Seeing Red

 Amongst the activity in Halifax harbour today, February 28, were several red ships. Not pictured here was the arriving CCGS Jean Goodwill returning from SAR patrol east. There was no room at the Bedford Institute so the ship tucked in at Pier 9C. 

Also not pictured was the red hulled Oceanex Sanderling arriving from St.John's and anchoring in Bedford Basin instead of going directly to Autoport. Due to the delays at Autoport (see yesterday's post) the Wolfsburg was still tied up there. It sailed in the late afternoon and another auto carrier, Morning Peace, was given priority at the berth, and was alongside soon after.

Another red ship is the visiting research trawler CCGS Teleost which arrived yesterday from its home base in St.John's.

The Teleost occupied the berth usually used by the inshore patrol vessels, so the CCGS G. Peddle and CCGS Private Robertson VC have been moved to the C.O.V.E dock (former Cost Guard base). The Teleost - long overdue for replacement is instead going to drydock for another refit.

Another berth at the Bedford Institute was vacated this morning as the CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 departed for sea trials. It first moved out into Bedford Basin, with the assistance of the navy tugs, CNAV Glenside and Merrickville. It later put out to sea, but didn't go very far. It went out as far as the harbour limit off Chebucto Head, then was back alongside at a different berth this afternoon.

The Kopit Hopson 1752 has been in Vessel Life Extension refit since 2021, and has been the topic of several posts here, most recently January 11, 2024. The latest estimate for completion of the work was March 2024.

Also seen in Bedford Basin today was the hydrographic researcn vessel John Cabot away from its home base of St.John's.

The 2672 gt vessel is the third of three ships built by Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards under the National Shipbuilding Strategy and was delivered to St. John's in February 2021. Sister ship CCGS Capt Jacques Cartier, based in Halifax, arrived at the BIO in March 2020. It is currently in drydock at Pictou, NS. The first ship in the series, CCGS Sir John Franklin (ironically) is based on the Pacific coast. (Ironically because he never saw the Pacific despite several tries.)
 

It was not all red in the harbour today, as one ship although showing a lot of red anti-fouling paint on the hull, was mostly black and white. The Fairwind Legion is of a familiar type, more usually seen with "Thorco" or "Fanbo" names. 

Built in 2015 by Honda Shipyard in Saiki, Japan, it was indeed named Thorco Legion until 2020. A 13,100 gt, 16,957 dwt ship it carries two 50 tonne SWL cranes to work its box shaped holds.

In tracing the ship's recent movements, it seems that the ship has sailed from Asia in ballast. It was reported in Batangas, Philppines anchorage January 5-6, then Taichung, Taiwan January 9-10, Hong Kong anchorage January 10-12, thenpassed Cape Town Febraury 6-7/

Tying up at Pier 9B, it seems the ship will be fitted out with fiber-optic cable racks as its sister ships have done many times in recent years.

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Kopit Hopson 1752 - follow up

 It appears that even after the Vessel Life Extension for the CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 there is still work to do, and it may not be completed until March. The original VLE, which was awarded in 2020, was to have been completed (by my reckoning) during fiscal year 2022 and in fact the ship was handed back to the Canadian Coast Guard in December 2022 after sea trials. However as reported here there were more sea trials in April 2023. Its recent "cold" move by tugs was covered here December 28, 2023.

CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 alongside BIO July 25, 2023.

CBC News reported today, January 11, that there have been delays in delivery of replacement through hull valves and welding repairs are underway to sea chest (s). Supply chain issues have plagued most industries in the past few years, and it should not come as surprise that specialty items have long delivery dates. Vessel Life Extension programs for ships as old as this one (it was built in 1981) are bound to turn up more issues than anticipated. 

All that aside the CBC quotes the CCG that the ship has been operational for 117 of 284 days since April 1, 2023 (this fiscal year). 

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Kopit Hopson 1752 - more trials

 The CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 put out to sea today for trials, and returned to its base at the Bedford Institute in mid-afternoon.

The ship is coming off a multi-year Vessel Life Extension (VLE) project, and is presumably soon to return to service. I have covered the ship numerous times with posts about its refit, its new crane (replacing its original derrick) and its renaming. The ship was built in 1986 by Marine Industries Ltd in Sorel-Tracy, QC. It is a Type 1100 light icebreaker and navaids vessel. (Some refer to ships of this class as Martha L. Black class, but that is an informal designation, and not one that is used  by the CCG.)

The VLE refit was awarded to IrvingShipbuilding Inc (ISI) in March 2020 and most of the work was conducted at the Shelburne Shipyard. When ISI sold the yard in 2022, the ship was towed to Halifax for completion. After trials in December 2022 the ship was handed over to the Coast Guard. It has since been docked at the Bedford Institute allowing for commissioning and CCG's own work, crew familiarization, etc.,

From this point forward I hope to mention the ship in this blog without having to recount its history and the reasons for its change of name. I had been promoting that change since 2011, and received lots of flack as a result. Nor did I receive a response, or even an acknowledgement, from the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to my open letter of January 2018 (copied to my MP). I take no credit for the fact that they did change the name eventually. Since this blog is a personal online journal, and not a discussion forum (we have Facebook for that) I feel no obligation to publish those negative comments nor to embrass the authors in case they have changed their minds.

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Let it Blow (x 3)

 The weather outside is frightful, but at least it was not snowing in Halifax (unlike northern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, where there was heavy snow) today December 13. But it was the wind that probably accounted for today's relative dearth of shipping activity in the harbour.

The coastal tanker Algocanada was straining at its anchor in #4 anchorage in the lower harbour.

Although there were few whitecaps to tell of high wind, the bar taught anchor chain was the giveaway as Algocanada bides its time at anchor.

 The ship arrived Thursday December 8 from Sarnia but anchored awaiting its turn at Imperial Oil. (It had to wait for the Gaia Desgagnés which arrived from Lévis, also on December 8 and sailed on December 10, and the Algoscotia which arrived December 10 from CornerBrook.

 Gaia Desgagnés, a rare visitor, sailed from Halifax with cargo for CornerBrook.

On Monday (December 12) when the Algoscotia sailed, it was Algocanada's turn at Imperial Oil, but  later the same evening it moved out to anchor again.  With the winds predicted to die down the ship is expected to move back to Imperial Oil tonight.

The only container ship in Halifax was the ZIM Luanda but high winds may have have slowed or stalled crane operations.

 Built in 2009 by Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Industry in Koje, it is a 40,030 gt, 50,697 dwt ship with a capacity of 4253 TEU. It has been a regular caller for many years on ZIM's Zim Container Atlantic (ZCA) service. It is not schduled to sail until tomorrow morning.

The only real indication of the high winds and rough conditions was a bit of splash at the bow of CCGS Jean Goodwill as it returned to its BIO base from SAR patrol.

 The ship was the only Canadian Coast Guard all weather ship available in Halifax for the past few weeks as several ships are in refit and others have been relocated to cover for them.

Noteworthy however is CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 [See December 2 post] which has moved from Irving Shipbuilding's Woodside facility to the BIO base. Whether the ship is fully commissioned yet or not is unknown, but it must be close if it has been handed over to the CCG.

After such multi-year VLE refits, the ship must be stored, equipment must be tuned and crew must be oriented - a process that could take weeks.

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