
The grain leg in use in 1975, back when the world was black and white. The device consists of an endless loop of buckets that feeds grain to the conveyor system (above at right) transferring the cargo to the grain elevators.
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