Recaps and Updates

This is an update to several items from blog posts over the past few days.

PSA Crane

The new Super Post Panamax crane that arrived yesterday on the Zhen Hua 29 [qv] is still aboard the ship, but the installation crew will be at work arranging for the offloading.

The new PSA crane appears considerably higher than those on shore.

The new crane will be moved off the ship's deck using a system of temporary rails that run onshore, taking into  account the state of the tide and with careful ballasting of the ship. The crane will then be resting on crib work on the dock. It can then be lowered onto its own dollies and permanent rails set into the dock surface.
There are several weeks of work required to load test and certify the crane for use. Unfortunately most of that activity will be invisible from shore.


Seaways Hatteras

Dominion Diving's Halmar stands by the stern of the ship.

Underwater work is still underway on the Seaways Hatteras [see yesterday's post]. I do not know the nature of the work, but divers can perform many different tasks these days that once required drydocking. Propeller repairs, hull cleaning and cathodic anode replacement are all now routinely performed while ships are still afloat.

AS Federica

AS Federica sailed this evening for Saint John, NB to take up new duties for a CMA CGM Caribbean service.
Since coming off a ZIM charter in April, the ship had been idle in Halifax, then at anchor "Outside Port Limits" after proceeding (briefly) to international waters. It is my opinion that this maneuver was to allow the ship to use bonded stores that would have been sealed by Customs while in port.

On June 27 [qv] the ship moved into port, anchoring in Bedford Basin. Again this may have been to allow for inspection, survey or Customs clearance. Ships at anchor are charged a tariff if awaiting orders, awaiting sailing time, or at anchor for repairs or maintenance. There are also other fees and pilotage charges that apply to ships arriving and leaving port. However anchoring Outside Port Limits is free of charge.

Vole au Vent
The offshore wind turbine installation vessel Vole au Vent arrived early this morning and docked at the Woodside berth. It may have some equipment to pick up or drop off after completing operations off Virgina.

Late this morning the ship moved to the nearby Irving Oil dock in Woodside to take fuel. This move followed the unusual move of Irving Oil's tanker Acadian from the oil terminal to Imperial Oil #3 dock.

Due to fog and a dirty 11th floor window, and despite some photo editing, this is the best I could do to capture this event.

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All Aboard - Vole au Vent

The last components were loaded aboard the jack-up ship Vole au Vent and it is scheduled to sail for Virginia later today. The wind farm towers, blades and nacelles arrived in Halifax from Europe on the Bigroll Beaufort and were lifted aboard Vole au Vent for installation off the Virginia coast. Vole au Vent's crane has a 1500 tonne lifting capacity.

Halifax was used as a staging point for the project to work around the Jones Act, a set of US laws that restrict shipping between American ports and within American waters to America owned/ built/ registered and crewed ships.

Bigroll Beaufort was also scheduled to sail today. That has been postponed, but the ship is not expected to linger long.

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We have lift off

The wind farm installation vessel Vole au Vent moved into position alongside Bigroll Beaufort again yesterday, and once spudded down elevated its hull out of the water.

Today it was at work lifting wind turbine components aboard.

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Primary Colours Day

It was an ideal day for colours, with bright sun in a cloudless sky. Ships seemed to take advantage of this with a display of most of the primary colours (or shades thereof). Instead of the drab black and sometimes white of yesteryear, today there were ships with Red, Orange,Yellow, Green and Blue and perhaps shades of Indigo and Violet

Red was well displayed by the Canadian Coast Guard as both CCGS Earl Grey and CCGC G.Peddle S.C. sailed this afternoon.

G.Peddle displays a 'Fisheries Patrol' banner on its bridge rail. 

They sailed past Bigroll Beaufort which had shifted positions end for end at Woodside to off load another wind turbine.

An unusual mint green kayak on the right!

At the adjacent Exxon Mobil dock the supplier   Atlantic Osprey was just in from Sable Island, moving into the orange shade.

Arriving from St-Pierre et Miquelon (by way of Argentia, NL eastbound) Nolhan Ava exhibits both green and yellow to help fill the spectrum.

There were choices for blue:

Vole au Vent has returned to Halifax to load another wind turbine, and was refueling at the Irving Oil terminal in Woodside. Its blue hull can barely be seen, until it is jacked up on its spuds, then it is entirely visible.

Another blue ship, the Pola Imabari arrived this afternoon for Asian Gypsy Moth inspection. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency requires ships that have been in the far east recently to be inspected and cleared before going to ports where the invasive species could hatch and populate Canadian forests.

 The port anchor has been readied for lowering when the ship reaches number 1 anchorage.

The ship was built by Imabari Zosen  in 2016 as Glorious Sunrise, 23,232 gt, 37,718 dwt and fitted with four cranes. I could not see any bucket grabs for handling bulk cargo. However it does carry stanchions to permit deck loads of timber, and is considered to be a general cargo ship as opposed to a bulk carrier.

The ship begins to swing round in a very light wind, but the crew seems to be having trouble deploying the pilot ladder.

Oceanex Sanderling is in the background at Autoport, taking on its weekly consignment of cars for Newfoundland, and providing a bit of red/blue contrast.

Its last port was Vila do Conde, Brazil, so the ship is likely carrying bauxite or alumina, bound for one of the Quebec ports such as La Baie, Sept-Iles or Baie Comeau. The ship is registered in Panama, but is owned by GTLK Asia Ltd, a large international leasing company, based in Russia, usually associated with aircraft. Mangers are INOK NV, also a large Russian concern, based in St.Petersburg.
The significance of the letter P (Cyrillic for "R") on the funnel is a mystery.

For the remaining blue range of colours the sky and water will have to do in providing those hues.

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Vole au Vent sails

After taking on some of the wind turbine components from Bigroll Beaufort the offshore installation vessel Vole au Vent sailed this afternoon for offshore Virginia.

With a couple of tower sections on deck the ship gradually lowers itself back into the water. There appears to be a dotted line on the ship's hull just at the water line.

After a little draft confirmation from the pilot boat the ship is about ready for sea.

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Woodside activity

The Woodside dock has seen some interesting activity over the years, but over the next few days it will see something quite unique. The wind farm installation vessel Vole au Vent arrived yesterday and today was positioned alongside the Bigroll Beaufort to begin transferring the components of wind turbines.

The 2020-05-18 Vole au Vent tied up yesterday with its crane stowed, and floating on its own hull.

This morning Bigroll Beaufort has moved back along the dock, with Vol au Vent alongside, jacked up on its four spuds and its crane elevated.

The 1500 tonne capacity crane positioned to lift components off the ship.

There is an ideal viewing spot from the Woodside commuter parking lot.

Vole au Vent was built in 2013 by the CRIST SA shipyard in Gdynia, Poland as Vidar. Measuring 18,781 gt, it has the 1500 tonne crane and four 90 meter spuds that allow it to work in 50 meters of water. Although its deadweight tonnage is listed at 1500, it can carry 6500 tonnes of cargo. It is also equipped with a helicopter deck and can accommodate 90 workers. The Jan de Nul Group of Belgium acquired and renamed the ship in 2016.

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