Busy Day

 There was a lot of activity in Halifax harbour today, November 20, mostly container ships.

An over night arrival anchored in the lower harbour. MSC Sagitta III is on the Mediterranean Shipping Company's Canada Gulf Bridge route and does not normally call in Halifax. Because of the large number of containers landed in Halifax during the Montreal longshore workers strike MSC has applied to use this ship and the MSC Baltic III to transfer the stranded boxes to Montreal. (Some have already been dispatched by train and truck, but there were reportedly 5,000 boxes left off in this port.) Canada's cabotage law restricts shipping between Canadian ports to Canadian ships, unless no suitable Canadian ships are available. In such cases a coasting license may be granted to a foreign ship, and I expect the MSC Sagitta III is waiting for the Minister of Public Safety to grant the license  in the next few days.

MSC Sagitta III was built by Nordseewerker, Emden in 2010. The 36,519 gt, 42,614 dwt ship was a capacity of 3428 TEU and has a large nuber of reefer plugs, noted as "392 + 108". [I'm not certain what that means but may describe the number below and above deck or vice versa.]

Initially named Frisia Brussel it was renamed Sagitta in 2010 and MSC Sagitta III in 2021.

The ship is northbound from Freeport, Bahamas, and is expected to top up at PSA Fairview Cove on the first of three trips once the license is granted.

Arriving at PSA Fairview Cove, the NYK Nedula held off the dock allowing Ophelia to sail (see yesterday's post.)

At the same time the Oceanex Sanderling was arriving from St.John's and it also held off in Bedford Basin before coming alongside.

Container activity at PSA Atlantic Gateway got off to a slow start as there was no acitivity in the morning.

With the coastal tanker Algonova at anchor in the foreground waiting its turn at Imperial Oil, there was a backdrop of the South End Container Terminal with all its cranes inactive. Two cranes were in the "down" position. The northmost crane (at right in the photo) is rarely raised. It is one of the new cranes at the facility and may have a problem. One other crane was also down and it certainly did appear to be U/S as traveller wires were sagging and the spreader appeared to be on the ground. (Not sure why the adjacent crane had chains hanging from its spreader.)

 Things picked up at the SECT as the day wore on.

A noontime arrival was the MSC Don Giovanni another Canada Gulf Bridge ship arriving from Montreal, likely to top up to salt water draft. This is another "classic" from MSC, built in 1996. It is a hatchless design of the revolutionary Eco Box 42 class, from the Flensburger Shipbuilding Company in Emden. The 29,181 gt, 41,590 dwt ship has a capacity of somewhere between 2480 and 2604 TEU (depending on sources.)

It was launched in 1996 as the Jean Lykes but delivered as Jean and very soon sold to MSC and renamed. The famous US shipping company Lykes Line was bankrupt in 1995 and may have defaulted on this ship. CP Ships bought Lykes in 1997 and CP in turn was bought by TUI in 2006 and melded into Hapag-Lloyd.

Considered to be very elegant when new, the ship is looking a tad seedy now.

Soon after it was a new to Halifax caller for Melfi Lines. Orinoco is northbound from Mariel, Cuba.

Built in 2010 by Fujian Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 9994 gt, 12,306 dwt ship has a capacity of 880 TEU and carries two cranes of unknown capacity. The ship was launched as E.R. Helsinki but completed as Friesdijk. It was renamed X-press Tajumulco in 2013 and became the Orinoco in 2020.

There was also tanker activity in Halifax today. As noted above the Algonova arrived and anchored in the lower harbour. It has cargo from Nanticoke, and in the early evening moved to Imperial Oil on the departure of the Al Reem (see previous posts).

There was also a mid-afternoon departure from Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. The East Coast is headed back to Saint John to load after its latest trip to Charlottetown.

The ship makes regular trips to Halifax, Charlottetown and St.John's but also to Boston and Providence from time to time.

The only ship not photographed today was CSL Kajika arriving to load gypsum. The ship made its first call in Halifax on April 19, 2022 and full details are provided in my post of that date.

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