Don Pasquale and Where's Waldo (Roseway)

 The auto carrier Don Pasquale completed offloading its large consignment of machinery at Pier 9C yesterday (see previous post) and remained alongside the pier until this afternoon (June 20) when it moved to Autoport to offload cars. (I suspect that the Autoport workers needed to clear space from yesterday's arrival of Siem Cicero before they could accommodate more cars. Recent arrivals are parked near the dock so as to offload ships quickly. They are later moved to long term storage or prep areas farther way. )

Ships calling at Autoport use a line boat to run headlines out to a mooring buoy. The long time line boat is the tug Roseway owned by Dominion Diving. It sets out from its base in Dartmouth Cove and proceeds to Autoport to await the arrival of every ship. It also attends departing ships by letting the headlines go from the buoy. 

Although it is a small vessel, the Roseway has a distinctive "sound signature" and can be heard all around the harbour when it is underway. Due to its small size however, it is difficult to see from the Halifax side. Thus there ensues the "Where's Waldo" type of game: "Spot the Roseway".

Today was no exception as the Don Pasquale made its way, it did take me a few minutes to pick out the Roseway even though I could hear it very well.

Can you see it? The Roseway is southbound just passing the GPO Sapphire at the IEL dock, and shows up just between "GPO" and "Sapphire" lettering towards the ship's stern.

This is what it looks like closer up:

Built in 1960 by Steel and Engine Products Ltd in Liverpool, NS, the tug was owned by the federal Department of Public Works and attended a small dredge and dump scows working in small ports around the Atlantic coast. Dominion Diving has owned it since 1989.

It has been pictured many times in Shipfax and companion blog Tugfax over the years. Just enter the name "Roseway" in the search boxes of each blog for much, much more...

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More Ford

 The USS Gerald R. Ford remained at anchor today, October 31, its last full day in port. Various attendant craft shuttled back and forth with passengers, goods and (ahem) "refuse". There were still curious onlookers on shore, but not nearly as many as there were on the weekend. 

Passenger transfers were taking place from the stern of the ship, where there is apparently some form of boarding ramp. I noted also that the Kawartha Spirit was back in service yesterday and today, so the grounding damage incurred October 26 (see previous post) must have been repaired pretty quickly by CME in Sambro.

There were any number of other small vessels licensed for passengers in service as ferries. I was  not able to identify most of them from a distance, but it appeared that Captains Pride was one and possibly Olivia Margaret from Peggy's Cove.

The veteran tug/workboat Roseway was shuttling one of Dominion Diving's former RCN lighters - either Water Dog or Honey Wagon from the Ford to Dartmouth Cove. Fleetmate Dominion Rumbler had the other alongside.

When the ship sails tomorrow morning, its absence will certainly be noted as it monopolizes the view from many vantage points.

 

Re-paving in the Basin

In a semi-repeat of the July 12 operation there was another transfer of asphalt cargo in Bedford Basin today.
[See http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2014/07/bunkering-in-basin.html for the July operation].

The smaller of the two tankers, Asphalt Sailor was also here for the July operation and received cargo from a larger tanker. In July it was Asphalt Eagle, but this time it was Asphalt Star. A similar ship of 28,559 grt, 46,432 dwt, it was also built by Onomichi Dockyard, but in 1996. It carried the name Asia Pioneer to  1997, then Seajoy to 2001, before signing on with current operators Chronos Shipping of Greece.

Both ships arrived at anchor about midnight last night, with Asphalt Star anchoring and Asphalt Sailor berthing alongside. A pair of large rubber fenders of the Yokohama type, were positioned between the two ships.

Late this afternoon when the transfer operation was completed, the tug Atlantic Willow came in to assist Asphalt Sailor to get away.

Asphalt Sailor was first through the Narrows, It was then the turn of Roseway to marshal the two fenders and take them back to Dominion Diving Ltd.
 

A mountain of gypsum ore looms above the treeline on the Dartmouth shore as Roseway makes for the Narrows.

 

Finally after weighing anchor, Asphalt Star sailed into the Narrows and out to sea.  Both tankers are specially fitted to carry asphalt, and to keep it heated and liquid during transit.

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Sunday round up

Sunday callers at Autoport are not unheard of, but they are fairly rare. Today's arrival was Crystal Ace  It was a hazy day so the ship's starboard side, was free of the deep shadow which would normally be the case.

While alongside at Autoport, ships send their head lines out to a pair of mooring buoys. The tug Roseway tends these lines, making its way from Dartmouth Cove to Autoport to meet the ship on arrival and back again to let it go.

Once the lines are free, tugs (not visible behind the ship) ease the ship off the berth and it exits Eastern Passage for the main harbour and off to sea.

Crystal Ace dates from 2012 when it emerged from the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Kobe shipyard. It is operated by Mitsui OSK Lines under the Marshal Islands flag and measures 60,131 grt.

Later in the evening the tanker Silver Express came to anchor for inspection. It was met by the tug Atlantic Oak which stood by, and the launch Halmar which took inspectors out to the ship. The ship's last port was Freetown, Sierra Leone, so let's hope they inspected for Ebola.

Built by Onomichi Dockyard, it is a 26,900 grt, 47,701 dwt product tanker operated by Doun Kisen of Japan, under the Panama flag.

It was a quiet day at HMC Dockyard, as the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 flotilla rests in port for the weekend. All crammed together at Jetty November Bravo, the ships form a solid looking mass.

From the left TCG Kemalreis F-247 Anzac* class (Turkish), USS Anzio CG-66 (tan mast) and Leyte Gulf  CG-55, Ticonderoga class, on the south side of the pier. On the north side the massive USNS Medgar Evers T-AKE 13 Lewis and Clarke class, dwarfing FGS Niedersachsen F-208  Bremen class.
* [Kemalries shares the MEKO-200 platform with the ANZAC's, but it would probably be a stretch to say they are the same class. Portuguese run the MEKO-200s, as well as a few others, but the equipment fits are all different, and I'm not certain the ANZACs were even the first to hit the water.]

HMCS Regina was a member of the group but peeled off and headed for the Panama Canal on her way home to Esquimalt.

The ships are due to sail Tuesday morning for exercises, starting at 0900 on half hour intervals. Medgar Evers will move to Imperial Oil at 1100 and spend the day taking on fuel.

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Tall Ships highlights

This year's Tall Ships Festival was more related to the festival than the ships in my opinion, simply because there were not a large number of significant (i.e. large, Class A) tall ships.
Nevertheless it was still a splendid sight to see the Parade of Sail today.
Minus Bluenose II (which is not in the water yet) it appears that today's parade was lead by Theodore Too, followed by USCG Eagle.
The following is a quick show of thre major participants in no particular order. 

1. USCG Eagle, always looks splendid.

2. Picton Castle.

3. My favourite, Gazela, still looking like a working ship.

4. Larinda rebuilt after her disastrous sinking in Hurricane Juan. Bounty on the left and Theodore Too on the right -two wildly different products of Nova Scotia shipyards.

5. Unicorn looking very ship shape.

6. The rakish Pride of Baltimore II always a favourite.

7. Roseway also a lovely looking schooner.

8. Bounty perilously close to George's Island, managed to claw off the lee shore.
Most of these vessels have been picture on this site before.

Davino D for pier 9

1. Davino D arriving.

The chemical/product carrier Davino D is unloading heating oil at pier 9. A pipeline from the pier runs to the storage tanks on Barrington Street now operated by Wilson's Fuels. Wilson is an independent fuel dealer and operates its own gasoline stations and distributes and sells home heating oil. As an independent they are free to buy product from a variety of sources, including the local refineries or from abroad.
The Barrington Street tanks were once operated by Fina.
Davino D was built in 2005 and operated as Panam Caribe until 2007 then as Clipper Caribe until 2011. It is now owned in the Netherlands by DePoli Tankers, but is registered in the Bahamas. The ship measures 8,254 gross tons, 14, 246 deadweight tonnes.
After tying up alongside pier 9, Dominion Diving's Roseway rigged an oil containment boom around the ship in case of  a spill.

2. Roseway with boom.

3. At pier 9 discharging.