Famous Fog

 Halifax certainly lays no claim to be the foggiest port in eastern Canada (two other ports, which shall remain nameless here, may fight it out between them for the title*.) Never mind, there is often fog in Halifax in June, and if it is not within the port, it is lingering not far offshore and creeps in and out with the tide or the breezes.

Today, June 17, there were lingering traces for most of the day, but they held off enough so that arriving and departing ships were visible.

Among the arrivals was the auto carrier Supreme Ace. When it docked at Autoport the fog had pretty well lifted, but the undergrowth has sprung up to partly block the view.

By comparison. last August 8 when the ship was here, the undergrowth was shorter (and there was no fog).

    The ship was built in 2011 by Minami Nippon in Shitanoe, Japan. It is a 59,022 gt, 18,384 dwt vessel with a capacity quoted at 6,183 small cars, 5,063 medium cars or 4,425 large cars. As it was on its last visit the Supreme Ace is not following the usual trajectory for imports, but is eastbound from Houston, Veracruz, and Davisville, Rhode Island heading for Emden, Germany. Most of the major auto manufacturers build cars in Canada, and although most are exported to the United States, some are presumably exported to Europe.

Another arrival was the familiar MSC Tamara arriving from Sines, Portugal on the CANEX1 service from Italy for Montreal. The ship was delivered by Zhejiang Shipbuilding Co, Ningbo, China in 2008. With tonnages of 41,125 gt and 50,446 dwt, it has a capacity of 4254 TEU including 550 reefers.

The ship was in the clear by the time it reached the PSA Halifax Gateway terminal and tied up at Pier 42 to reduce draft for the St.Lawrence River. The ship certainly looked well laden. (Draft was reported as 12.3 meters / 40 feet 4 1/2 inches).

The early morning arrival at Pier 41 was still in port when the MSC Tamara arrived, but there was lots of room for the two ships, even though the other ship was the Ultra size CMA CGM Chile. Its 149,314 gt, 157,076 dwt size and capacity of 15,072 TEU made it the largest container ship to call in Halifax when it began calling here in 2020. It has since been surpassed by the CMA CGM Marco Polo at 176,546 gt, 187,625 dwt and 16,020 TEU capacity.

On departure the ship was quickly swallowed up in the evening fog.

Cruise ship passengers on the Seven Seas Navigator may be in for an unpleasant night of it as high winds are predicted.  

The ship got away from Pier 20 and headed north about George's Island, which was still visible (the fog was still well offshore - that is MSC Tamara docking in the backgound.)

The story of the Seven Seas Navigator may be well known, but is worth repeating. Laid down in 1988 by the Admiralty Shipyard in St.Petersburg, USSR, it was to be the satellite tracking ship named Akademik Nikolay Pilyugin. It was launched in 1991 but not completed, and Radisson Seven Seas Cruises bought the ship as an unfinished hull. Mariotti Shipyard in Italy built a new superstructure and fitted it out as a cruise ship in 1999. It has a capacity of 490 passengers and a crew of 340.

The converison process also included fitting sponsons on the stern to improve the ships behaviour at sea. 

The ship is en route from Montreal, Quebec City, Port Alfred and Sydney to Hamilton, Bermuda. Its four planned calls in CornerBrook, NL in May and June have been cancelled due to lingering ice off the west coast of Newfoundland. 

 * Famous Fog

The Fourchu fog signal in Yarmouth set a record in July 1938 when it blew for a total of 498 1/2 hours out of the 744 total hours in 31 days (it blew 180 hours in 1936 and 457 hours in 1937). At one point it blew 121 hours straight (= 5 days 1 hour). The resident light keeper and others living in the immediate area must have had a ringing in their ears well into August.

I don't know what records are kept these days, but as most signlas are automated perhaps some computer somewhere logs the hours.

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MOL Experience

 MOL Experience, a regular caller on THE Alliance's AL5 (North Europe - North America) service put in to PSA Fairview Cove today on the eastbound leg of its latest voyage. After its west coast port calls, it transited the Panama Canal June 3, called in Cartagena, Columbia June 5-6 then made directly for Saint John, NB, (skipping Caucedo, Dominican Republic) and anchoring over night June 13-14. It entered that port June 14 and sailed later in the day for Halifax.

Hyundai Heavy Industries built the ship in Ulsan in 2007. Measuring 54,098 gt, 62,953 dwt it has a capacity of 4803 TEU including 330 reefer plugs. It is not likely that the 23 Hapag-Lloyd reefers perched on the stern would be included in that number. They are likely empties.

The ship carried the name APL Experience from 2008 to 2010 on a sub-charter. Operators MOL (Mitsui OSK Lines) are partners in Ocean Network Expresas (ONE) along with NYK and K-Line. So far ONE is mainly naming new ships with"ONE" names and painting them in ONE magenta. ONE is acquiring new ships as owners, but its fleet is mostly made up of charters from the partner companies.

ONE itself is a partner in THE Alliance with Hapag-Lloyd, Yang Ming and HMM.

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Odds and Ends

 Today, June 15, was one of those days when Halifax Harbour was the scene of a great variety of shipping activity. There seemed to something happening in almost every sector.

A visitor to number one anchorage represented the bulk carrier category. Danae arrived for clearance from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency before proceeding on to La Baie, QC. The ship is carrying bauxite, loaded at the west African port of Kamsar, Guinea, the world's leading bauxite exporter. Due to limits on the size of ships than can load there a whole class of bulk carriers are named "Kamsarmax". With a maximum length of 229m, ships of the class are also sized to navigate the Panama Canal, so are limited to 80,000 to 85,000 tonnes deadweight.

 Built in 2012 by Penglai Zhonghai Jinglu, in Penglai, China Danae is a gearless bulker of 44,060 gt, 80,989 dwt. The ship arrived during the late evening June 14 and sailed late morning today. It is destined for Rio Tinto Alcan's unloading facility in Port Alfred. Its cargo will feed the giant aluminum production complex in the Saguenay region.

Intermittent fog during the day did not seem to delay shipping to any degree, but some ships did perhaps sneek in or out more or less invisibly. The Kingston class HMCS Moncton wearing its commemorative disruptive paint scheme, was one of them. The camouflage was applied to the vessel as a tribute to vessels that served during World War II's Battle of the Atlantic.

The fog partly concealed the tanker Acadian at anchor. It is due to move alongside Irving Oil's Woodside terminal this evening.

The fog was thicker in a seaward direction, but as it lifted it also revealed container ship activity at PSA Halifax. The MSC Nuria remained hidden at Pier 42, but the ZIM Luanda could be seen at Pier 42, even if the tops of idle cranes were not.

 

The 40,030 gt, 50,697 dwt ship dating from 2009 has a capacity of 4253 TEU. Samsumg Shipbuilding + Heavy Industry Co Ltd built the ship at its Koje (now khown as Geoje) shipyard. The ship is a long time regular caller on the ZIM Container Atlantic (ZCA) route.

There was only one herring seiner in Halifax today. The Morning Star arrived in mid-morning and sailed at noon time after unloading its catch to tank trucks. (The gull escorts accompanied the boat in from sea).

The difference in size between the Danae and Morning Star presented quite a contrast.

Autoport received an unsual vessel, the Grande Togo one of about 27 Container / RoRo's operated by the Grimaldi Group. (Grimaldi also owns the Atlantic Container Line, which has five more ConRos.) The ships of this increasingly rare type usually operate between Europe and Africa, where they can handle a wide variety of cargo at all kinds of ports. Grimaldi is one of the last operators of ConRos of any substantial number. Its presence on a transatlantic run is certainly an "one of".

Built in 2011 by Uljanik Shipyard in Pula, Croatia, it is a 47,232 gt, 26,650 dwt ship with a capacity of 1318 TEU and 3037 cars. It is equipped with two cranes (probably of 40 tonne SWL capacity).

Of note are the truck cab/chassis units stowed on the open deck. It must be the first time in many years that vehicles have been seen here in the clear like this. There is some evidence of protective panels on the front grillles of some of the cabs, but they must have taken at bit of a saltwater shower en route. The ship is not taking the usual transatlantic route. Although it loaded in Antwerp, Jun 3-6, it also called on Vigo, Spain June 8-9 before embarking on its transatlantic voyage.

Another consignment of wind farm pylons arrived this afternoon on the GPO Sapphire. The ship is a fleet mate of GPO Grace which delivered a similar cargo in May.

GPO Sapphire was built by CSBC Taiwan Corp in Kaohsiung in 2019. Measuring 49,091 gt and 63,581 dwt, it is a semi-submersible specialist heavy load carrier, one of four sister ships in the GPO Heavylift fleet.

The six pylons, including pilings, bases and towers will be assembled and transferred to the installation vessel Orion at the IEL pier in Dartmouth. The Orion is currently installing the first six units in the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts.

 

There is one more type of vessel, not covered in the above "catalog" and that is pleasure craft. While Halifax is home to scores of small craft, from PWCs on up (see yesterday's post), it is also a way point for larger vessels en route to and from the various pleasure ports of the world. Two such "boats" are in port now, and are perhaps worthy of mention.

Epiphany (with the "i" given as "!") is a 132 gt motor sailer built in 2003 in New Zealand. It previously carried the names Nephele and Ipanema. The 34m x 8m aluminum hulled craft can accommodate six guests and five crew (in 3 cabins). It arrived from Newport June 12. Its mast is visible from blocks away.

 On the other side of the pier, the motor yacht Vive la Vie provides something of a contrast. It is a 60 m long miniature ship of 1277 gt, built in 2009. Its more spacious hull can cater to 12 guests in six cabins and has eight double berth cabins for crew. It arrived from Gibraltar June 13.

These two craft are tied up at a new timber pier built on the site of the old Foundation dock, which to my mind was a lot more interesting when it was home to the tugs of Foundation Maritime and later Eastern Canada Towing. It was a little less pedestrian friendly however.

There are nine tugs tied up at the Ectug pier in this 1977 (ca. May 1) photo.

(One tug is hidden behind the cook house / dispatch office with only its mast showing.) 

The tugs are from the left:

1, 2 (hidden) and 5: three of the same class Point Vim, Vigour, and Viking; 

3: Point Valiant; 4:Point Vibert; 6: Point Valour, 7 and 8: Point Gilbert and/or/and Point James 

and 9: either Point Carroll or Point Spencer

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Welcome back

 The population of harbour gulls welcomed two herring seiners today, when they arrived and offloaded their catch to waiting tank trucks.

The Lady Melissa (foreground) and Morning Star (background) tied up at Pier 9.

Herring seiners have not been seen in Halifax for some time - they did not appear last year at all - although the Morning Star was in port yesterday. One boat usually acts as a scout and when (and if) it finds the migrating schools of fish it calls in other boats. They fish at night, and land the fish at the nearest port, to be trucked to the processing facilities in the Yarmouth area.

The fluctuating populations of herring over the years have resulted in a boom or bust fishery. At one time there were dozens of boats calling in Halifax. In the mid nineteen-sixties there were so many fish that boats came in from British Columbia.

Three or more other herring seiners are reported underway in the Yarmouth area, so depending on the position of the fish, we may see them in the coming days.

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Taipan and Hafnia Mikala - humbly amended

 The autocarrier Taipan arrived off Halifax yesterday, June 12, and then entered port in the late afternoon. It tied up at Autoport and remained there until late this afternoon, June 13. It is unusual for these ships to stay in port over night. Even if they have a large number of cars to offload, they can usually do so in the course of single workday / shift.

 There was a fair amount of pleasure craft activity in the harbour this afternnon, and as the ship exited Eastern Passage into the main harbour, it sounded a prolonged single "wakeup" blast on its horn. (Not for the personal watercraft rider, who was well clear - the zoom lens tends to compress the distance.)

Built by Stocznia Gdynia in 2006, the ship was launched as Morning Countess for Ray Car Carriers, but it carried that name only briefly and was soon renamed Taipan. Its charter was presumably changed from Eukor to Wilhelmsen. The 57,692 gt, 21,021 dwt ship has a capacity of 6500 RT43 cars and is equipped with a 150 tonne SWL stern ramp and a smaller side ramp.

As the ship turned outbound it passed the Hafnia Mikala unloading product from Antwerp at Imperial Oil. It is a 29,658 gt, 49,999 dwt chemical / product tanker built in 2017 by Guangzhou International. Hafnia Tankers, based in Denmark, is the world's largest tanker operator with 220 tankers of various sizes in its fleet. The company was formed in 2012-2013 by Tankers Inc, Blackstone/Tufton and Lauritzen. The company owns 117 tankers outright and has the remainder under its managment for a variety of owners. It operates many of the ships in a "Handy Pool" of midrange tankers.

 The operator of the pleasure craft with sail number 46719 may also have been well clear of the ship (at least in its own mind)*, but large ships do have the right of way despite popular myths. They are unable to stop or alter course quickly or leave the deep water channels, so pleasure craft, which are much more agile, must give way. There are usually a number of close calls every year - usually due to inattention or ignorance, but thanks to alert and expert harbour pilots, rarely result in actual contact.

* Amendment and Apology

After making this post I heard from the boater in the above photo. He was indeed following the rules of the road,  and had communicated with the pilot by VHF radio and both vessels were being navigated prudently. No excuse, but the telephoto lens does make it look like they were much closer than they were. 

As stated before I do welcome corrections, since this blog should be a record of events - not just an expression of personal opnion.

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HMCS Harry DeWolf puts to sea

 HMCS Harry DeWolf AOPV 430 put out to sea today June 12. As lead ship in the Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessel program, it has had its share of issues. Delivered by Irving Shipbuilding Inc's Halifax Shipyard in July 2020, it was commissioned June 26, 2021 and in its first season it participated in the RCN's northern exercise Operation Nanook starting in August 2021. It returned to Halifax having made a Northwest Passage, a stopover in Esquimalt and after transiting the Panama Canal, participation in Operation Caribbe.

Initial issues with the ship's fire suppression system and non-spec potable water valves took the ship out of service, but they seem to have been resolved. The failure of two of the ship's generators in the summer of 2022 sidelined the ship and this is its first move under its own power since then.

HMCS Harry DeWolf passes the BIO outbound from Bedford Basin.

 After a brief calibraiton trial in Bedford Basin the ship made for sea. Some Kingston class ships have been exercising off Halifax, and the Harry DeWolf appears on AIS in the same area. The AIS tag says "patrol", so perhaps the ship has returned to full service. 

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MSC in, NYK out , ONE in, (updated)

 A well organized meeting of container ships took place late this morning, June 11, as the arriving MSC Elma took the western, deep water, channel leaving the smaller NYK Nebula a straight run outbound in the shallower eastern channel.

The MSC Elma keeps close to the western shore...

 

 

 

leaving lots of room for the NYK Nebula.

(see yesterday's post for more on this ship)

When the MSC Elma re-entered the main channel it very unusually began its turn to back in to PSA Halifax, Pier 41. The turn is usually made much closer to the pier, but the ship was berthing at the extreme south end of Pier 42 to allow for the next arrival.

The tug Atlantic Fir acting as brake, assisted in the turn...

and was joined by the tug Atlantic Bear.

Note the unusual deck loading of alternate bays.

MSC Elma is the first ship to call in Halifax on a newly reconfigured MSC route from Northwest Europe to the west coast of South America, called the Ecuador - NWC (for North West Continent). The eight week rotation from Antwerp will call in Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Halifax, Boston, Freeport, Rodman (Balboa), Guayaquil, Puerto Bolivar, Guayaquil, Paita, Cristobal, Moin (Costa Rica) and Antwerp.

MSC has discontinued the "Boston Express" route that used four ships and ran from Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Boston, Montreal and Antwerp. The MSC Samira III (2564 TEU) was the last ship to service that route.

The MSC Elma was built in 2016 by Jinhai Heavy Industry Co in Daishan County, China. The 97,805 gt, 110,103 dwt ship has a capacity of 8800 TEU (other sources say 9408) including 1700 reefer plugs. 

So far three other ships names have been listed for the service: MSC Lily, MSC Antonella (both 8819 TEU) and MSC Amalfi (9403 TEU).

Addendum #1:

The South American route is considered "reefer heavy" with large quantities of fruit and other perishables coming out of the region and headed for the northern hemisphere. That may explain the lashing bridges on the main deck and the large number of white boxes.

Addendum #2:

It was late afternoon when ONE Wren arrived from Colombo, Ceylon- the latest of the bird class ships built for NYK now operating for ONE on THE Alliance's EC5 service.

The ship was built in 2018 by Japan Marine United in Kure as NYK Wren and delivered with the traditional NYK black hull, white superstructures and black funnel with two red stripes and three white stripes.

In 2021 the ship was renamed ONE Wren and repainted in the magenta based colour scheme of Ocean Network Express.

 The tug Atlantic Bear provided braking and steering assist with a line astern while Atlantic Oak worked forward on the port side. Atlantic Fir was not visible on the starboard side.

The ship's deck was loaded in four high tiers, unlike sister ship ONE Cygnus when it arrived June 6 loaded three high, but still appeared lightly loaded.

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