Back to Normal (for now)

 Over night Tuesday - Wednesday  September 20-21, pilotage operations in Halifax were suspended due to the sea state at the harbour entrance. Swells were such that it was too dangerous to embark and disemberak pilots. Conditions improved in the early morning and as of 0500 hrs today, September 21, arrivals and departures resumed. 

This is only a temporary weather window as Hurricane Fiona makes its way in our direction. It is predicted to be a post-tropical storm by the time it passes Halifax Friday September 23 to Saturday September 24, with winds in excess of 120 kph and heavy rain forecast.

There was a great rush of ships to arrive this morning and some delayed departures as ships scrambled to get in and or get out before the second event.

Most of the arrivals made their way in before daylight. One of these was MSC Manya at Pier 42 on the Canex 1 service from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It will decant some containers here before moving on to its terminal port of Montreal. 

 Built by the Koyo Dockyard Co in Mihara, Japan, the 34,610 gt, 43,093 dwt ship has a carrying capacity of 2762 TEU including 300 reefers. Initially named OOCL Melbourne in 2003 it was renamed Taroko on 2011 and became MSC Manya on 2017.

Vacating the adjacent berth at Pier 41 was the Ultra sized CMA CGM T. Jefferson on the Ocean Alliance joint service with CMA CGM, Evergreen, and COSCO.

 CMA CGM T. Jefferson moves off the pier and into a rain shower, with the tug Atlantic Oak assisting.

A 140,872 GT, 148,992 DWT ship with a capacity of 14,414 TEU, it was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, Ulsan in 2017.

Both the above ships had been anchored off Halifax for several days. I intially thought this might have been due to the optional holiday on Monday for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, but that was not a holiday for longshore workers. Terminals were coping with cargo backlogs and were working full out to handle ships.

Ocean Alliance partner COSCO (China Ocean Shipping Company) will be making a single "unscheduled" visit to Halifax on September 28. Their 14,568 TEU size ship COSCO Shipping Himalayas will be calling at PSA Atlantic Gateway to more or lesss "test the waters" on one of their regular services to the US.With the current congestion and other isssues at US east coast ports, calling in Halifax allows lines to deliver boxes, particularly to mid-west US destinations, more quickly. The "shorter sea route / longer land route" has always been a selling point for Halifax, as trains can move those boxes faster than ships do.

Another arrival this morning was Oceanex Sanderling from St.John's. The newly refurbished ship looked neat and tidy despite the misty / rainy conditions.

Its normal Friday departure may be delayed by weather.

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MSC Fabienne and company

 Another ship on the Mediterranean Shipping Company's Turkey-Greece to US service arrived yesterday and sailed today (September 17). MSC Fabienne is a product of the Hyundai Samho shipyard, and was delivered in 2004.

The 54,744 gt, 66,694 dwt ship has a capacity of 4862 TEU. It arrived from the Mediterranean via Algeciras and Sines and sailed for New York and Port Everglades. (I do not see evidence of an exhaust gas scrubber, so the ship must be burning  low sulphur fuel - which explains the black smoke, rather than the white plume seen from scrubbers.)

 PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway was also working the ZIM Shekou today, and there were ships anchored offshore awaiting berths.

 Vistula Maersk was anchored well outside the harbour en route from Montreal. It would normally have docked on a Saturday, but is now due tomorrow (Sunday September 18). 

Also in an outer anchorage was the bulk carier Maccoa which was working cargo at PSA Halifax on Thursday (September 15). When it sailed  it gave Gaspé as its destination, but instead went to anchor. Those large objects on deck are likely wind turbine components as Gaspé has a major turbine assembly plant.

 Maccoa appears to the left in the above photo. To the right is CMA CGM T. Jefferson now due in Halifax on Tuesday, September 20. Monday has been declared a provincial holiday in Nova Scotia in recognition of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, so the ship may be awaiting a return to normal labour rates.

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Weather Woes - revised

 The month of October is usually noted for wind, but up until now this year it has seen unseasonably mild temperatures instead. However the wind has finally arrived and the last two days have been quite gusty. Those breezes resulted in rough conditions at the pilot station making it too dangerous to embark and disembark pilots. Pilotage operations were suspended at some point yesterday during the day and not resumed again until this morning. Some ships wetre thus delayed.

Among those was the general cargo ship BBC Missouri arriving from Schiedam, Netherlands and Santander, Spain. The 9,627 gt, 12,767 dwt vessel was built in 2010 by Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering Co in Taizhou, China. An open hatch, multi-purpose type it mounts a pair of 150 tonne capacity cranes than can work in tandem for a 300 tonne lift.

It was still quite windy as the ship made its way in this afternoon. The tug Atlantic Fir was working stern first and kicking up a lot of spray, but its fore deck was in the lee and dry. BBC Missouri was built in 2011 as Brattingsborg, deleivered sas OXL Rebel but renamed Brattingsborg againlater in 2011. In 2012 it became Clipper Agnes, then reverted to Brattingsborg in 2014, finally becoming BBC Missouri in 2020. 

The ship is registered in Liberia. Its owners are listed as Hono Ship Investment Inc (which is associated with Thorco Shipping A/S of Denmark), technical operators are Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd of England, commercial managers are Weco Projects APS of Denmark, but the ship is sailing as part of the German BBC Chartering fleet, whicn specializes in heavy lifts and project cargoes.

The ship tied up at Pier 27, a general cargo and open pier, but its cargo is as yet unknown (to me). Interestingly the Port of Halifax schedule still refers to to its Brattingsborg.

Things are busy at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. The tanker Acadian completed unloading yesterday then moved to anchor in Bedford Basin instead of going to sea. That left the jetty open for the French cable ship Ile d'Aix to take bunkers.

The Louis Dreyfus managed ship has been in port since October 20 fitting out for a project at IT International Telecom's marine base at Pier 9A.

I took this picture October 25:

With the Iled d'Aix occupying the berth Irving Oil's next caller, Elka Bene came into to anchor in the lower harbour.

 The 30,770 gt, 45,467 dwt tanker is a regular caller at Irving Oil, bringing refined product from Amsterdam. It was built by Brodosplit, in Split, Croatia in 2002 and is operated by European Product Carriers. The ship was built as Asirat but renamed Bene in 2002 and Elka Bene in 2004.

A number of ships hove to offshore last night, awaiting better conditions, among them was CMA CGM T. Jefferson. The 14,414 TEU ship is now due at PSA Halifax late this afternoon - docking after dusk later today oir tomorrow. Also the container ship ONE Hangzhou Bay was delayed from sailing yesterday, but was able to get away this afternoon. but will now wait until tomorrow, Otober 29. Also waiting for better condiitons is the Eimskip vessel Vivienne Sheri D. It went to Bedford Basin and anchored yesterday and may now sail overnight on its return trip to Iceland.

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CMA CGM A. Lincoln - new largest

The record for largest container ship in Halifax was last set March 21 of this year with the arrival of CMA CGM T. Jefferson.

http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2020/03/containers.html

That 14,414 TEU ship was the first of its class to call here, and today another arrived. CMA CGM A. Lincoln was also built in 2017 by Hyundai, Ulsan and (remarkably) comes in with the same grt of 140,872. It has a slightly large dwt of 148,992 dwt (compared to the Jefferson's 147,966), so I guess that makes today's ship the new record holder, all other things being equal.

CMA CGM are the owners, since 2016, of Neptune Orient Line, the Singapore based parent of APL. APL, aka American President Lines, was the name given to a new company started by the US government in 1938 when it took over the Dollar Steamship Co. A major player in the trans Pacific mail, passenger and freight business, Dollar was in serious financial trouble after the death of its founder.

Robert Dollar, born  in Scotland, came to Canada as a child, built up a sawmill business then a shipping business to sell the product in China. He purchased ships built under the US government's World War I shipbuilding program, naming them after US presidents, and eventually won the lucrative mail contracts.

American President Lines was privatized again in the early 1950s and became one of the pioneering container companies at sea and on land by its early adoption of double stack rail cars. In 1997 Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) bought the company and in 2009 moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Singapore. CMA CGM increased its share of the company to more than 90% in 2016.

I regret that circumstances beyond my control mean that there is no photo accompanying this post.

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High, Wide and .....

I will leave the decision on "handsome" to others,as a matter of judgement, but there could be no disputing the choice of the words high and wide as CMA CGM T. Jefferson sailed this morning.

Boxes were stacked nine high and eighteen wide. Fortunately PSA Halifax has a pair of long reach cranes, with another one coming this year, to handle these very wide ships. (I believe the ship was 20 boxes wide amidships)

Speaking of wide however, someone mis-judged width when re-inscribing the Canadian port of registry for Ferbec. The ship sailed this morning for Havre-St-Pierre under Canadian flag, a little earlier than last year.

Last year's crew did find the centre line when doing the same job, painting out Bridgetown (Barbados), see: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/03/ferbec-not-ready-yet.html

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