Rigours of winter

The first day of spring in Halifax, and the beautiful weather we have been getting all week, thanks to El Nino, makes it easy to forget that winter is tough on ships.

This is particularly true for container ships that are never stopped long enough for the crew to do hull painting and other bits of maintenance that require time in port and good weather.

OOCL Singapore has been running steadily for the last year or more, and what were minor blemishes last fall have become unsightly rust sores now.

Today was no exception her usual routine. She picked up her pilot at 0530 this morning and berthed at Fairview Cove for 0700. She was ready to sail promptly at 1630, and trailed Atlantic Cartier out of the harbour. This gave me a chance to catch her steaming down the western side of the harbour, so as not to catch up to Atlantic Cartier. She hardly making any bow wave, but was moving along smartly nonetheless.

You can certainly see that months of smashing into Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian seas have taken a toll on her paint work.