Eimskip adds sailings - revised

Eimskip, the Icelandic shipping company that celebrated its 100th anniversary January 14, 2014, has combined its previous Red Line and Green Line into one service, called the Green Line. Ships will now sail between Europe and North America, via Iceland, but without transshipping cargo as was the case with the two line system.
The Green Line previously operated with two ships, Skogaoss and Reykjafoss (foss means waterfall) and now adds Selfoss to the rotation. This will result in five* more sailings per year for the line.
Halifax is an east bound port of call for Eimskip, and Selfoss arrived today for the inauguration of the new Green Line.

 
 The ship was built in 1991 by Orskov Christensens in Frederikhavn, Denmark as Hanne Sif, but began trading as Maersk Tertio. It returned to is original name in 1994 and was renamed Elizabeth Delmas in 1995, Venti Di Ponente in 1996 for a time and was again renamed Hanne Sif until 1999. It has carried the name Selfoss ever since. Of 7676 grt, it has a container capacity of 724 TEU and has two 40 tonne cranes.

The port rotation for the new Green Line is a lengthy one. After leaving Halifax the ship will call in Portland, ME, Argentia, NL, St. Anthony, NL (subject to ice and cargo), Reykjavik, Isafjordur, Akureyri, Rotterdam, (some ships will call in Immingham, UK and Sortland, Norway), Reykjavik, Argentia, Halifax.

Eimskip is also a large operator of freezer warehouses in various parts of the word, and most of the cargo it handles in Halifax is refrigerated goods.

With every container berth in the harbour occupied this morning, the ship will anchor until a spot is available.

Update: The number of sailings will increase, but it now appears that it mat be much more than by 5. Another source says it will increase from 13 per year to 31. This would imply that the ships will call in Halifax both eastbound and westbound. Effectively they would thus be creating a feeder service between Halifax and Portland. The lengthy list of failed stand alone feeder services from Halifax to New England would discourage many shipping lines, but since Eimskip's ships are on the run anyway, perhaps they could make a go of it.

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Westerkade (again)

As reported previously: http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2013/10/westerkade-for-eimskip.html the Eimskip charter Westerkade is on eof tow ships on the Iceland run from Canada and the US. It visited again today, giving an opportunity to see it from a different angle, and its unusual offset superstructure.

The ship also has a a larger deckload today than on the last trip. It offloaded a number of reefer containers today, probably carrying Icelandic fish.

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Skogafoss sails

The container/cargo ship Skogafoss sailed this evening following repairs by Halifax Shipyards at the IEL dock in Dartmouth. The repairs were carried out in the water - the ship was not drydocked. Skogafoss maintains the Icelandic Steamship Company (Eimskip) service from Iceland to North America, with calls in Argentia, NL, Halifax and Boston/Everett and Norfolk.

Built in 2007 as Icebird, the ship has been Skogafoss since last July. Registered in Antigua and Barbuda, it is was built in China  and is chartered from the German company Bockstiegel. It measures 7,545 gross tons, 8210 deadweight tonnes and can carry 698 TEUS. It has also been fitted with cranes for its work with Eimskip, which often includes non-container cargo.
Repairs apprear to have concentrated around the accommodation on the port side, which is covered by a tarp in the photo.

Angelika for Eimskip

1. Angelika nears Halterm, with the tug Atlantic Oak nudged up to the starboard quarter. Note the hull sponsons, built out to give the ship the correct width to carry a full deck load of containers.

The German owned Angelika registered in Antigua and Barbuda arrived today for the Icelandic operators Eimskip.

Owned by Intersee Shiffs of Haren (Ems) Germany, it is one of nearly sixty ships in the fleet, most with women's names, ending in "a".

This one is a versatile multi-purpose vessel, built in 2004 and measuring 7769 gross tons, 10,500 deadweight. It is fitted with two 80 tonne cranes and can carry a wide variety of bulk and general cargoes or up to 675 TEU (only 421 loaded). Chief attraction for Eimskip with this ship would be the 60 reefer plugs, since much of Eimskip's export cargo is frozen fish.

See http://www.intersee.de/

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