Surprise Louie visit

 A few years ago the base for the icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent was shifted from Halifax to St.John's, NL for political reasons. The (fictional) logic was that it would then be closer to its "work" in the arctic, and therefore more economical.

Halifax had always been the ship's base, and in fact it was refitted, repaired and modernized at Halifax Shipyard. Halifax was perhaps one day's sailing (via the west coast of Newfoundland and the Strait of Belle Isle) farther from the arctic than St.John's. But Halifax was roughly the same distance to the Gulf of St.Lawrence, and the St.Lawrence and Saguenay Rivers where the ship spent its winters.

Since that transfer there have been many changes, not least that Halifax Shipyard no longer does non-naval ship repair. The Coast Guard shifted its Halifax base from Dartmouth Cove to shared space with the Bedford Institute and built a new pier and other infrastructure, but left no room for a ship the size of the "Louie". Maintenance for the ship has been transferred to Davie in Lévis, QC, which has become "icebreaker central". See my March 11, 2025 post.

All of the above is a long-winded background to the fact that the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent is now an infrequent caller in Halifax. Since there is rarely* any ice in the harbour, there is no reason for the ship to come here. That makes today's (March 21) arrival an unusual event, and perhaps somewhat counter to the convoluted logic that transferred it away. It arrived from Sydney - a leisurely and ice free 18 hour sail from Halifax.

 

CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent breaks through the fog arriving in Halifax March 21, 2025.

 With no room at the BIO inn, the ship tied up at Pier 26 in the Ocean Terminals at the southend of the harbour. On one of its previous visits the ship transferred fuel to other CCG ships before going into refit, but that was accomplished at anchor in Bedford Basin. On the other hand there is fuel nearby if the ship needs any.

 

Backing into the pier, the ship appeared to be using its bubbler system as side thruster.

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* Famously "Ice Free"  Halifax harbour has not been known to freeze over to any significant extent. On on occasions drift ice from the Gulf of St.Lawrence flowed in with the tides and winds and choked the harbour with broken ice. During that event, over several days in late March - early April 1987,  the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent cleared tracks for shipping in the inner harbour.

 

Since then the Louis S. St-Laurent has been rebuilt with a new bow; re-powered with diesel engines; and with an "extended life" it is a very different appearing ship. 

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MSC Switch

 Ships of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) are known to call in Halifax for a variety of reasons, including lightering off cargo to reduce draft for the St.Lawrence River. When I saw the ship early this afternoon it was off loading containers.

On previous vidits the ship has called at PSA Atlantic Gateway. All berths were open at that terminal today, March 20, so its visit to PSA Fairview Cove in Bedford Basin is unusual. It also used the west berth (which has the RoRo ramp, and larger crane), leaving the east berth and the two smaller cranes for the Atlantic Sea. 

 

MSC Kim at Fairview Cove on a foggy March 20, 2025.

The MSC Kim is on the Mediterranean Canada route. Its last port was Sines, Portugal and it is due in Montreal March 24.

ACL's G4 ships do not need special shore facilities for RoRo. They carry a long, slewed ramp that can reach over the dock cope wall. 

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ZIM meets ZIM

 Today March 19, ZIM had two of its regular callers at PSA Fairview Cove. The early morning arrival was the semi-feeder Box Endurance on the ZCX service from the west coast of South America and the Caribbean.

 

The feeder size ship was delivered in 2015 by Guangzhou Wenchong and is registered at 17,907 gt, 21,667 dwt with a capacity of 1708 TEU. The Liberian flagged ship is owned by Aigli Navigation Inc, which is associated with Allseas Marine of Athens, Greece.

In the early evening the ZIM Virginia arrived on the ZCA transatlantic run from Valencia, Spain.

It made its way through to Bedford Basin with the tug Atlantic Cedar assisting,

it then turned and backed in to the PSA Fairview Cove west berth.

ZIM Virginia is owned by Ymir International Ltd a subsidiary of ZIM and flies the flag of Israel. It was built in 2002 by Hyundai, Ulsan and measures 53,453 grt, 66, 686 dwt and carries 4839 TEU.

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Pier 9 activity

 In yesterday's post ( March 17 ) I noted the activity at Pier 9C where the Asian Empire sailed after delivering RoRo cargo, and Algoscotia moved from Imperial Oil to Pier 9C. The latter ship, on its usual route from Halifax to Sydney, NS and other ports such as Corner Brook and Sept-Iles delivering refined oil products, would not normally have a reason to go the Pier 9C, since that pier has no bulk liquid cargo facilities, and at present is nearly full of RoRo and wind farm tower sections.

 This time however the ship was met by at least two tank trucks from GHL Inc, a Transforce / TFI International company based in Anjou, QC. That is quite near Imperial Oil's Montreal East refinery, so they were likely carrying some product most likely MDO (Marine Diesel Oil) to refuel the ship itself.

The ship was flying a red warning flag from the foremast (along with the Algoma company flag) to indicate it was working flammable material. Since there is no longer a bunkering barge in the port, ships rarely refuel here, but when they do it is usually with product from Irving Oil - a competitor of Imperial, and delivered by truck, usually to Pier 27-28. 

At Pier 9B another Thorco ship, this time Thorco Liva, completed taking on cable racks and sailed this afternoon for Portsmouth, NH to load subsea fibreoptic cable direct from the SubCom factory in suburban Newington.

 

The ship arrived March 11 and loaded the racks in sections, which were then assembled in the ship's hold with the assistance of its own cranes. The ship, and several of its fleet mates have called here many times before, always to load the single use racks. What becomes of the racks after the cable is delivered is a mystery - they never seem to come back.
 

Thorco Liva arriving March 11.

 Built in 2012 by the family-owned Honda Shipyard in Saiki, Japan, Thorco Liva is a 13,110 gt, 16,901 dwt ship. It is fitted with portable pontoon tween decks and a pair of 50 tonne SWL capacity cranes.

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Harbour Meet

 Ships often meet entering or leaving Halifax, and good communication ship-to-ship and between the ship and the Vessel Traffic Centre ensure that the meets occur without incident.

Meets become complicated when they take place in the lower harbour when one ship may be leaving the Narrows and another will be entering the Narrows where there is no room to pass. It is made even more complicated as two passenger ferry routes cross the vessel track. At peak hours there are two ferries on each route, and they normally give way to larger ships, unless the ship's pilot judges that they have time to cross the ship's track safely. 

Today, March 17 there was such an interesting meet as the coastal tanker Algoscotia moved from Imperial Oil to Pier C in the Narrows. The autocarrier Asian Empire completed unloading RoRo cargo at Pier 9C and was moving to Autoport. The meet was arranged so that it took place in the widest part of the harbour, and between the two ferry tracks.

 The Algoscotia passes the Woodside ferry terminal, northbound for the Narrows.

 

The Asian Empire has passed both ferry tracks, southbound (one ferry is visible in the background).

 

 

The  Asian Empire passes east of Geroge's Island en route to Autoport with the tug Atlantic Oak alongside.

 

Built in 1998 the Asian Empire is a larger size Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) of 71,383 gt, 25,756 dwt with a capacity of 7,645 CEU. Operators Eukor [Europe/ Korea] had the ship built by Hyundai Ulsan, and in fact it carries its name in Korean and English characters on the bow and flies the flag of the Republic of South Korea.

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Full House at Pier C

 The PSA Atlantic Gateway container terminal occupies the two numbered berths, Piers 41 and 42 at Pier C. There are seven container cranes, and it is possible to dock two Ultra size container ships at the same time, although not all the cranes can work the larger ships. Today was a more typical situation with one large ship and two small ships.

Left to right as viewed from Shearwater, the Nolhan Ava and Vivienne Sheri D occupied berth 42 and CMA CGM Norma was at 41.

Each of the small ships used one crane.The Canadian flag Nolhan Ava was loading for its weekly run to St-Pierre et Miquelon and Argentia, Newfoundland. It will move to Pier 30 (out of picture) later this afternoon to load RoRo cargo. Vivienne Sheri D, also Canadian owned, is on long term charter to Eimskip and is en route from Portland, ME also to Argentia, then on to Iceland.

The big ship CAM VGM Norma, is not exactly super sized at 9415 TEU, falling slightly below the 10,000 TEU number and is therefore a Post Panamax size. Built in 2006 by Hyundai Samho, it is registered at 107,711 gt, 113,909 dwt.

 

The ship is on the Ocean Alliance service from Asia to North America. It sailed fromPort Klang, Malaysia February 12 and is en route to New York.

CMA CGM stated in January that they would continue to divert ships from the Red Sea / Suez / Med route for the safety of crews and ships. It is unclear whether this ship in fact did travel via the Cape of Good Hope as routes are not normally published for secuity reasons.

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Still More Cars

 The spring run on automobiles continued today, March 13, as the Lake Tazawa arrived at Autoport on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean transatlantic service.

 

This is the second Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) ship delivered in December 2024 by China Merchants Jinling Shipyard Co to Eastern Pacific Shipping Pte Ltd (EPS) for charter to Eukor. Sister ship Lake Shirasagi was here on its first trip February 24 .

The 71,631 gt, 19,213 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,000 CEU on 12 decks with a 150 tonne capacity stern ramp and a 20 tonne starboard side ramp.The ship is dual fuel to Tier III standard and carries two 2,000 cubic meter LNG tanks. It also has shaft generators and lithium battery storage and can connect to shore power.

 The ship sailed from Antwerp February 13 and has called on Rotterdam / Rozenburg, Tilbury, Wallhamn, Goteborg, Bremerhaven and departed Southampton February 28.

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