Post, post tropical storm

 The storm system that was Hurricane Philippe but gradually diminished in intensity as it worked its way north from the Caribbean, finally crossed Nova Scotia overnight Saturday - Sunday, October 7-8. It was a post tropical cyclone at that point with a few significant gusts, but mostly high winds and heavy rain. It appears to have had little effect on Halifax, except to disrupt some schedules and create some extra work in battening down. By late morning Sunday the rain had stopped, the wind died off and the skies were clear.

Even so, sea conditions outside the harbour were still sufficiently rough that pilotage operations were suspended during the day (October 8) until after 1800 hrs ADT. I did not venture out along the  coast to see the surf, but from town I could see large swells crashing onto the Maugher's Beach Lighthouse breakwater.

Conditions inside the harbour were quite decent in the morning, allowing the cruise ship Star Pride (see yesterday's post) to move from its anchorage in Bedford Basin to Pier 20. It did take the precaution of having the assistance of the tug Atlantic Oak. The ship tied up bows south - an unusual arrangement at Pier 20, but one which will allow the ship to sail directly to sea without having to turn.(Arriving cruise ships generally dock bows north.)

The large "Yokohama" type fenders, placed along the pier face during cruise season, should protect the ship if there is any residual swell in the harbour.

The other cruise ship in port, Seabourn Quest, seems to have made out all right at Pier 23 as did the heavy cargo carrier GPO Emerald which spent the night at Number One anchorage in the lower harbour. (It needed the extra room provided by that position in case it did drag. Equipped with all kinds of thrusters and DP (Dynamic Positioning), it could probably hold position.) Number One anchorage is normally reserved for short term use, so it seems likely that the GPO Emerald will move up the harbour later. Fleet mate GPO Sapphire has been anchored in Chedabucto Bay since mid-September when it went to shelter from post tropical cyclone Lee.  It also has a full load of monopiles to discharge.

 The crane ship Orion remained alongside at the IEL dock in Woodside last night, and seems to have completed loading as many monopiles as it can handle.

The only other commercial ship in the harbour over night - the Augusta Luna at pier 27 - was working today when I went by in mid-afternoon, off loading bagged nickel sulfides from Cuba. It is scheduled to sail mid-day tomorrow.

The pilot boat went out toward the pilot station at 1800 hrs to observe conditions and it was determined to be safe to disembark pilots. Star Pride, Seaborn Quest and Orion then all established sailing times between 1900 and 2000 hrs.

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, 1900 hrs to 2000 hrs (regrettably after dark). Star Pride, Seaborn Quest and Oiron will all be sailing this evening.

Unusual preparations

 Hurricane Philippe, downgraded to a post tropical cyclone, inexoribly making its way toward Nova Scotia, and weakening as it does so, has shipping making various preparations for diversions, reroutings, and in the case of ferries, outright cancellations of some crossings.

For the cruise ship industry ships generally prefer to sail as far away from disturbances as possible, and do not like to be in port during major storms. Late this afternoon (October 7) however there was an exception for the small (by cruising standards) Star Pride (ex Seabourn Pride) arriving in Halifax from Eastport, ME.

The ship was in Halifax September 30 and was covered in this blog. The difference this time is that the ship did not tie up at a pier, but instead headed directly for Bedford Basin and went to anchor. 

The unusual sight of a cruise ship in the Narrows and passing beneath the harbour bridges is only possible because the ship is small, and thus has a relatively low air draft.

Some passengers took in the unique experience by crowding onto the open observation bridge above the navigation bridge.

 While the ship was entering the Bedford Basin, the container ship ZIM Virginia was getting underway from PSA Fairview Cove, and held up long enough for the Star Pride to clear.

Hyundai Heavy Industries built the ZIM Virginia in the Ulsan shipyard in 2002. The 53,453 gt, 66,686 dwt ship has a capacity of 4839 TEU, and it flies the Israeli flag.The ship is bound for New York, so may be able to skirt the storm's path by sailing south and keeping to the east.

Bedford Basin is not exceptionallly good holding ground for ships with high windage to anchor, but is is a sufficiently large body of water (8 km x 5 km) that a little dragging in high winds can be tolerated. It does mean that a ship may have to steam ahead on its anchor during sustained winds. Constant monitoring is necessary while at anchor. Both the ship's bridge watch and Halifax VTS have auto alrms as well as human radar monitoring to detect dragging.

Likely due to the downgrade for Philippe another cruise ship, the Seabourn Quest elected to stay in port, tied up at Pier 23. The camber is relatively sheltered, but I would not be surprised to see some waves sloshing in if there is any storm surge. Again the ship will heve to remain vigilant during the night when the highest winds are expected.

The cargo ship Augusta Luna (centre in photo below) in port from Cuba for Nirint Shipping also opted to remain in port, tied up at Pier 27.

The Articulated Tug / Barge (ATB) Leo A. McArthur / John J.Carrick arriving from the Great Lakes with a cargo asphalt (leftmost in photo above) will remain at the McAsphalt jetty in Eastern Passage over night. It will likely have to suspend unloading operations when the wind picks up, because the mooring is partially secured to buoys.

Eastern Passage is relativeley well sheltered, so sea conditions will likely not be too severe, but there will still be high winds and strong gusts.

The heavy load ship GPO Emerald is due to move back out to anchor this evening. It has been berthed alongside the crane ship Orion (with the barge Atlantic Swordfish between them). 

It is due to move back alongside tomorrow to continue the transfer of six monopiles (in sections) and other gear for the Vineyard wind project offshore Massachusetts. Once loaded the Orion will return to the Vineyard project site and use its 5,000 tonne capacity crane to install the monopiles.

Two other ships that remained in port over night last night sailed today, having given the storm time to move away from their tracks. (Both ships were covered here yesterday)

Balmoral may be able to skirt the storm to the east and south on its way to Portland, ME but there may still be rough seas to contend with.

  CMA CGM Andromeda will likely be following a similar route, but heading farther south for New York.

The Volga Maersk, which arrived from Montreal this morning sailed early this evening for Bremerhaven, so will probably be ahead or well to the east of the storm.

Permanent residents of the port are accustomed to rough weahter by now, so are likely well buttoned down for the night, and will wait to see what the morning llight reveals.

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Three by Two

 Today (September 5) was the first "three ship" day of this year's cruise season. It was also a day with two ships anchored in Bedford Basin.

Threes

Early morning harbour watchers were rewarded with the arrivals of Mein Schiff 1,  Seabourn Quest and Caribbean Princess. All three arrived within an hour of each other and took up all available space at Piers 20-21, 22 and 23.

 Mein Schiff 1 is a 111,554 gt ship with a capacity of 2,534 to 2,894 passengers (in 1447 cabins) with a crew of 1,000. Built in 2018 by Meyer Turku at the Perno Shipyard in Finland, it is owned by TUI cruises and caters to German passengers. The hull graffiti promotes the healthy and luxurious ocean cruise experience and defies literal translation.

 Despite its name it is the second ship to carry the name, and replaced the 1996 incumbent.

Next in line was one of the smallest, but most luxuriousof the main line cruise ships. Seabourn Quest can accommoidate 450 passengers with 335 crew.

Built by the T.Marriotti Shipyard in Genoa in 2011, it received a major refit at the same yard in 2013,  and is now registered at 32,477 gt. It will be staying in Halifax over night.

The third ship was the Caribbean Princess which has already been here this year - and was posted on this blog on August 1. Its capacity is maximum 3600 passengers with 1200 crew. 

It is difficult to see much of the cruise ships from the Halifax side of the harbour, but suffice it to say it is an impressive sight to see so much tonnage in one place.

 I did manage another photo with three ships in the frame. As Seabourn Quest was arriving it overtook the container ship Tropic Lissette while the Humen Bridge languished at anchor off the port. (It arrived September 1 and is now due alongside September 7.)

Twos

There is lots of room for tonnage in Bedford Basin. The famous World War II pictures showing scores of ships anchored there preparing to sail in convoy, attests to the size of this "lake" (actually an enclosed bay) at the head of Halifax harbour. Its extreme dimensions are 8 km x 5 km (4.9 miles x 3.1 miles).

Even so it is rare nowadays to see more than one ship anchored there at the same time. This morning's arrival of  the bulk carrier Baie St.Paul is typical of the ships that make use of the anchorage before loading at Gold Bond Gypsum.

A diver's launch was alongside the ship this afternoon. That may be the reason the ship did not go in to load. However other ships in the past weeks have also anchored for a time before going in.

Despite up to six trains a week (with 65 or so hopper cars) from the gypsum quarry in East Milford, NS, Gold Bond's stockpile appears to be relatively small right now, so it may be that strong demand is taxing the loading facility to keep up. (Note the "stacker" is loading up the stockpile in the photo.)

It is rare to see a container ship at anchor in Bedford Basin. Short duration stays normally anchor in the lower harbour, but ships that are in for an extended period are usually directed to Bedford Basin. MSC Sandra arrived yesterday (September 4) from Montreal to top off its cargo before heading to Europe on MSC's Canada Express 2 service. It moved to Basin anchorage last evening. 

Built in 2020 by Hyundai, Busan, the 43,575 gt, 61,468 dwt MSC Sandra has a capacity of 4340 TEU including 150 reefers. It does not appear to be fully loaded to ocean draft, so may be awaiting the end of the longshore Labour Day "no work" period before completing the loading process.

MSC's schedule shows the ship sailing September 6, but that may be optimistic as PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway will not have an available berth until at least September 7, as Tropic Lisssette is occupying Pier 42 and tomorrow will see the arrival of the giant 16,020 TEU CMA CGM Marco Polo at Pier 41.

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Short Days, getting shorter

As the days get shorter, it may be time to break out the tripod for some night shots and time exposures. In the meantime however, I am making do with the cell phone, which takes photos in surprising low light, and compensates well for hot (bright) spots.

 Both of today's cruise ships sailed after dark. Seabourn Quest at 2030 and Seven Seas Navigator at 2230.

After they sail there is only one more scheduled cruise ship visit. Anthem of the Seas is due October 31 to close the season. Victory I showed up for a time on the pilotage schedule for the morning of October 30, but by passed Halifax during the evening of October 29 en route from Charlottetown to Portland. That call never appeared on the official Cruise Halifax schedule.

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Saturday activity - Updated

The port was unusually busy for a short spell this morning with arrivals and a departures - some before sunup such as the container ship APL Santiago and the cruise ships Adventure of the Seas and Viking Star.

After sunrise there was a departure that had been anticipated for several days, but in view of Hurricane Michael's proximity, they were likely wise to stay in port. USS Hué City CG-66 arrived October 4 from exercises  off Nova Scotia. It is a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser based in Mayport, FL. Several Canadian naval vessels returned to port at about the same time, including the submarine HMCS Windsor.

The pilot boat is alongside to disembark the pilot off Portuguese Cove.

While alongside navy Jetty Charlie, one of the ship's helicopters was rolled out for work. The ship can carry two of the Sikorsky Seahawks adapted for naval use with a folding tail. Hué City was commissioned in 1991.

As Hué City was disembarking its pilot, the container ship Alexandra was inbound for THE Alliance's EC5 service.

The pilot is already aboard as Alexandra passes Portuguese Cove.

 
 The 71,021 grt, 80,274 dwt ship has a capacity of 6900 TEU (including 800 reefers) and dates from 2013 when it was built by Hyundai, Samho. It carried the name Safmarine Boland from 2014 to 2016.

It was a mid-morning arrival for Seabourn Quest. The ship left Bar Harbour late last evening and was able to maintain a pretty steady 15 to 16 knots on the trip. Sea conditions were still a bit boisterous over night as the remains of the hurricane passed to the south of us.  Built in 2011 by T. Marrioti in Genoa it is a yacht-like vessel of 32,348 grt and a passenger capacity of 450. In September it had an air lock in its cooling system, resulting in an overheated port engine. It had to anchor in the St.Lawrence River for time until the problem could be rectified.

Another arrival is worthy of note. The bulk carrier Marsden Point arrived from Churchill, MB. Now that the federal government has agreed to buy and spend $117 mn to repair the Hudson Bay Railway and the port operation, a cargo of wheat has been released after three years in limbo. The wheat, belonging to the Providence Grain Group of Fort Saskatchewan, AB, arrived in Churchill by rail in 2015. When the port operators shut down the operation in 2016 the wheat was stranded. During that time a certain amount of it had deteriorated, and the remainder was likely to be spoiled if it was not shipped out by the end of this year.

Since no Canadian ship was available, Providence hired Marsden Point to carry the grain to a southern Canadian port. A foreign sale was not possible as the condition of the grain could not be determined fully until it was unloaded. According to Providence's Coasting Trade Licence application for Marsden Point, the plan was to ship the grain to Port Cartier, Baie Comeau, Sorel, Quebec City or Montreal. My opinion is that those elevators were fully booked, and since Halifax has a huge elevator that is well below capacity the grain may be off loaded here. The Halifax elevator is also not owned or operated by one of the large grain buyers and is thus not a competitor of Providence.

Update: The grain must have been of acceptable quality to be sold abroad. When the ship sailed on Sunday afternoon, its destination was given as Vercruz, Mexico.  In Providence's coasting license applicaiton they stated that a sale to Mexico had fallen through.

Marsden Point is a 21,185 grt, 35,107 dwt bulker, built in 2002 by Shin Kurushima, Onishi, Japan as Green Hope. In 2014 it acquired its current name and is operated by Pacific Basin Shipping Hong Kong Ltd.The ship carries four 30 tonne cranes and grabs.


As a footnote, this is only the second grain cargo ever to be received in Halifax from Churchill. The first was delivered for Dover Mills (now P+H Milling) and was the first domestic grain cargo ever shipped from Churchill since it opened for business in 1929.


The load was delivered September 30, 2007 by the now notorious Kathryn Spirit. That is the ship that was finally broken up this year at taxpayer expense (estimated at $11.5 mn) in Beauharnois, QC. Permission to scrap the ship in that location was denied in 2011 and when a sale to Mexico fell through the ship became a threat to sink. The government paid a huge sum to stabilize the ship then hired the original scrapper to break it up anyway.

 Kathryn Spirit as it appeared in 2016 with Groupe Océan's blue stabilizing barge alongside.

Demolition was completed in September of this year.

Got 'em (all) - (oops) better late than never

 I intended to post this on October 14, but it somehow got stuck in my "drafts" file. Here it is late. 
 
It isn't often that I get the chance to capture every arrival and departure on a given day, but the combination of excellent weather, and a free Saturday made it possible.

First in was the Norwegian Jade. This is the first time I have seen this ship, built in 2006 as Pride of Hawai'i for Norwegian Cruise Lines' ill-fated American venture. After the line had huge losses, it was reassigned to Europe in 2008 and renamed, but apparently kept much of its Hawaiian themed décor. Until March of this year that is, when it was given an intensive three week refit and re-do.

By this time the sun was fully up (and directly in line with arrivals), so I skipped the next arrival, hoping to get it later on departure. Fritz Reuter (see below) tied up at pier 42.

The CCGS Sir Wilfred Grenfell left the Coast Guard base at BIO at 0800 for exercises offshore with Zodiacs.

Stationed in Newfoundland, the ship has been in these parts for a month or so replacing CCGS Earl Grey for the time being.

Built in 1985 in Marystown, NL as a supply ship on spec for the Newfoundland government, the MoT purchased and converted in 1987 for search and rescue work. It was removed from service and de-stored in a cost cutting purge in 2013, but was re-activated. It had a major refit this spring so should be in service for several years to come.

While in Dartmouth I noted the bunkering tanker Algoma Dartmouth tied up at the Irving Oil Woodside terminal. This may be a first.

When Algoma took over harbour bunkering, the fuel supplier was the Imperial Oil refinery. When the refinery shut down  Stirling Fuels (part of  Miller/ McAsphalt Industries) secured the fuel provision contract. At various times the ship has gone to Point Tupper to load at NuStar's tank storage, or has received fuel brought from Central Canada aboard McAsphalt's own tug/barge.
Since Stirling is not a refiner in its own right, I guess they can buy fuel wherever they want, so perhaps this time they have sourced in from Irving Oil.
Algoma Dartmouth can carry diesel or heavy fuel oil as needed.

 Next in was the small cargo / container ship Hollandia working for Nirint Shipping. It arrived with nickel cargo from Cuba and has been a regular caller since 2014.

 

It was built in 2007 by the Damen Okean Mykolayiv, Ukraine shipyard and finished by Damen Hoogezand, Foxhol, Netherlands. Launched as Trinitas it was renamed Nirint Hollandia on delivery. It measures 8,999 grt, 12,000 dwt and carries two 80 tonne cranes. It was renamed in 2012.

The largest arrival of the day was the impressive CMA CGM Thames. With is split superstructure it looks much bigger than its container capacity would suggest. At 95,263 grt, 113,900 dwt, that capacity is reported to be 9365 TEU, including 1458 reefers.

Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company built the ship in 2015.

At one point late in the afternoon all four Halterm cranes were alongside the ship, but only three were actually working. The southernmost crane (near the bow) was moved out of the way of the departing Friz Reuter - see below.

There was one more arrival, this morning, the cruise ship Seabourn Quest following on the heels of CMA CGM Thames.

 The ship is on a return visit to Halifax.

Seen from a slightly better angle leaving pier 23 on October 10.

Noted for its luxury cruises to Antarctica for only 450 passengers, Seabourn has the smallest cruise ships in any major fleet.
It was completed in 2011 by the T.Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, on a hull built by Viktor Lenac in Rijeka and measures 32,346 grt. It has many amenities but also has a number of Zodiacs garaged in the hull for passenger excursions.

By late afternoon Fritz Reuter was ready to sail.
 

The ship had arrived in the morning and tied up at Pier 42 and used two of Halterm's cranes.
The 1732 TEU (including 379 reefers) ship is on its 32nd trip for Melfi Lines. Starting in 2013 the ship has been a regular caller every five weeks on Melfi's Europe via Halifax to Cuba service.
The 18,480 grt, 23,732 dwt ship dates from 2006 when it was launched as Maruba Zonda by Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard Co Ltd. It assumed its current name on delivery a few months later.


As soon as Fritz Reuter was off the berth the next ship berthed (its bow is just visible in the photo above). EM Kea is on its regular visit as part of the Maersk / CMA CGM transatlantic service. So as not to block the channel for the outbound Reuter, the ship made an unusual turn to port to come alongside. Usually ships are turned to starboard and back in. However with two tugs alongside, and a bit less wind than earlier, it was the best move to make.

It was not all commercial activity in the port today. Late season sail races for small craft took place in very stiff breezes this morning.

Although there have been above normal temperatures recently, this morning's air temperatures were in the single digits, and barely scraped above 10C when the races started. Water temperature on the other hand exceeded 15C!

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Seabourn Quest tragedy

Some time after leaving Boston on September 11 a passenger was lost overboard from the cruise ship Seabourn Quest, 10 miles off Cape Ann. A large search was initiated and the Rockport harbour master's launch recovered a woman's body about two hours later 8 miles offshore. The ship continued on its trip to Bar Harbor.

It will now arrive in Halifax Sunday September 13 as scheduled.

This loss of another life follows on the crew member lost overboard from Queen Mary 2 August 14 while 750 km east of Newfoundland.

Queen Mary 2 arrived in Halifax August 1, just as I was leaving for Quebec.

 

Postscript:

The cruise ship Norwegian Gem, also bound for Halifax and due September 14, had a medical emergency off Nantucket September 13. The passenger was evacuated by helicopter for hospital treatment at Cape Cod.



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Seabourn Quest

Another new to Halifax this year cruise ship is Seabourn Quest. I finally caught up with it today, on its third visit this season.

Built in 2011 it is the third in a series (Seabourn Sojourn of 2009 and Seabourn Odyssey of 2010 are the other two) from the T.Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, Italy. Seabourn's ships are yacht like in appearance (Mariotto is first and foremost a yacht builder) and compared to other cruise ships, of yacht like size too.
At 33,346 grt, it carries a mere 450 passengers, catered to by a crew of 335, in very luxe form. Despite this the ship was refitted in 2013 to better accommodate its fleet of Zodiacs for Antarctic cruises. Although the ship is not ice-rated (yikes!) it will venture forth into those regions, but will likely never be too far from help -one hopes.

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