Leave taking

 Early this evening, June 17, three ships departed Halifax in short order.

First off was the MOL Experience sailing from PSA Fairview Cove on THE Alliance's AL5 service North Europe / North America from Antwerp to Port Everglades.

 Built in 2007 by Hyundai Ulsan, it is a 54,098 gt, 62,953 dwt ship with a capacity of 4803 TEU including 330 reefers. MOL ships are usually very tidy looking, but there are long rust streaks on the hull from deck drains that tell a tale of hard use.
 

Next along was the cruise ship Island Princess out of New York for Boston. This is the ship's second call this year. The first call was June 6 when it sailed for Boston, Norfolk, Charleston and New York.

Dating from 2003 when it was delivered by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, the 91,627 gt ship has a capacity of 2,214 passengers (double occupancy) and 900 crew.

Last off was the large size container ship CMA CGM Cassiopeia sailing for New York on the OCEAN Alliance route from Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) and Tanger Med, Morocco. The ship departed PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway Pier 41 and by port regulation took two tethered stern escort tugs. The ship must be about maximum size for a single superstructure. Even some smaller ships have the bridge structure well forward to improve visibility, and separated from the machinery space well aft.

A 131,332 gt, 128,550 dwt ship with a capacity of 11,200 TEU, it was built in 2011 by Hyundai Ulsan. Once well underway and outside the pilotage zone, the ship diverted to offshore anchorage where it rendez-voused with the launch Halmar. There could be any number of reasons for this meet up, but as yet I have no details.

 

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Another Box and Pax day

 May 31 was another day for containers (boxes) and passengers (pax) in the Port of Halifax.

The ultra size container ships ONE Blue Jay (see yesterday) sailed and its sister ship ONE Hawk arrived. Timing was such that both ships were not visible at the same time from my position on shore. Both ships used the main channel unexpectedly, since these large ships usually take the deeper western channel.

ONE Blue Jay outbound for New York.

 ONE Hawk inbound from Norfolk.

The ONE Hawk is returning eastbound on the EC5 service of THE Alliance.

On the much smaller size range Melfi Marine's X-Press Irazu arrived from Genoa, Barcelona, Valencia and Lisbon en route to Mariel, Cuba.

 The X-Press Irazu at Pier 42 with two of PSA's cranes at work.

The ship dates from 2007 when it was built by Guangzhou Wenchang Shipyard Co Ltd. At 18,480 gt, 23,716 dwt, it has a capacity of 1732 TEU including 379 reefers. It also carries a pair of 45 tonne capacity cranes. It has been on the Melfi service since January 2021 and has been the only ship on that run since May of that year.

 Not to be left out, PSA Fairview Cove had the NYK Demeter in from Antwerp on THE Alliance's AL5 service. It is another of the Daedalus class of 4922 TEU ships favoured on the route.

The ship sailed late this afternoon for Port Everglades.

Autoport had a ship today too, SIEM Cicero. With its swooping white upper hull paint over red lower hull, the ship looks very odd from astern. The graphic designer seems to have achieved the disruptive effect of wartime ship camouflage by making the bow look like the stern:

Siem Cicero outbound.(It is traveling left to right, and away from the camera)

SIEM Cicero took the western channnel outbound, leaving the main channel to the inbound ONE Hawk with its attendant tugs.

Siem Cicero is a regular since first arriving in Halifax July 21, 2017 on its maiden voyage. Built by Uljanik in Pula, Croatia, the 56,677 gt, 17,416 dwt ship has a capacity of about 7,000 RT. It has a 100 tonne capacity stern ramp and a 15 tonne capacity side ramp.

On the passenger side it was the Island Princess back again for its only scheduled visit of the 2023 season.

The ship is en route from Alaska to England via Iceland. It sailed from Port Everglades May 26 and is due in Reykjavik June 5 then Falmouth June 11 and Southampton June 12. The ship is offering cruises in northern Europe for the rest of the year.
 

Chantier de l'Atlantique, St-Nazaire, France, delivered the ship to Princess Cruise Line in 2003. It is a 92,822 gt ship with a capacity for 2214 passengers (double occupancy) with 900 crew.
 

Explanation

If today's photos appear a bit hazy, there is a reason.

 The duty pilot boat Capt E.T.Rogers outbound passing Pier 20 with a hazy looking Dartmouth waterfront in the background.

A large and out of control forest fire in suburban Halifax is responsible for thin smoke over the city. About 16,000 people have been evacuated and more than 200 houses have been damaged or destroyed by the fire. The wind along the waterfront was onshore for most of the day today, so the air was relatively fresh, but that could change.

A second larger fire between Shelburne and Yarmouth, which is also out of control, could also effect air quality over a large area depending on wind direction. As no significant rain is forecast for several days, there is no relief in sight.

Depending on wind direction in the coming days, I may be staying indoors as recommended. 

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Big and Bigger

 The Port of Halifax is accustomed to big ships. As noted here recently, the Seawall (Pier 20-22) was designed to accommodate the world's largest passenger liners when it was built in the first decades of the last century. I am sure no one then envisaged the end of the passenger liner era (thanks to jet aircraft) a half century later, nor the advent of the cruise industry. Now however that Seawall welcomes cruise ship of all sizes from moderate to monster, and the Cruise segment is one of the Port's major lines of business.  

Today, May 30, the Seawall handled two moderate sized cruise ships with ease. One was the familiar Zaandam, which is in port almost weekly as it conducts seven and ten day cruises from New England to the Maritimes, Quebec and Newfoundland. Built in 2000, it carries 1432 passengers with 615 crew. It tied up at Pier 20.

Arriving at Pier 22 it was Island Princess.

Dating from 2003 when it was delivered by Chantier de l'Atlantique, the 92,822 gt ship has a capacity of 2214 passengers and 900 crew. It is a member of the Coral class of Panamax ships.

Big ships calling in Halifax are not all passenger ships. Among the biggest are bulk carriers, such as today's arrival Berge Atlas.

It is a 90,197 gt, 180,180 dwt ship built in 2008 by Imabari Zosen in Saijo, Japan. Originally named BW Atlas it was built for the BW Group, the Singapore based successors to the large Norwegian Sigval Bergeson fleet. It was acquired and renamed in 2010 by Berge Bulk Maritime Pte Ltd, also of Singapore. ("Berge" was the first name of founder Sigval Bergeson's father.)

The ship anchored for Canadian Food Inspection Agency LDA moth examination, and once cleared headed for Sept-Iles. QC for another load of 130,000 tonnes of iron ore. The ship was also in Sept-Iles in April, and carried ore to Port Talbot, Wales and Amsterdam. Why it should require another examination is not known, since the moth is native to Asia. 

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New Halifax Tour Boat

A new tour boat has broken into the Halifax harbour cruises business with a novel approach. WinStar Cruise offers the usual harbour tours and charters, but also has a lobster dinner cruise, with staff speaking English and Mandarin. The large numbers of tourists (and residents) who speak Chinese has presumably sparked the plan by WinWin Atlantic Holdings Ltd, of Markham, ON, the owners of the boat to set up business here..
The other slight novelty of the operation is that it runs from Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, just steps away from the harbour ferry terminal and transit stops.

WinStar acquired the boat over the winter from Jacques Normand of Baie-St-Paul, QC, who had tried to establish tours from his own home port and from Pointe-au-Pic, QC over the past two summers, but for a variety of reasons was not able to make a go of the operation. Despite an investment of $200,000, not including purchase price, Normand cited Transport Canada regulations, lack of water depth at piers and  poor response to promotion possibilities as factors in causing him to sell off the boat.

 Working from Baie St-Paul in 2016 and...

Pointe-au-Pic in 2017.

I suspect WinWin has better chances in Halifax.

The boat itself is an interesting one, built with aluminum in 1972 by Paasch Marine Services of Erie, PA as American Adonis II for International Boat Tours Inc of Clayton, NY. It then became Island Princess and was located in Florida when found by Jacques Normand. It was then named Cabaret.com (a name Normand decided to keep) and it was a 75 day trip from Stuart, FL to bring the ship to Baie St-Paul where it was refurbished for Canadian service.

WinStar was able to put it into service with very little modification, and will operate with a passenger capacity of 120.

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