Thursday's report

Halterm was running efficiently this morning with one ship leaving and another arriving right on its tail. The Icelandic Steamship Co (Eimskip) had their regular caller Skogafoss in this morning for a short stay on its westbound trip. It sailed at 1130 hrs.

On sailing Skogafoss has some CMA CGM boxes on deck on for its New England feeder service.

The inbound Jennifer Schepers timed its arrival to take the berth just vacated by Skogafoss.

Skogafoss and EF Ava are the two ships servicing Eimskip at the moment. However a third ship, Lomur is to join the rotation in February. Last year the line increased it to three ships to provide a weekly service to and from Iceland  and a New England feeder from Halifax for CMA CGM.

Skogafoss is a chartered vessel and has been calling here since 2011. Last March 9 its charter was extended for a year, but there has been no word yet on another extension. Built in 2007 by Sainty Shipbuilding in Yangzhou, the 7545 gt, 8210 dwt ship sailed as Ice Bird until 2011 when it took up the Eimskip charter, (Briese Schiffahrts are managers.) Fitted with a pair of 60 tonne cranes, the ship has a capacity of 698 TEU, however that goes down to 425 if they are all loaded to 14 tonnes.

As soon as Skogafoss had passed Jennifer Schepers turned for Halterm. The RCN kindly provided an escort. 

 Jennifer Schepers is also a feeder container ship, serving ZIM with service to New York and Kingston Jamaica.

It is a 21,108 gt, 25,775 dwt ship with a capacity of 1795 TEU (including 319 reefers0 and has two 40 tonne cranes. Taizhou Kouan Shipbuilding Co built the ship in 2009 as Mistral Strait, but it was renamed BF Copacabana on delivery, taking its current name in 2016. 

At the other end of the harbour things were more quiet. There were no ships at Fairview Cove, and in Bedford Basin two ships sat at anchor. Onego Rio has been there since January 14 after unloading rails at pier 27. Tomorrow it is due to move to pier 28 - reason not yet known - it is not scheduled to load or unload.

The other Basin resident is the impressive Super Ice tanker Gotland Carolina I am always impressed by these ships. Even though they are the same size (29,283 gt, 53,160 dwt) as most product tankers, they look bigger. Perhaps it is the large superstructure and full width bridge.

The ship was built by Guangzhou International in 2006 and is one of several ships of its class managed by Hafnia of Denmark. A company founded in 2010 by former Torm executives, on January 10, its shareholders agreed to merge with BW Tankers. Hafnia's 37 tankers added to BW's 50 plus will give a sizeable fleet. [ Look back to December 27 for more on BW Tankers.]

Gotland Carolina has also just taken up a new two year charter with Clearlake (the world's largest tanker charterers)  at a rate of $US 12,200 per day. For that kind of money I wouldn't expect the ship to be sitting too long before its next asssignment. Its last port was Paulsboro, NJ, in the Philadelphia chemical region, and it has been in Halifax three or four times in recent years, and is well known on the St.Lawrence River in winter.

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Tanker Activity

After a fairly quiet period, there is tanker activity in Halifax again.

 A string of auto racks line a siding that runs through Imperial Oil and ends up at Autoport.

(February 11 photo)

Yesterday Petalouda arrived at Imperial Oil dock 3. The 26,913 grt, 47,322 dwt ship was built in 2008 by Onomichi Zosen and flies the Bahamas flag for Samos Steamship Co of Athens.

BW Cougar in Bedford Basin.

(February 6 photo)

 The BW Cougar, which arrived February 4 and was sitting at anchor in Bedford Basin moved to number 4 oil dock this morning. It was built in 2014 as Eleanora Cougar by SPP Shipbuilding Co of Goseong, South Korea. It measures 29,737 grt, 49,999 dwt and is owned by BW Group Ltd of Bermuda, but flies the Singapore flag.

Four tankers in one photo, with Gotland Carolina in the middle, and Algoma Dartmouth alongside.

Then later this morning the Gotland Carolina arrived in ballast and anchored at number one anchorage in the lower harbour for bunkers. The 29,283 grt, 53,160 dwt ship dates from 2006 when it was completed by Guangzhou International in China. It is also Bahamas flag for Hafnia Management of Hellerup, Denmark. It has called in Halifax several times and is also a frequent winter visitor to Montreal and Quebec.
It was here January 7, 2015  also for bunkers, but was fully loaded, and November 20-22, 2015 at Imperial Oil.


It has also been a quiet time for the bunkering tanker Algoma Dartmouth which had not strayed from its base at pier 34 for weeks.

Two tankers and not much else but the Louis

It was a wet and windy day in Halifax with very little harbour avctivity. During a brief lull in the weather I was able squeeze of a couple of shots of tankers at Imperial Oil.

Gotland Carolina was at number 4 dock.

With four beefy headlines out due to high wind, Gotland Carolina is well secured at number 4 dock Imperial Oil.

Built at Guangzhou International Shipyard in China in 2006, the 29,203 grt, 53,160 dwt ship is built for winter navigation, and was last here January 7, 2015 with a a light coating of frozen spray. Hafnia Ship Management of Hellerup Denmark operates the ship. On this trip it arrived November 20 and is due to sail early tomorrow morning.

The Panama flag tanker High Strength arrived at number 3 dock yesterday.

High Strength also has its lines out too, but they are not as visible in the misty air.

A more typical looking handysize tanker of 28,231 grt, 46,592 dwt, it appears to be more suited to tropical conditions and even has awning frames on its bridge wings. Unlike most of the handysizes we see, this one was built in Japan, by Naiki Shipyard in Setoda and even more unusual it is owned by DM Shipping Ltd of Dublin, Ireland, but is managed by Ishima Pte Ltd of Singapore.


Also in port CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent arrived at the Bedford Institute from the North Pole. Both CCGS Terry Fox and the Louis visited that spot this summer, and is making a fairly late return south.

The original, unrebuilt CGS Louis S. St-Laurent in the graving dock at Halifax Shipyard in 1970.

Argentia, NL  is supposedly the base for the Louis but she fits in better here. Lets hope the new government, which has vowed to fix the Coast Guard, with its own minister in cabinet, erases this fiction of St.John's bring a better base for CG icebreakers.(Maybe they'll get the red funnel band back too.)
Too bad the shipyard has no capability of drydocking the ship anymore, since the graving dock is tied up full time with FELEX refits and the floating docks are gone.

Sailing from Halifax in January 2014. The ship is here almost as much as if it was based here anyway.

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Gotland Carolina - for bunkers

The Super Ice tanker Gotland Carolina arrived this afternoon for bunkers. The ship is of typical handy tanker dimensions, but is built to a high ice class spec, not found in the usual Korean mass produced tankers. Built in 2006, it came from Guangzhen International shipyard in Guanzhen, China, measuring 29,283 grt, 53,160 dwt.

Showing some frozen spray forward, Gotland Carolina steams inbound this afternoon. Note the anchors are clear of ice. The ship timed its arrival to allow the unwieldy tow to clear port.

The ship is a regular winter visitor to the St.Lawrence River, as far west as Montreal. On this trip, it was in Montreal on December 27 and arrived at the Valéro refinery in Lévis December 31. It took on a cargo of ultra-low sulphur diesel fuel for the US, but strangely did not take bunkers in either of those ports, instead, coming to Halifax for fuel. Of course the fuel it took on today was refined in the US and shipped here from Houston - go figure.
Gotand Carolina is operated by Hafnina Management of Hellerup, Denmark and flies the Bahamas flag. As with the other Super Ice tankers, it features a penguin painted on its superstructure.  Interestingly, the ship's crew when in radio communication, pronounced the ships name as CARE-O-LEE'-NA. This would indicate to me that it is not named for either of the two US states, but named with a female first name.

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