Pilot Boat follow up

In my last post I mentioned that the regular pilots are out of service and back up boats have been brought in. It now transpires that on January 16 while Scotia Pilot was approaching to board the pilot on the container ship YM Enlightenment, the boat lost power and collided with the ship. There was damage to the boat but it was able to regain power and return to base. There were no injuries to the three persons aboard the boat.

Later in the day it moved to Dominion Diving's dock in Dartmouth Cove and Fundy Pilot, which had been tied up there, was brought into service.

This morning Scotia Pilot was still at Dominion Diving, but had its engines running. Due to the extreme cold  (-10C) I could not tell if this was exhaust smoke or vapour from cooling water.

Whatever damage there might have been to the boat it must be on the port side (against the dock) and was not visible from my vantage point.

 Engine reliability is critical to safe pilot operations, so until the boat is operating reliably, it is not likely to return to service.

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Weather fallout

As predicted Sunday's storm resulted in the suspension of pilotage operations in Halifax from Sunday pm until 1500 Monday.

Some ships managed to squeeze in and out of port before conditions worsened. The container ship Paxi sailed and the bulker Salarium arrived. Thorco Liva also sailed, but continued on to Portsmouth, NH where it will eventually load cable at Newington. East Coast also sailed, and headed for Portland, ME. It must not have unloaded all its cargo here at Irving Oil and Imperial.

Scheduled arrivals put back out to sea. Maersk Penang and Algoma Integrity stood well offshore and although pilotage operations resumed at 1500 hrs today, it took the ships until 1630 and 18630 respectively to reach the pilot station. Although not listed on yesterday's arrivals, APL Detroit would normally have arrived Saturday or Sunday. It arrived at the pilot station at 1700 today.

Tropic Hope went to anchor well into St.Margaet's Bay and put off arrival until tomorrow. Since the preferred berths at Halterm are now occupied there was no point in coming in tonight and having to shift berths again tomorrow. The autocarrier Delhi Highway has also put off coming in until tomorrow.

Salarium is listed to depart tomorrow also. Since the storm moved off in a northeasterly direction, it ran the risk of catching up with it before reaching Cabot Strait. Also Algonorth will move from its standby berth at Pier 9C to Imperial Oil.

It seems that there have been many more suspensions of pilotage operations in the last six months than anyone can recall. Scientists have observed that weather is becoming more severe, and that storm events in particular are more intense. Therefore the risks to vessels and to pilots are increasing, and it is with safety in mind that these suspensions are becoming more common.

The Atlantic Pilotage Authority is also at something of a disadvantage at the moment with both its regular Halifax pilot boats out of service.

The Nova Pilot and Scotia Pilot were only acquired in the summer of 2017 and have been less than reliable. In part this is due to their water jet propulsion system, which is apparently somewhat fragile and prone to leaking. Both boats were built as pilot transfer and crew boats for use in protected waters, and may not be durable enough for the rigours of offshore pilotage.

Nova Pilot was sent to Meteghan for repairs late last year and has not yet returned. Scotia Pilot was removed from service last week and is tied up at Dominion Diving in Dartmouth. Filling in are the veterans A.P.A. No.18 (built in 1974) and Fundy Pilot (built 1983). Both were serving as backup boats elsewhere, but are now in daily service here.

The veteran APA No.18 is one of three similar boats built in the 1970s and still answering the call.

Fundy Pilot has been here since June, orginally to fill in for the Scotia Pilot. It is now in regular use  as both Nova Pilot (shown here) and Scotia Pilot are out of service.

Certainly conditions have been extreme lately, and it is unlikely that any pilot boat could have stood up to some of the recent weather. However that may be the new normal, and if so durable pilot boats will be essential to the smooth running of the port.

Waterfront walk

The downtown waterfront is a popular walk for tourists. Here is some of what they would see today (especially if they took photos with their cell phones as I did.).

The major attraction on the waterfront is the Maritime Museum of  the Atlantic. At its dock is the CCS Acadia, joined to today by Bluenose II

 While most of the Museum's artifacts are indoors, there is a collection of ironmongery outside, including a very distinctive Trotman type anchor (lower left in the photo).



At the pillot dock the boat Fundy Pilot has been called in from Saint John, NB as back up boat.  Built in 1983 by Gladding-Hearn in Somerset, MA it is a classic US style boat, and worked for Virginia Pilots and Boston Pilots before joining the APA fleet in 2005.

It will be backing up Nova Pilot while Scotia Pilot is in Lunenburg for repairs. The two boats were acquired from Sima Charters in Holland last year and have been in service here less than year. They are water jet propelled former crew boats from Rotterdam, built in 2010 and 2012.


At Bishop's Landing and Tall Ship's Quay the herring seiners that had been held in port all week by weather were getting ready to sail.

Morning Star left, Lady Melissa centre, Sealife II right. A fourth boat, Tasha Marie had already sailed when I happened by. They were finding herring about 40 miiles east of Halifax last week.

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YM's fourth and updates

The AL1 transatlantic service of THE Alliance, consisting of four ships, all belonging to Yang Ming Line, has now completed an entire cycle, with all four ships making an appearance in Halifax. The first ship, YM Essence arrived April 23, and the fourth arrived today: YM Enlightenment.

Atlantic Oak (on the stern) and Spitfire III shepherd YM Enlightenment through the Narrows.

Built in 2015 by China Shipbuilding Corp in Kaohsiung, it is a sister ship to the other three, with a 4662 TEU capacity on 47,952 grt, 56,500 DWT.  The ships normally arrive in Halifax on Sunday. It is registered in Liberia, as is YM Express. The other two, YM Evolution and YM Essence are registered in Taiwan.

Update: The barge Atlantic Sealion made its trip from Woodside to the Halifax Shipyard this morning, where a number of cradles and components for the first Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessel were unloaded at pier 8. [see also yesterday's post.]

A banner on the barge's gunwale says "Proudly Building Ships for Canada" and features the Canadian and Nova Scotia flags and the Irving Shipbuilding logo. The tug Atlantic Willow handled the move and the return later in the day to the IEL dock.

Update:  For the past week or two, we have had a "guest" pilot boat working in Halifax harbour. The Fundy Pilot. As the name suggests it is normally based in Saint John, NB, but came to Halifax initially for refit at the CME shipyard in Sambro. Once the refit was completed it took over duties from the Chebucto Pilot while it has its own refit.

Built in 1983 by the well known US pilot boat builders, Gladding-Hearn in Somerset, MA, the 17.5 kn boat is backed up by the APA No.1 dating from 1977.

Somewhat dwarfed by APA No.1 at the pilot dock, Fundy Pilot was en route to her refit when this photo was taken in March. APA No.1 takes its design origins from Gulf of Mexico crew boats, whereas Fundy Pilot is an evolutionary step in the Gladding-Hearn repertoire of scores of pilot boats.

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