Pit Stop

 An unusual ship for Halifax stopped briefly in port November 22 to refuel.

The Bravenes is an offshore pipe burying vessel. It is equipped to carry aggregates and to deposit the material precisely to cover submarine pipes or cables. The ship uses a 1.1 meter diameter "fall pipe" to place the material. The pipe is equipped with an ROV at the end to monitor the work and the ship itself is fitted with DP3 dynamic positioning to ensure that the gravel covers the target installation completely. The fall pipe or a tremie pipe can be worked overside or through a moon pool. It can operate at depths up to 1,000 meters.

 The ship was built in 2017 by Zhejiang Shipbuilding Co Ltd in Ningbo. It is a 21,133 gt vessel with a deadweight tonnage variously reported at 15,500 tonnes up to 17,668 tonnes.  

 

 I am assuming the ship had been working on the transmission line for an offshore wind turbine installation in the United States. Its last port of call before Halifax was Bayside, NB, where aggregate has been sourced for these projects. The ship's next port of call is to be Eemshaven, a wind energy hub in the Netherlands.

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