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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