Backlog clears

With the return of reasonable weather the large backlog of arrivals and departures began to move today. Pilotage operations had been suspended for about 24 hours and many ships had opted to stay in port before that. Arrivals began to trickle in too, as ships that had stood off were able to come in. Others had simply hove to or slowed at sea to avoid arriving too early.

The long list of departures included Oceanex Sanderling and Nolhan Ava heading east to Newfoundland and St-Pierre, would normally have sailed Friday evening. The tankers Jinan, and Nor'Easter, and the container ship Catherine Schulte, and cargo ships Augusta Unity amdf Baltic Leopard. The last named was delayed loading its grain cargo due to rain and snow, and after loading all day to today is due to sail this evening. USS Wichita also sailed, having sat out the storm in comfort at HMC Dockyard.

Jinan (centre) turns for the pilot station outbound, while inbounds CMA Medea (right) and Shanghai Highway (left) are spaced out for arrival.

Similarly arrivals included autocarriers Shanghai Highway, which went directly to Autoport and Porgy to pier 31. Container ships Brevik Bridge and Atlantic Sail for Fairview Cove. CMA CGM Medea arrived for Halterm, on its scheduled time.

CMA CGM Medea appeared well loaded on arrival, with all containers apparently intact despite having come through some of the worst weather of the year.

The 107,711 grt, 113,964 dwt ship, built in 2006 by Hyundai, Samho, has a container capacity of 9,415, including 700 reefers.  It used three tugs to berth at Halterm.

There was one surprise visitor yesterday - mostly unnoticed. Since it did not require a pilot its arrival was not posted on the usual sites. The tug Strait Raven, based in Port Hawksbury [ see Tugfax 2018-10-10 ]  arrived towing the newly built cable ferry Belle Isle Belle.

Belle Isle Belle (brown and white) and the Strait Raven (cream and charcoal) at The Cove (former Coast Guard) base in Dartmouth. Note the emergency towing line (blue) strung along the side of the ferry, to be retrieved in case the main line breaks.

The ferry is Hull Number 1 for the new Océan New Brunswick shipyard in Bas-Caraquet. The $6.5mn vessel has a capacity of 15 cars and will operate on Belle Bay between Route 124 and 850. It will replace the ferry F85 which will be transferred to the seasonal Kennebecasis Island service, in turn displacing a leased craft. The name, although sounding unimaginative at first makes sense because the ferry is a doulbe ender.

The Groupe Océan shipyard, is also constructing a floating drydock to be owned by the Province of New Brunswick. That $12.5mn project is to be completed in the spring of 2019 and the dock will then be leased to Océan for 20 years with an option to buy.

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More Wind

March has lived up to its reputation as a windy month, and going into the last week, today was no exception.

CMA CGM Medea arrived for Halterm this afternoon. Normally ships on the Columbus JAX service arrive on Saturday, so weather was no doubt a factor.

The ship used three tugs to bert6h at Halterm.

 
Built in 2006 by Hyundai Samho, the 107,111 grt, 113,964 dwt ship has a capacity of 9415 TEU including 700 reefers.

Note the deck is loaded only 4 boxes high - no doubt a precaution against expected conditions in the winter North Atlantic.

 
And for Cerescrp at Fairview Cove Berlin Bridge arrived on AL6 service for THE Alliance.

Deck stacked six boxes high, the ship has much lower freeboard than the CMA CGM ship shown above. Somewhat suprosiginly for a North Atlantic winter crossing.

Bulker Atlantic Huron is loading at National Gypsum in the background. It is due to sail tonight. (It left winter layup in Montreal on March 17).

A regular caller the 4526 TEU ship is owned by Seaspan International and is on long term charter to K-Line.

The coastal tanker Damia Desgagnés made another appearance to day, its second this year, for delivery to the McAsphalt dock in Eastern Passage. When the winds picked up however it went out to anchor.

The first Canadian dual fuel ship, it can use LNG or Marine Diesel/Heavy Fuel Oil. Less than a year old, it arrived  in Canada from its Turkish builders last May. It will be joined shortly by sister tanker Mia Desgagnés which sailed from Rotterdam March 21 and is due in Montreal April 2.

Also in port the small tanker North Atlantic Kairos is back with another cargo (believed to be furnace oil ) for Wilson Fuels. It is due to sail tomorrow.

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