After the Blow

 After creating mass devastation in the Caribbean Hurricane Melissa weakened as it made its way northward. By the time it reached our latitude (45 degrees north or so) October 31- November 1, it was a post tropical storm and tracked well offshore. There was still wind in the 30 kph (18 mph) range with gusts over 60 kph (37 mph) which was enough to put unnecessary strain on mooring lines and jetties.With plenty of advance warning, ships took precautions by doubling up on lines or moving to better places. Some ships remained in port until the storm passed.

At mid-day October 31 the coastal tanker Algoma Acadian moved from Irving Oil's Woodside terminal to anchorage number 12 in Bedford Basin. The oil terminal facility is quite exposed and not built to take the strain of bad weather. There is the added risk of parting an oil line, so ships generally move off in bad weather.

 Following soon after to number 10 anchorage in the Basin was the bulk carrier Eva Bright. It moved from Pier 27 where it had been transferring cargo from the AP Revelin (see yesterday's post and others). 

The AP Revelin moved to Pier 26 yesterday to free up the Pier 27 berth for last night's arrival of the Gotland  for Nirint Shipping.

Using its own cranes it discharged the latest cargo of nickel sulfides from Cuba. I can't track the ship's route to Halifax precisely, but it sailed from Moa October 25, well ahead of the hurricane. Moa was severely impacted by hurricane Melissa and detailed reports are hard to find because the eastern part of the island is still without power or most communications.

The ship is due to sail to sail this evening (November 1) for Villagarcia, Bilbao and Rotterdam.
 

The Gotland is a general cargo vessel of 12,772 gt, 17,400 dwt built in 2011 by the Xinshun Shipyard Group. It can carry about 900 TEU (630 at 14 tonnes), has 60 reefer plugs and has three cranes: one crane of 80 tonnes SWL and two cranes of 150 tonnes SWL which are combinable. 

The ship was built as the Rickmers Tianjin but was sold in 2015 to Gotland Schiffahrts. It has retained the famous green paint of the legendary Rickmers Group.  

 Another arrival from late October 31 was the EF Ava for the Icelandic shipping company Eimskip. It arrived on the regular Green Line service from Portland, ME and sailed today, November 1, for Reykjavik. From there it will head for the Faroe Islands, then Denmark and England and will remain operating in European waters for some time.

The ship seems to have missed the worst of the weather, but there will still be high seas to contend with. Ferry service to Newfoundland has been cancelled for today as the remnants of the storm work north easterly.

The EF Ava has been a regular for Eimskip since about 2018. Its original name was OPDR Rotterdam but that was changed on delivery in 2008 to OPDR Tanger for a ten year charter to Oldenburg-Portugiesische Dampshiffs Rederei. Its current name, given in 2018, includes the initials EF which stands for ElbFeeder, which is a German company owned by Eimskip, and which builds and charters ships to Eimskip.

The EF Ava as built in 2008 by Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding and is reported to be 7545 gt, 8168dwt with a capacity of 698 TEU with 120 reefer plugs. It is gearless. 

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More Firsts, Updates, but first an Oops

Oops

Following upon yesterday's Firsts (October 29) is a needed correction regarding the new Canadian Coast Guard ice breaking patrol vessel Donjek. 

In fact it was rolled out in two sections (not in one piece as stated yesterday) which were very quickly aligned  ready for joining.

What I saw yesterday was the bow section, which later emerged by itself, then was moved laterally in position in front of the other (western) door. (Although it appeared to have burst through a blue screen, it was some distance away from the roll up curtain/door.)

 

 

This apparently allowed the remainder of the ship to be rolled out and moved well away from the assembly hall.

 

The bow was moved into position in very short order, and was soon aligned ready to be joined. The red and white power plant chimneys and Canadian Tire containers in the background and foreground made for a colourful scene.

It will be interesting to see the ship in one piece and to compare it to the original RCN design. The two CCG version ships will have some differences in accommodation and other features such as helicopter facilities. The recent transfer of the Canadian Coast Guard from the federal government's Department of Fisheries and Oceans to the Department of National Defence, so far at least, does not signal a militarization of the CCG. It will still be a civilian service, with civilian crews, and as such will mean some very different features in these ships.

More Firsts

Among today's (October 30) firsts were an auto carrier and general cargo ship.

The NOCC Atlantic is a member of the Norwegian Car Carrier AS fleet. Built in 2009 by the Samjin Shipbuilding Industries Co Ltd shipyard in Weihai, China, it is a 60,868 gt, 22,500 dwt ship with a capacity of 6754 CEU. It has a 125 tonne capacity stern ramp and four hoistable car decks to make space for oversize loads. It also has a small side ramp.

 The ship is on an unusual routing. Instead of coming from western Europe it is arriving from Pyeongtaek, Masan and Ulsan, South Korea. Asian car makers are beginning to send cars to east coast North American cities directly, rather than facing congestion and other issues with west coast ports. Subaru is reported to be one of the manufacturers.

The general cargo ship is the Lady Diana from the well known Netherlands small ship operator Wijjnne & Barends  (part of the Spliethoff Group). A typical European style ship with box shaped holds, it was built in 2020 by Hexing Shipbuilding & Repair in Wenling, China. The 2862 gt, 4092 dwt ship is gearless and has a traveling gantry to move hatch covers.

The ship arrived from Belfast, so must be carrying aircraft components. A mobile crane was brought in to unload the cargo. (It looked to me like they first rigged some cargo-specific spreaders that stay in Halifax for use by the stevedores, Logistec.)

Update

As reported yesterday the disabled ship AT Revelin completed cargo transfer to the bulker Eva Bright at Pier 27-28, using the latter's cranes. They employed buckets from one ship or the other - more likely the AP Revelin.

 

The Eva Bright then moved to Number 10 anchorage in Bedford Basin...

 

...and AP Revelin was moved, cold move, by tugs to Pier 26, astern of the tug Ezra Sol.

 

 The Eva Bright did not appear fully loaded and the AP Revelin did not appear fully unloaded, so this operation may be reversed to complete the work after the predicted bad weather (wind and rain from post tropical storm Melissa) passes in the next two days.

 Lasts

Cruise ships are making their last appearances for the season, and in a traditional gesture, ships often salute the port in thanks for hospitality on their final departure. This evening (October 30) the Brilliance of the Seas sent out three window rattling blasts when it sailed from Pier 22 and headed for Boston. They may be headed into some rough weather, so Bon Voyage!

The ship was built by Meyer Weft, Papenburg, Germany in 2002. It can carry 2140 passengers (double occupancy) / 2543 maximum berths, with a very busy crew of 848.
 

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A day of firsts - and lasts

 Firsts

There were some first time callers today (October 29) in Halifax. The largest and most apparent was the Norwegian Prima - a ship that exemplifies the latest trends in popular cruise ship design (said to be "minimalist" on doubtful authority). Despite its hulking shape and 20 decks it is still only the 59th largest cruise ship in the world. (It arrived last evening after dark. and berthed at Pier 22.)

 Built by Fincantieri in 2022 it registers 145,535 gt with a capacity of 3,099 passengers and 1,506 crew. Sixteen of those 20 decks are accessible to guests. 

Among the ship's features are a visual reality theatre, the largest go-kart track afloat, an overside dry slide, and other venues for entertainment and eating beyond number.

The ship is on a repositioning cruise from the Mediterranean, via Southampton, to the Caribbean. I imagined some alteration to plans would be inevitable, as the remnant of the disastrous hurricane Melissa pass offshore Nova Scotia, but the ship is scheduled to sail this evening for New York - break out the Dramamine.

A more subdued looking ship was also a first time caller in Halifax today. The Liberian flagged Koi arrived on CMA CGM's Indamex service from India for the US east coast. It appears that the ship came via the Suez Canal.CMA CGM has been an early return user of the Canal while many lines are still avoiding the Red Sea, and sailing via the Cape of Good Hope. The ship's last port was Tanger Med.

The ship was built in 2011 by Hyundai Samho as Hanjin Rotterdam but was renamed SM Savannah in 2017; then in 2020 it became DS Koi briefly until it was renamed Koi later in the same year. It is a 91,585 gt, 102,517 dwt ship with a capacity of 8586 TEU with 700 reefer plugs. It is among the largest container ships with a single superstructure. Most ships of 9,000 TEU or more have an isolated bridge structure farther forward.

Lasts

As the cruise season winds down, only half a dozen or so ships are scheduled before the season ends with the Aidadiva on November 19. There will be no more multiple ships days, so workers today retrieved the pontoons from the landing stage at Pier 24. There will be no more need for "lightering off" of passengers in ships' tenders from anchorage. [see several previous posts.]

 The removal will allow ships to tie up at the opposite side of the camber at Pier 25-26, and sure enough that began to happen. The American tug Ezra Sol arrived and tied up well in at Pier 25.

 It has returned from Norfolk, its home base, after its earlier visit September 21 to 26. On that call, it towed in the disabled AP Revelin and stood by it for a time. Now that ship has transferred cargo to the Eva Bright at nearby Pier 27, and tomorrow will be moved (cold move) to pier 26, just astern of the tug, where it will likely be rigged up for another tow.

 The AP Revelin will be going to drydock - somewhere - likely the United States, for repairs after losing its prop or a blade from the prop, and is therefore unable to move on its own. There way also be other damage related to the loss, which will also require repair. Its grain cargo will likely be taken by the Eva Bright to its original destination.

More Firsts 

We got a first glimpse at a new Canadian Coast Guard Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel as Halifax Shipyard prepares to roll out the first ship from the Assembly hall.

 To be named Domjek Glacier the ship is the first of two ships for the Canadian Coast Guard. They are variants of the Harry DeWolf class of six Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels built for the Royal Canadian Navy. The two CCGS ships were added to the AOPV project to fill the void between completion of the RCN AOPVS and full scale work on the new RCN destroyers.

Little was revealed today, although there is some evidence of measures to be taken to resolve an issue with anchors on the RCN ships. Some plating has been removed or not yet installed over the anchor pockets. Perhaps there will be flaps over the pockets? (No more "old school" cementing the hawse pipes.)

 This is the first of the ships to be fully assembled under cover. the RCN ships were rolled out in sections and joined outdoors. The new destroyers will also be assembled indoors by all accounts.

Work is well underway at the new float out and fitting out berth at Pier 6 as Caisson number 15 was moved by McNally boats from the IEL pier in Dartmouth to the Shipyard.

Enormous amounts of fill have been trucked in from the quarry in Dartmouth to fill the caisson cells, but there will be much more to come as the cope walls are yet to be built. and the grade has to be built up to the level of the Assembly Hall.

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Good Things (May) Come in Twos and an Update and a Correction

 It was a day (October 15) for things happening in twos - and they appeared to be, at east on the surface (no pun?), [see last para.] mostly good things.

The early morning arrivals included three cruise ships, but two of them were from Royal Caribbean International. The pair are not sister ships, but carry about the same number of passengers despite their difference in size.

First Pair 

The larger ship is the Brilliance of the Seas, a Radiance class ship of  90,050 gt, built in 2002 by Meyerwerft, Papenburg.It can carry up to 2,543 passengers and 848 crew. Its fleet mate, the 78,340gt Vision class ship Vision of the Seas, came from Les Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Saint-Nazaire in 1998. It can accommodate 2,514 passengers and 765 crew.

 The two ships occupied most of the Sea Wall, with Brilliance OTS at Pier 22 (left in photo) and Vision OTS at Pier 20 (right in photo). As usual with many cruise ships in port, there were lifeboat exercises for the crew, and both ships had boats in the water. The Vision had a couple of its tenders in the water too.

Odd man out in the cruise ship arrivals was Le Boréal from the French operator Cie Ponant. Called a "luxury mega yacht" it is a 10,944 gt ship built for Antarctic cruises by Fincantieri, Ancona in 2010. Its 132 cabins can accommodate 222 to 264 passengers with 134 crew members.

It tied up at Pier 23, with the Brilliance OTS looming over it in the background. The ship flies the flag of the French Territory of the Wallis and Fortuna Islands and it is registered in the exotic port of Mata Utu. The Vision OTS is just arriving - entering stage right.

 

Pair 2 

Another pair of ships made a move today. Although the ships are not related by owner, they are both classed as Supra-Max bulk carriers in the 40,000 deadweight tonne range.

AP Revelin is the ship that "lost its prop" (in fact it may only have lost one blade from its propellor) and has been idled in Halifax since late September. Yesterday (October 14) work got underway to transfer its cargo to the Eva Bright at Pier 27, (see yesterday's post). That work  was suspended today and both ships moved out to anchorages in the lower harbour, to allow the Nirint Lines ship Augusta Luna to come in and discharge its cargo of nickel sulfides from Cuba.

 The Augusta Luna will likely be able to unload in one or two shifts, and when it sails the other two will be able to move back alongside. By comparing the drafts of the two ships, there is still a lot of cargo move.

 Eva Bright is in anchorage number 5.

 

AP Revelin is in anchorage number 3 and will have the tug Atlantic Willow standing by as long as it is anchored without the ability to move on its own.

 

Pair 3

Another pair was the Royal Canadian Navy's harbour tugs Glenevis YTB 642 and Glenside YTB 644 caught returning to HMS Dockyard from the Bedford Basin where they had undocked the HMCS Charlottetown from the Bedford Magazine.

 

Not only is the Navy in the process of replacing the Halifax class frigates, but it is also replacing the Glen class harbour tugs. The three Halifax based Glens (the third is the Glenbrook YTB 643) will be replaced by two tugs, now under construction at Industrie Océan in Quebec.The first of these, the Canso, is fitting out at Groupe Océan's Quebec City facility and may be delivered this year or in the spring of 2026. 

 

Update:(corrected)

There were some errors in yesterday's post (October 14) on the general cargo ship Arctic Rock. Firstly - it seems to have arrived in ballast from Italy and was not carrying aircraft components. I did see the ship alongside with hatch covers removed and stacked on deck forward and aft, but did not see any loading or unloading. Correction: it was carrying aircraft components from Italy -see October 18 post for photo.

 

Crew members appeared to be cleaning the gantry tracks.

 

The offset superstructure is somewhat more visible from the port side. 

 The ship departed at 1300 hrs EDT giving a destination of Wilmington - which one I can't tell - but likely the one in North Carolina.

 

The port of Registry may not be as exotic as that of Le Boréal (see above), but Urk certainly has a distinctive sound to it.

Pair 4

And one last pair - two Royal Canadian Navy inflatables appeared off Black Rock Beach, Point Pleasant  Park, with some marker buoys set out and divers in the water.

 The location is the site of numerous reef balls, placed on the bottom to promote marine growth and fish habitat. The yellow floats may be tethered to the reef balls.

The Navy's Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic is based at Shearwater (Halifax harbour), and this may have been a training exercise. (The ocean water is still quite warm and people were swimming at some beaches on Thanksgiving Monday. Seawater temperature then and today was 15.6º C (60º F).

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Long Stay, Short Stay

Ships may make short or long visits to Halifax. Ranging from a few hours to weeks or months the length of the stay depends on a number of factors. Today, October 11 saw what was a very short stay for one ship and a range of stays for others.

The short stay was the familiar miniature cruise ship Pearl Mist arriving at Pier 23 around 0800 hrs ADT and sailing again at 1430 hrs.

The Pearl Mist eases in alongside Pier 23 using its bow thruster. With only three cruise ships in port today, the landing stage at Pier 24 is not needed.

The Pearl Mist was mostly built in Halifax, and completed elsewhere. Despite such an inauspicious beginning, it has had a successful career calling in many smaller ports.

 The second cruise ship, the Silver Shadow tied up at Pier 20 for a longer than usual stay. Also coming alongside for 0800 hrs it will remain in port until 2230 hrs this evening. Most ships are in and out in eight to ten 10 hours. [no photo]

The third cruise ship, which arrived at the pilot station at 1230 hrs and came alongside Pier 22 at about 1330 hrs was the Arcadia. [click for Wikipedia entry]

 

Unusually it had the tug Atlantic Willow assist in berthing. Black scuff marks likely ensued as the tug was not wearing the white canvas apron that used to be mandatory for berthing white ships. Cruise ships rarely need tugs in Halifax unless the weather is averse (which it was not) or the ship has a malfunction (possible).

The Arcadia will remain in port overnight and all day tomorrow - also unusual - and is scheduled to sail at 1630 hrs October 12.

Another arrival is likely to be in port for several days. It is the "Supramax" dry bulker Eva Bright. 

The ship came from the Jiangmen Nanyang Ship Engineering Co Ltd in 2023, measuring 25,130 gt and 40,577 dwt. Typical of ships of its type it carries four cargo cranes and grab buckets.

The ship tied up alongside the  AP Revelin at Pier 27 for no other possible purpose than to transload the latter ship's cargo. The AP Revelin lost its propellor off Nova Scotia and was towed in to port September 21 and was anchored for a time then moved alongside on October 3. I assume that its cargo must be offloaded before it can go to drydock for installation of a new prop and possibly repair to damage resulting from the loss.

 The transloading process will take several days at best, and is likely weather dependent, so may extend into weeks. [see Footnote]

What may also extend to a longer stay if past performance is an indicator, is today's move of the multi-purpose ship Nord Logos from Pier 9B to anchor in Bedford Basin.

 Since its most recent arrival on October 6 it has loaded cable racks, and will now wait for its appointment at the factory in Portsmouth (Newington) NH to load fibre optic cable. 

The Nord Logos may be a familiar sight to Basin watchers. It was last anchored here from December 11, 2024 to January 10, 2025 - also awaiting its turn for Portsmouth. The former Thorco Logos was also in port (on and off) from November 4, 2018 to February 10, 2019, also loading cable tanks and standing by to go to Portsmouth. It had a similar lengthy stay in 2017.

Footnote

The Port of Halifax has a large grain storage facility which is also used to store and export wood pellets. Pellets arrive in Halifax by truck and grain arrives by train or by ship. In recent years ships bringing in grain from the Lakehead, and sometimes corn from Windsor or other Great Lakes ports are self-unloaders. As a result the port's own offloader - called the grain leg - has fallen into disuse, and may no longer be serviceable. It is many years since it has been used, and I believe the last time it was used was to unload a ship that was damaged, and had to have its cargo removed. It may be easier to off load the AP Revelin directly into the Eva Bright than to re-commission (and sanitize) the grain leg and transfer the cargo (whatever that may be, and I don't know, but assume it is grain) through the grain elevator.

The grain leg (at right) at Pier 25-26, is no longer in use, except a s pigeon roost, now that self-unloading ships bring in grain cargo.

The grain leg in use in 1975, back when the world was black and white. The device consists of an endless loop of buckets that feeds grain to the conveyor system (above at right) transferring the cargo to the grain elevators.

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Odds and Sods

 Most of the shipping in Halifax harbour is scheduled container / cargo ships or regular callers such as coastal tankers or gypsum carriers. Occasionally however there are odd callers of the "one of" variety.

There were two such calls in Halifax today, October 3, and there is an update on two more.

This morning's arrival of the Hosei Sakura appears to have been a "one of" although its sister ships have made many visits.

 

Arriving at the pilot station at 0700 hrs ADT meant strong backlighting, and a poor view of the ship and its odd looking deck load. Ships of Bao Shang Ship Management, and formerly of Thorco have been regulars here loading submarine cable racks, but this time the ship had more or less an opposite cargo.

It appeared to be an aircraft tail assembly. These often arrive in Halifax from Belfast, on unscheduled general cargo ships. This ship however has been no where near Belfast, but instead comes from Nemrut, Turkey (September 10-14) with a stop over in the Algeciras anchorage - likely for bunkers. The container frame comes from Leonardo SpA, a major Italian defense and aircraft manufacturer.

The Hosei Sakura was built in 2014 as the Thorco Lineage, taking is present name in 2021. It is a 13,110 gt, 16,949 dwt general purpose carrier with two 50 tonne cranes and grabs. It is one of a large series of sister ships built by Honda Heavy Industries in Saiki, Japan. 

When the ship sailed this afternoon its deck load appeared to be cable reels - some small and some large ones in sections.

 Arriving October 1 and anchoring in Bedford Basin, the tanker Hafnia Lise was neither bringing cargo nor taking cargo away.

 

A more or less typical LR2 tanker of 29,658 gt, 49,875 dwt, it was not built by the usual Korean shipyard but by Guangzhou Shipyard International in 2016. Today, October 3, I noted the workboat Allen Clipper alongside. That normally means underwater work such as hull cleaning, propeller clearing or balancing.

 It is the height of the cruise season and there were two ships in today. The Volendam with 1432passengers and the mammoth Symphony of the Seas with 6,360 passengers (its maximum capacity is 6680 with 2200 crew.)

Passengers on this trip will have a tale to tell when they get home. On October 1 the ship diverted from its planned course due to high winds. It was invited to dock in Sydney, NS, but the master opted not to enter port, due, presumably, to the ship's very great windage. Instead they did a large series of loops in the relatively protected Sydney Bight, then made for Halifax. It will not be sailing from Halifax until midnight tonight, so no better photo is available.

 The 228,081 gt Symphony OTS was the largest cruise ship in the world from 2018 to 2022.

Update:

The ship AP Revelin, which has been anchored in Halifax after losing its prop at sea, was moved this afternoon to Pier 27. This may mean a new prop will be fitted. The tug Point Chebucto from the Strait of Canso stood by the ship while it was at anchor. The tug remains in Halifax at least for now.

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Bad News

 Computer issues have precluded posts on this blog for the last week. It may take some days to return to normal, so there will be fewer posts for a while.

In the meantime - in case you were wondering - the Croatian flag bulk carrier AP Revelin is anchored in Bedford Basin without a propellor. Bad news indeed.

 

The ship was towed in on September 21 by the US flag tug Ezra Sol from an outer anchorage.

 The once familiar tug Point Chebucto also arrived on September 24, from Port Hawksbury and will stand by the ship as long as it is anchored and without its own means of propulsion. (Point Chebucto 4,000 bhp, was built by Halifax Shipyard in 1993 and operated in Halifax until 2010 when it was transferred to Point Tupper. Earlier this summer three new tugs were commissioned in Point Tupper, and the three previous tugs were laid up in Port Hawksbury. Svitzer Bedford has now been re-positioned in North Sydney.Svitzer Montreal was used briefly at Point Tupper when one of the new tugs was out of service [possibly drydocked in Shelburne] but has returned to layup in Port Hawksbury.

The US flag tug Ezra Sol has also been standing by the ship, but is due to sail tonight  - presumably back to its home port of Norfolk.

The tugs is powered by three Cummins diesel engines, delivering about 8,000 bhp to three props. The three stacks show clearly in the photo.

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