Fundy Rose sailing today, but....

The "new" Digby to Saint John ferry Fundy Rose sailed from Halifax for Saint John this afternoon, but there is no word on when the ship will actually enter service. Bay Ferries have stated that there will be at least a week of trials in both ports as well as crew orientation and training before the ship could replace the venerable Princess of Acadia.

Fundy Rose took off from pier 9B like a race horse this afternoon.

The replacement process was initially delayed when the former Blue Star Ithaki was not available in the fall of 2014. It finally did arrive in Halifax on December 5, 2014 as Canada 2014 and was idle for a time until the refit actually began. Since then it was been a beehive of activity up to the time of its sea trials. I assume that work was being conducted under the direction of the federal government - actual owners of the ship. At some point after the sea trials June 9 and 10 it was handed over the Bay Ferries for their own work and that has involved a smaller number of workers. The estimate of the refit time was correct, but it started too late to hit the peak tourist season, which is right now.

Absolutely spotless in appearance the ship made for sea.

 

When the ferry enters service, perhaps later this month, there will still be the issue of whether it can handle the expected truck traffic during the busy fishing season in southwest Nova Scotia. The Princess of Acadia can handle 21 trucks, but the Fundy Rose can only handle 14. Although the operators have promised extra trips to meet demand, it is more a question of timing since fish products must arrive in the Boston market at a specific time. All that aside it will be good to see the handsome ship in operation.

What the future holds for the Princess of Acadia has not been announced, but expect to see it laid up for a time before it is sold for scrap.

Weekend Roundup

Work continues seven days a week to prepare Canada 2014 for its service between Digby ands Saint John.

The ship's old name, Blue Star Ithaki has been burned off the bow and stern, at least on the shore side. Let's hope something at least as stylish and appropriate replaces the temporary name.

Please be seated. A trailer load of old seats - headed for the dump? or to be recovered?

Work has resumed on the Harefield's ice damaged rudder. There was no activity for a couple of weeks while new components were fabricated.

Fusion sailed on Friday as usual, but has been advertised for sale.
http://commercial.apolloduck.com/feature.phtml?id=410506
Work on replacement Nolhavna continues at pier 34. Perhaps this week will see Fusion's last call.

Iroquois at Jetty NB Sunday morning. The former HMCS Iroquois was paid off with great pomp and ceremony Friday.

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Saturday roundup - avant le déluge

The early bird was rewarded today as another heavy snow fall began late morning blotting out the view.
CCGS Cape Roger arrived last evening and anchored until this morning when it moved to Imperial Oil to refuel. The ship is on Search and Rescue standby along the South Shore of Nova Scotia.

Also in this week is CCGS Alfred Needler at BIO. Both ship are based in Newfoundland, but are often displaced in winter and spring by ice, and exchange places with Halifax based ships.
 

One visitor this week that I failed to post was CCGS Terry Fox, in for refueling March 25. We have now seen the entire east coast icebreaker fleet this spring - so much for the wisdom of moving them to Newfoundland.

Bow doors open, ramp being lowered on hydraulic pistons.

Bow ramp in lowered position appears very narrow and of a very low weight capacity compared to the stern ramp.     [ Say  AAAAH!]

At pier 9A work on the ferry Canada 2014 is, if you will pardon the expression, "ramping up". This morning workers had both the bow and stern doors open for work.

The stern ramp, with a red painted pedestrian pathway. A temporary partition has been built inside the car deck to retain heat during the refit process. After this photo a mobile crane came along to take the weight of the ramp for work on the bearing.

The ship is expected to enter service between Digby, NS and Saint John, NB, sometime this summer.


See Tugfax for the tug Lois M and barge Nunavut Spirit at pier 9B.


At pier 9C Harefield is still tied up for repairs.

Work continues on the rudder using a raft and various tackles to take the weight off the pintle.

In Bedford Basin the Torm Rosetta lies at anchor until it is time to go alongside Imperial Oil Another handysize tanker product tanker, it was built in 2003 by Onomichi Dockyard in Japan as Rosetta for OMI. It was acquired by Torm A/S in 2008. The ship measures 28,567 grt, 47,038 dwt and is enrolled under the Danish International register. (Denmark and Norway, among others have offshore registers which have different regulations from their national registers, as to foreign crewing, taxes, etc.,)

At anchor the tanker Sloman Hermes will be sailing this afternoon for the St.Lawrence. It has been awaiting the opening of the St.Lawrence Seaway, which has been postponed from March 25  27 to April 5 2 due to ice. Rather than anchoring in ice off the Escoumins pilot station or farther upriver, the ship opted for the comforts of Halifax harbour. An ice adviser boarded the ship late in the morning from the launch Halmar.

Autoport is still struggling with frozen in cars - thousands are still in ice up to their hubcaps, but it appears that more recent arrivals are still being processed, as the trains keep rolling out every days with a dozen or more autoracks full of imports. [In the photo of Terry Fox above, there is a string of autorack cars waiting in a siding.] Recent arrivals are leapfrogging ahead of the January and February arrivals which are waiting for natural melting to free them.

Today Mermaid Ace made a morning visit. It was built in 2010 by Minami- Nippon in Usuki, Japan, measuring 58,939 grt, 18,828 dwt, with a capacity of 5,219 cars. It is owned by Masumoto Shipping Co Ltd under the Panama flag, on charter to MOL (Mitsui OSK Lines).

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more Canada 2014

Now alongside at pier 9A Canada 2014 is ready for work to begin ion its refit. The ship is certainly not new, and looks ready for some TLC, but looks like a very fine vessel.

 Just to the right of the fence, and below the ship;s bridge, is a small hydraulic gangway which allows pedestrian access while the ship is alongside.Note the storm shields over the ventilation louvers below the bridge. The  ship's bow door is closed and sealed.

A generous sheltered passenger deck looks more suitable for tropical climes, where protection from the sun is more important. There also seem to be a separate stern ramps for vehicles and pedestrians. The rectangular shapes on the sides of the hull are for evacuation chutes and rafts. 

Since most of the refit work will be internal, there may be very little to see during the next few months as work progresses.

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Canada 2014 arrives

The ferry that will take over the Digby, NS to Saint John, NB ferry service next year arrived at first light this morning. Its first stop in Canada was in Saint John, NB on Tuesday, when it passed the outbound Princess of Acadia, which it will replace. After a brief goodwill visit to its new homeport, and a political photo op, it sailed for Digby to do a docking trial then on to Halifax.

It berthed at pier 9A where it will undergo a major refit before it is ready for service in the spring.

Renamed Canada 2014 and registered in Ottawa (it is owned by the Minister of Transport) it is the former Blue Star Ithaki, a name which still appears on the ship's hull, but has been painted over.

Let us hope that "Canada 2014" will also be painted over soon, and the ship will be given a proper ship's name, befitting is importance to  both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

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