Seeing the Light of Day - maybe

An early morning visit to Autoport was intended to get a view of Horizon Highway from the sunny side. Unfortunately my arrival coincided with sunrise and a blaring golden light washed out the colour of the ship from my usual vantage point. Moving to other locations didn't quite seem to capture the essence of the ship as it was partly blocked by construction equipment, Tim Horton's signs, railway tracks or McAsphalt tank trucks. But to paraphrase the adage of one of my early mentors - any picture is better than no picture / and you can always take a better picture.

Herewith the results.

Exhibit A

The land of the rising sun apparently arrived in Halifax along with the ship- even though it is registered in Panama.

Exhibit B

The "new" K-Line RoRo  / Car Carrier livery was the main reason for the visit, so I did manage to capture it despite the busy foreground.

Built in 2016 by Shin Kurushima, Onishi, the ship is a 7,539 CEU carrier of 75,036 gt, 20,586 dwt.

Another vessel that may or may not see the light of day in its entirety is the Defence Research and Development Canada-Atlantic (DRDC) barge that is normally anchored in Bedford Basin off Birch Cove.
It was recently moved to HMC Dockyard for refit, possibly with the intention of lifting it out of the water on the synchrolift.

Tucked at HMC Dockyard, with the tank cleaning barge YRG-62, the DRDC barge awaits a refit.

However I hear that the synchrolift is out of commission due to a burnt out lift motor, temporarily trapping HMCS Windsor in the sub barn and preventing Sackville from going in for finishing touches on its major refit.

The DRDC barge, believed to be YLP 451 and built at Halifax Shipyard in 1959, gets a refit every five years or so. It was last reported here in the spring of 2014 on the synchrolift. See: Shipfax 2014-05-22

Meanwhile its place in Bedford Basin is occupied by the Dockyard camel YC 600 which is illuminated at night and provides an alternate perch for the resident gull population during the refit.

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CFAV Quest, a view from the dark side

The strange bi-coloured paint scheme on CFAV Quest is still in place, but looking decidedly shabby. The ship has moved to Jetty Lima on the Dartmouth side of the harbour, at the berth recently vacated by the submarine Ojibwa.
Quest's port side was painted gray last year as part of RIMPASSE (Radar Infrared electro-Magnetic Pressure Acoustic Ship Signature Experiments) also known as Infrared Signature trials. As part of the work the ship was also rigged with removable side curtains, a hull cooling piping system, a degaussing loop, and its mast was modified. The ship is operated by the Queen's Harbour Master at HMC Dockyard, with a civilian crew, for Defence Research and Development Canada. More often associated with acoustical signature trials, DRDC participated in the NATO, German/Dutch RIMPASSE with Quest crossing the Atlantic from August to October of 2011.
Although a design has been prepared for a replacement, the 1969-built Quest will  remain in service for some time to come.
In fact there has been a major investment in the ship over the past couple of years to correct a long standing stability/safety issue. New water tight bulkheads were fitted within the ship and hull sponsons fitted toward the stern of the ship at deck level. Other equipment was removed, including oceanographic kit.

CFAV Quest 2012-06-14

The ship was built by Burrard Dry Dock in Vancouver in 1968 and commissioned in 1969 as a hydrographic research vessel (hence the white colour.) Nevertheless it has long been assigned to the RCN for operation as a research vessel. It is powered by four Fairbanks Morse diesel engines driving two GE electric motors through twin screws. It is known as a "quiet ship", used to test innovations to reduce its acoustical signature and avoid enemy detection.