Beat the Rush

 Like last minute shoppers, ships continued to hurry in and out of port today (December 24) as they did yesterday. Some of the ships had lost time due the recent storms and had to stand by or anchor offshore, so did not did not want to lose more time due to the imminent holiday. (Several of the ships mentioned below were also noted in yesterday's post.)

For container ships there was only one arrival, the MSC Marianna from Sines, Portugal on the westbound leg of the Turkey-Greece run. It arrived as soon as the berth was available at PSA Atlantic Gateway.

Built in 2002 by Hyundai Ulsan, it is a 73,819 gt, 85,506 dwt ship with a capacity of 6730 TEU including 400 reefers. The ship is expected to remain idle on Christmas Day, with work resuming Tuesday December 26. It is rare, but not unheard of, for a ship to remain in port over the holiday. 

There were several container ship departures:

ONE Eagle got underway from pier 41 on THE Alliance's EC5 service, eastbound for Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates, with an ETA of January 19. The ship was built by Japan Marine United in Kure in 2016 as NYK Eagle and adopted the Ocean Network Express (ONE) name and colour scheme in 2019. It is a 145,251 gt, 139,335 dwt ship with a capacity of 14,026 TEU. As for cargo it appeared to be maxed out by volume if not by tonnage. Based in the ETA the ship will use the Suez Canal route and will therefore transit the Red Sea. It would take considerably longer than 26 rays if routed via rhe Cape of Good Hope. If events overtake the ship before it reaches the Suez Canal it could still be diverted.

Lagarfoss also got underway from the adjoining berth Pier 42. The ship is headed for Reykjavik on Eimskip's Green Line service from Portland, ME.

The 880 TEU capacity ship of 10,119 gt, 11,811 dwt was built by Rongcheng Shenfei Shipbuilding Co in 2014. It is fitted with two cargo cranes.
 

Navios Indigo also sailed for ZIM but the feeder Annie B (see previous posts) did not sail, but instead went to anchor in Bedford Basin where it is expected to remain until December 26. NYK Rigel also sailed from PSA Fairview Cove.

The bulker Baie St. Paul departed Gold Bond Gypsum for Côte Ste-Catherine, QC. The port is located on the South Shore Canal segment of the St.Lawrence Seaway west of St.Lambert, location of the Seaway entry locks.

The Seaway will be closing on January 5, so the ship has time to reach the port and unload. It may also exit the Seaway and continue trading before going into winter layup.

Also sailing was the heavy load ship GPO Sapphire. After unloading its cargo of wind turbine towers it is returning to Rostock, Germany for more.

Sister ship and fleet mate GPO Grace remains alongside at Woodside with more towers, wating for the return of the installation ship Orion which sailed overnight December 22-23.

Also sailing today was the general cargo ship Ayita after unloading is cargo of rails from Poland.

 The Ayita arrived December 16 [see post] and is now headed for Grande-Anse, QC, presumably for an export cargo, which could be lumber, paper or aluminium ingots.

There was also activity at the tanker berths. Irving Oil's East Coast arrived on its usual round from Saint John and tied up at the company's Woodside terminal.

As the East Coast made its way inbound there was an interesting sidelong view of the container ship CMA CGM T. Jefferson at the outer anchorages. It is not often that the spaces between the containers are so distinctly visible.

Also lingering offshore is the Algoma Integrity waiting to load gypsum. Gold Bond is probably shut down for a few days.

Another tanker, Kivalliq W. sailed from Imperial Oil's number 3 dock. It had been holding offshore due to swells at the oil dock and finally got in on Friday, December 22. The much travelled ship was recently reported in Goose Bay November 18-20, Nain November 24-27, Goose Bay December 3-4, Montreal December 8 then upbound in the Seaway December 9. After loading in Sarnia December 12-14, it was downbound again December 16.

The ship has an interesting history. It was laid down in 1999 and launched in 2000 but not completed until 2004 at the Binjiang Shipyard in Yangzhou. The 8,882 gt, 13,670 dwt ship was delivered as the Falcon and in 2009 was renamed Sten Fjord for Swedish owners. Coastal Shipping Ltd of Happy Valley Goose Bay NL acquired the ship in 2015, but did not rename it until 2018. In summer it serves northern ports, but every year since 2016 it has been flagged out from January to May or June to trade internationally.

With Kivalliq W.'s sailing Algocanada was finally able to go alongside number 3 dock. The reason that Kivalliq W. "jumped the queue" was probably because it is headed back to the Lakes, to Nanticoke this time, and in order to load and exit the Seaway before closing, it needed to get underway as soon as possible.

Last, but not least, is the ConRo business. Namely Oceanex Sanderling which finally moved from anchorage to PSA Fairview Cove last night, and did not sail today so will be in port for Christmas.

One other ConRo ship was in port today, but was not carrying any containers. Instead it had RoRo cargo for Autoport. Grande Luanda is an unusual ship for transatlantic car carrying as it was built for Container / RoRo / General cargo service between Europe and Africa. It not only has a pair of 40 tonne SWL cranes it also carries grabs for bulk cargo. With the current high demand for autocarriers in Asia, it seems to have been pressed into service on this route as many of the high capacity ships have gone east. Recent calls have been Southampton Dec 6-8, Antwerp December 8-10, Vigo, Spain December 15-16. It is now due in Veracruz, Mexico December 30.

 

Dating from 2015, the 71,543 gt, 32,346 dwt Grande Luanda was built by Hyundai Mipo in Ulsan. 

Also very unusual for a transatlantic car carrier it has vehicles stowed on the open deck. I imagine they had a pretty good bath in the recent weather, but will need a freshwater encore when they reach port.

They appear to be Ford Transit cargo vans and passenger vans.(Note the cargo grab stowed along the ship's rail.)

Conclusion:

So far there is no scheduled traffic in the harbour tomorrow, Christmas Day, so there will likely not be any Shipfax post. In that case I wish all readers and loyal followers a Merry Christmas. 

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Other Port Activity

 The arrival of two Super Postpanamax cranes [see previous post] was not the only large scale activity in the Port of Halifax today, November 6. Across the harbour at the IEL wharf in Woodside the heavy lift crane ship Orion was completing another load out of offshore wind towers.

The Orion returned to Halifax yesterday from the Vineyard wind project off Massachusetts where it had been installing the previous load of monopiles and transition pieces.

 Orion arriving as seen from the Halifax Central Library.

Two heavy lift ships, GPO Grace and GPO Sapphire have been waiting offshore and in Halifax to transfer tower sections to the Orion.

GPO Grace at anchor,

(See HMCS Oriole in right background.)

The Orion uses its 5,000 tonne SWL crane to transfer the sections from GPO Sapphire.

GPO Grace after unloading, returned to anchor.

Once loading is completed this evening, Orion will be sailing to the Vineyard site and GPO Grace will move back alongside the IEL dock for bunkers.

GPO Sapphire (October 26 photo) will also be sailing this evening. It has been in Halifax since October 21.It had previously transferred some of its cargo to the Orion.

 

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Post, post tropical storm

 The storm system that was Hurricane Philippe but gradually diminished in intensity as it worked its way north from the Caribbean, finally crossed Nova Scotia overnight Saturday - Sunday, October 7-8. It was a post tropical cyclone at that point with a few significant gusts, but mostly high winds and heavy rain. It appears to have had little effect on Halifax, except to disrupt some schedules and create some extra work in battening down. By late morning Sunday the rain had stopped, the wind died off and the skies were clear.

Even so, sea conditions outside the harbour were still sufficiently rough that pilotage operations were suspended during the day (October 8) until after 1800 hrs ADT. I did not venture out along the  coast to see the surf, but from town I could see large swells crashing onto the Maugher's Beach Lighthouse breakwater.

Conditions inside the harbour were quite decent in the morning, allowing the cruise ship Star Pride (see yesterday's post) to move from its anchorage in Bedford Basin to Pier 20. It did take the precaution of having the assistance of the tug Atlantic Oak. The ship tied up bows south - an unusual arrangement at Pier 20, but one which will allow the ship to sail directly to sea without having to turn.(Arriving cruise ships generally dock bows north.)

The large "Yokohama" type fenders, placed along the pier face during cruise season, should protect the ship if there is any residual swell in the harbour.

The other cruise ship in port, Seabourn Quest, seems to have made out all right at Pier 23 as did the heavy cargo carrier GPO Emerald which spent the night at Number One anchorage in the lower harbour. (It needed the extra room provided by that position in case it did drag. Equipped with all kinds of thrusters and DP (Dynamic Positioning), it could probably hold position.) Number One anchorage is normally reserved for short term use, so it seems likely that the GPO Emerald will move up the harbour later. Fleet mate GPO Sapphire has been anchored in Chedabucto Bay since mid-September when it went to shelter from post tropical cyclone Lee.  It also has a full load of monopiles to discharge.

 The crane ship Orion remained alongside at the IEL dock in Woodside last night, and seems to have completed loading as many monopiles as it can handle.

The only other commercial ship in the harbour over night - the Augusta Luna at pier 27 - was working today when I went by in mid-afternoon, off loading bagged nickel sulfides from Cuba. It is scheduled to sail mid-day tomorrow.

The pilot boat went out toward the pilot station at 1800 hrs to observe conditions and it was determined to be safe to disembark pilots. Star Pride, Seaborn Quest and Orion then all established sailing times between 1900 and 2000 hrs.

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, 1900 hrs to 2000 hrs (regrettably after dark). Star Pride, Seaborn Quest and Oiron will all be sailing this evening.

Lee update

 Although there was coastal flooding and shore erosion due to the storm surge, Post Tropical storm Lee did not create the widespread damage to boats and harbours that last year's Hurrucane Fiona did. That is not to belittle the impact of the storm - it was severe - but perhaps it was as much due to wise precautions as to the somewhat less powerful distrurbance.

As previously noted ships vacated Halifax harbour and went well offshore to the east as the storm tracked across mainland Nova Scotia on Septmber 16. For instance the container ship ZIM Iberia which cleared Halifax on Friday September 15 and was destined for New York, instead headed northeasterly and was spotted on AIS well offshore. Similarly the cruise ship Zaandam which sailed on the 15th got ahead of the storm and made for CornerBrook, NL after a day or more at sea.

The heavy load ship GPO Sapphire, which had been anchored off Halifax made for the shelter of Chedabucto Bay. It likely did not anchor because with its Dynamic Positioning capability, it was able to keep station. The huge windage of its deck load of six wind turbine tower components could have put unbearable strain on conventional anchors and chain.

GPO Sapphire anchored off Halifax on September 13.

Speaking of anchors however, the stress was too much for one of those red white and blue navy trot buoys off Macnab's Cove (on the right and left of the photo above.) It and a green navigation buoy were spotted adrift in the harbour, but were later coralled by tugs.

Coastal tankers sought shelter too with Acadian off Lismore and Big Island to the eastern of the Northumberland Strait. (It was bound for Charlottetown.)

Algoscotia and Mia Desgagnés were in St.Ann's Bay (northeast coast of Cape Breton) and not far away the cruise ship Norwegian Joy (which had been due in Halifax September 17) stood by off Wreck Cove (an inauspicious name under the circumstances.)

That made today (Monday, September 18) a double header Norwegian day in Halifax with both Norwegian Joy and Norwegian Pearl in at the same time. They were joined by the Pearl Mist which must have had a rough time of it en route from Portland, ME.

 Wind gusts of 117 kph (72 miles per hour) were recorded at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport (well inland) and there were power outages all over NovA Scotia and New Brunswick. Ship Centreal Eastern (- the home of Shipfax) was without electricity for 28 hours from roughly 0715 hrs ADT Saturday, September 16 to 1100 hrs Sunday, September 17.

The storm was well passed by Sunday, Septemeber 17, but the only commercial activity in the harbour was the arrival and departure of the EM Kea on the Maersk / CMA CGM St-Laurent 1 service. It would normally have been here on Saturday en route from Montreal to Bremerhavem but can quite likely make up the time on the long transatlantic leg.

By today harbour activity had returned to normal (ferry service had been suspended on Saturday for example) with comings and goings at both container terminals. 

CMA CGM Mexico (15,000 plus TEU) made its call (westbound from Tanger Med) at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, along with Tropic Hope...

 ... and Atlantic Sky at PSA Fairview Cove (west bound en route for New York).

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Much ado #2 - the wind

 The second post outlining the busy action in Halifax harbour today, August 2, involves the ships working on the Vineyard Wind project. Halifax is the staging port for the project off the Massachusetts coast. The wind towers arrive in sections on heavy cargo ships and are then transferred to the installation ship. Today saw the departure of the GPO Sapphire (very early in the morning) after transferring its cargo of six towers to the Orion using the Orion's 5,000 tonne crane. [see previous posts]. The GPO Sapphire gave Rostock, Germany for destination.

Late in the morning the Orion sailed from the IEL dock in Woodside for the offshore construction site where it will assemble and place the towers.

That leaves the second heavy cargo ship GPO Grace at anchor with the components for six more towers. Presumably it will have to wait for the return of the Orion to off load. That may be up to a month depending on weather and mechanical issues at the Vineyard site. The GPO Grace arrived July 5 from Aviles, Spain.

 Once the Orion was clear, the heavy lift ship Pijlgracht moved from anchorage in Bedford Basin to the IEL dock. The Pijlgracht initially arrived July 25 [see updated post] at Pier 9C and unloaded a sonar array for the RCN. It then went to anchor on July 26.

I will keep an eye on the IEL dock to see what the ship will be unloading there. As previously reported it has two 700 tonne capacity cranes that can work in tandem for a 1400 tonne lift.

to be continued...

Wind Power

 Despite advances in power generation, the wind is still popular. Today (July 31) as the offshore installation vessel Orion using its 5,000 tonne crane lifts a wind turbine base component from the heavy lift ship GPO Sapphire, there was a pleasant breeze filling the sails of a few craft in the harbour.

The harbour tour boat Silva of Halifax, a three masted schooner built in 1939 in Sweden, and an unidentified pleasure craft (sail # 51257) draw close for a look at the activity.

Meanwhile the cruise ship Caribbbean Princess called in tug assistance from the Atlantic Fir to depart from Pier 22.

 Cruise ships rarely use tugs because they have multiple thrusters and are thus highly maneuverable (and they like to avoid scuff marks on their while hulls.) However this time the ship needed to do a 360 degree turn off the dock. Because of the Orion and GPO Sapphire activity across the harbour (see above) there was not room to go north about George's Island. Also the autocarrier Sunshine Ace (not pictured) was outbound from Autoport and so the cruise ship could not back out into number one anchorage and turn without blocking its course. The light breeze was likely not much of a factor in this case, but cruise ships are subject to windage and must be handled accordingly.

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Seeing Double

 It is not uncommon to see sister ships in the harbour, but the arrival on July 5 of GPO Grace was a rare opportunity to see two of the largest heavy load ships at the same time.

 This is the second visit of the GPO Grace. It was also here May 13-29 carrying components for offshore wind turbines. As it arrived this time it passed sister ship GPO Sapphire which has been alongside at the IEL dock since June 15.

Both ships are now waiting for the return of the offshore installation ship Orion from the Vineyard Wind site off the Massachusetts coast. It will use its 5,000 tonne capacity crane and other equipment to transfer the turbine components then return to the project site for placement and assembly.

GPO Grace was built in 2017 and is rated at 49,991 gt, 63,581 dwt. GPO Sapphire has the same tonnages but was built in 2019. Both ships, and two more identical sisters, GPO Amethyst  and GPO Emerald were built by CSBC Corp, Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 2018 and 2021 respectively.

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Odds and Ends

 Today, June 15, was one of those days when Halifax Harbour was the scene of a great variety of shipping activity. There seemed to something happening in almost every sector.

A visitor to number one anchorage represented the bulk carrier category. Danae arrived for clearance from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency before proceeding on to La Baie, QC. The ship is carrying bauxite, loaded at the west African port of Kamsar, Guinea, the world's leading bauxite exporter. Due to limits on the size of ships than can load there a whole class of bulk carriers are named "Kamsarmax". With a maximum length of 229m, ships of the class are also sized to navigate the Panama Canal, so are limited to 80,000 to 85,000 tonnes deadweight.

 Built in 2012 by Penglai Zhonghai Jinglu, in Penglai, China Danae is a gearless bulker of 44,060 gt, 80,989 dwt. The ship arrived during the late evening June 14 and sailed late morning today. It is destined for Rio Tinto Alcan's unloading facility in Port Alfred. Its cargo will feed the giant aluminum production complex in the Saguenay region.

Intermittent fog during the day did not seem to delay shipping to any degree, but some ships did perhaps sneek in or out more or less invisibly. The Kingston class HMCS Moncton wearing its commemorative disruptive paint scheme, was one of them. The camouflage was applied to the vessel as a tribute to vessels that served during World War II's Battle of the Atlantic.

The fog partly concealed the tanker Acadian at anchor. It is due to move alongside Irving Oil's Woodside terminal this evening.

The fog was thicker in a seaward direction, but as it lifted it also revealed container ship activity at PSA Halifax. The MSC Nuria remained hidden at Pier 42, but the ZIM Luanda could be seen at Pier 42, even if the tops of idle cranes were not.

 

The 40,030 gt, 50,697 dwt ship dating from 2009 has a capacity of 4253 TEU. Samsumg Shipbuilding + Heavy Industry Co Ltd built the ship at its Koje (now khown as Geoje) shipyard. The ship is a long time regular caller on the ZIM Container Atlantic (ZCA) route.

There was only one herring seiner in Halifax today. The Morning Star arrived in mid-morning and sailed at noon time after unloading its catch to tank trucks. (The gull escorts accompanied the boat in from sea).

The difference in size between the Danae and Morning Star presented quite a contrast.

Autoport received an unsual vessel, the Grande Togo one of about 27 Container / RoRo's operated by the Grimaldi Group. (Grimaldi also owns the Atlantic Container Line, which has five more ConRos.) The ships of this increasingly rare type usually operate between Europe and Africa, where they can handle a wide variety of cargo at all kinds of ports. Grimaldi is one of the last operators of ConRos of any substantial number. Its presence on a transatlantic run is certainly an "one of".

Built in 2011 by Uljanik Shipyard in Pula, Croatia, it is a 47,232 gt, 26,650 dwt ship with a capacity of 1318 TEU and 3037 cars. It is equipped with two cranes (probably of 40 tonne SWL capacity).

Of note are the truck cab/chassis units stowed on the open deck. It must be the first time in many years that vehicles have been seen here in the clear like this. There is some evidence of protective panels on the front grillles of some of the cabs, but they must have taken at bit of a saltwater shower en route. The ship is not taking the usual transatlantic route. Although it loaded in Antwerp, Jun 3-6, it also called on Vigo, Spain June 8-9 before embarking on its transatlantic voyage.

Another consignment of wind farm pylons arrived this afternoon on the GPO Sapphire. The ship is a fleet mate of GPO Grace which delivered a similar cargo in May.

GPO Sapphire was built by CSBC Taiwan Corp in Kaohsiung in 2019. Measuring 49,091 gt and 63,581 dwt, it is a semi-submersible specialist heavy load carrier, one of four sister ships in the GPO Heavylift fleet.

The six pylons, including pilings, bases and towers will be assembled and transferred to the installation vessel Orion at the IEL pier in Dartmouth. The Orion is currently installing the first six units in the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts.

 

There is one more type of vessel, not covered in the above "catalog" and that is pleasure craft. While Halifax is home to scores of small craft, from PWCs on up (see yesterday's post), it is also a way point for larger vessels en route to and from the various pleasure ports of the world. Two such "boats" are in port now, and are perhaps worthy of mention.

Epiphany (with the "i" given as "!") is a 132 gt motor sailer built in 2003 in New Zealand. It previously carried the names Nephele and Ipanema. The 34m x 8m aluminum hulled craft can accommodate six guests and five crew (in 3 cabins). It arrived from Newport June 12. Its mast is visible from blocks away.

 On the other side of the pier, the motor yacht Vive la Vie provides something of a contrast. It is a 60 m long miniature ship of 1277 gt, built in 2009. Its more spacious hull can cater to 12 guests in six cabins and has eight double berth cabins for crew. It arrived from Gibraltar June 13.

These two craft are tied up at a new timber pier built on the site of the old Foundation dock, which to my mind was a lot more interesting when it was home to the tugs of Foundation Maritime and later Eastern Canada Towing. It was a little less pedestrian friendly however.

There are nine tugs tied up at the Ectug pier in this 1977 (ca. May 1) photo.

(One tug is hidden behind the cook house / dispatch office with only its mast showing.) 

The tugs are from the left:

1, 2 (hidden) and 5: three of the same class Point Vim, Vigour, and Viking; 

3: Point Valiant; 4:Point Vibert; 6: Point Valour, 7 and 8: Point Gilbert and/or/and Point James 

and 9: either Point Carroll or Point Spencer

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