Eco cargo, Eco cars, Eco tours

 There were lots of references to the environment and ecology in the Port of Halifax today, April 4. Only history will tell if these measures are futile. [Glass half full readers may wish to skip ahead.]

 The first cruise ship of the 2025 season arrived good and early this morning, beating its 2024 first arrival date by six days.  According the February 14 press release, the ship was not due in Halifax until April 18 this year. Today's arrival may have been on short notice, as the Port's workboat Maintainer I was setting out fenders only yesterday.

 

Today's excellent +10ºC temperature and bright sunshine encouraged a gaggle of hardy passengers to take a kayak expedition from Pier 22 to the Northwest Arm. By the time they were on the return leg they had evacuated to a motorboat and did not have to paddle back to the ship.

These so-called expedition cruise ships, despite allowing passengers to see the wonders of the world are notorious fuel users, and someday must face restrictions.
 

Amongst today's arrivals was the LNG powered Lake Shirasagi for Autoport with another batch of Volkswagen cars. The dual fuel ship also promotes the use of shore power (when possible). Nova Scotia's reliance on coal for a good chunk of its electricity makes this a less desirable option.

Lake Shirasagi made its inaugural voyage in February, arriving in Halifax February 24 [qv]. It will move to Pier 9C tomorrow to offload RoRo cargo.

Pier 9C was the destination today for the wind assisted E-Ship 1. The ship is equipped with rotating towers that provide supplementary propulsion power.

The E-Ship 1 is carrying generator nacelles that will convert wind to power for a wind project. The towers arrived in sections and have been sitting on Pier 9C for several months.

Built in 2010 by Lindenau, Kiel, the 12,968 gt, 10,020 dwt ship carries two cranes with maximum 90 tonne SWL and a single open hold with removable hatch covers giving total access to the cargo space. It can carry heavy cargo, RoRo and containers up to 853 TEU.

 

 The ship has never been in Halifax before, but was in Sheet Harbour, NS in 2014, and made a trip on the St.Lawrence River in 2012. See my post from May 11, 2014.

 

A ship with no apparent pretensions to saving the planet was one of three container ships in port today. The MSC Eleni has been an off and on caller over the years, but never a regular. Ships on MSC's Med Canada service do call from time to time to offload a few containers to meet St.Lawrence River draft restrictions or to top up a few boxes to maximize ocean draft. The latter seemed to be the case today as the ship arrived from Montreal and sailed for Salerno.

 

 

As MSC Eleni clears PSA Halifax Pier 42, and sheds its tug, the Lake Shirasagi is just disappearing from view into Eastern Passage.

 

MSCEleni dates from 2004 when it was built by Hanjin Heavy Industry and Construction Co Ltd in Busan. The 54,881 gt, 68,254 dwt ship has a capacity of 5060 TEU including 400 reefers.

 

 

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