All in a (Sun)day's work.

There were four ships occupying berths in the deepwater general cargo piers today. At pier 24 the small cruise ship Victory II (ex Cape Cod Light) arrived yesterday to mark the end of another season of St.Lawrence River and Great Lakes cruising. With sister ship Victory I (ex Cape May Light), Victory Cruise Lines seems to have found the formula for operating a pair of ships that at one time seemed to be unemployable. Due to the cramped location and extra vigilant security I did not attempt a photo.

At pier 28 the container and general cargo ship Augusta Sun was positioned at the grain spouts and the dryers were working at the grain elevator, but the ship did not appear to be loading today. The Nirint ship, on its return from Cuba, completed unloading its nickel cargo at pier 31 and moved to pier 28 to fill at least one box shaped hold with "hog fuel" for Rotterdam.

One photo will have to do for the ships at pier 28 (left) and 27 (right) where a gap between truck trailers allowed only a partial view of each.

At pier 27 a newcomer, HC Svea-Kim was also not working, taking a break from unloading its cargo of train rails from Poland for CNR. These regular shipments are often carried on Onego vessels. This one however is operated by Zeaborn Chartering, and still carries "HC Chartering" in large letters on its hull.  Zeaborn took over HC Chartering in 2016 and in 2017 acquired Rickmers Line and later Rickmers Ship Management . In 2018 it acquired ER Schiffahrts (Ernst Russ). Now along with its majority interest in Intermarine and co-operation with Carisbrooke it has widespread management , chartering and liner operations.

Built in 2000, the hull was fabricated by Damen's Galati, Romania yard, and the ship was completed at the home yard Damen Hoogezand in Foxhol. Originally named Katja it was renamed MSC Apapa in 2001 and reverted to Katja in 2002. It took its rather odd current name in 2013. The 6382 gt, 8961 dwt ship is equipped with two cranes of 60 tonnes capacity.

Zeaborn has a very complete spec sheet on the ship, which may make up for the lack of photo:

http://zeaborn.com/fileadmin/documents/datasheets/vessel-data-sheet-hc-9-000.pdf

Across the camber at pier 31 was the unusual sight of a tanker alongside. The BW Raven has been shuttled all around the harbour since it arrived October 17 for Imperial Oil (and subject of previous posts). It was anchored in Bedford Basin for time, due to weather, returned to Imperial Oil to finish unloading then yesterday moved to anchor in the lower harbour to make room for another ship. [see below].

Well and truly unloaded this time, BW Raven waited in number 1 anchorage yesterday until space was available at pier 31.

The ship's appearance at pier 31 may be in order to take on bunkers (it was originally scheduled to go the pier 9 for bunkers, but in the end did not do so.) However engine repairs (which preclude it from remaining at anchor) or hot work could be other explanations.

A gap in the first fence allowed for an unusual "stern on" view of the BW Raven, only partly screened by the second fence. 

Halterm has taken over the pier 29 area (once the site of fish plant - see September 27 post) and
until recently were stacking containers there. Now they seem to be using the space to park truck trailers. Photos of ships in the area are therefore hit and miss.

Although the deepwater piers are rarely used so intensively, one has to wonder what will happen when the camber is filled in for Halterm expansion.

The MidRange tanker Puze arrived at Imperial Oil #3 dock from Antwerp with another load of refined product.   Despite its Marshall Islands registry, the ship is owned by the Latvian Shipping Company JSC and named for a sparsely populated parish or administrative district and village in the Ventspils area.

Built in 2006 by the 3 Maj Brodogradiliste in Rijeka, Croatia, it is a 30,641 gt, 52,679 dwt ship. Comparing with the similar sized BW Raven the ship has a much different and wider navigation bridge structure, projecting forward beyond the accommodation block.

There was also container ship activity today with another of the MOL "P" class ships, MOL Partner, arriving for THE Alliance. Sister ship MOL Paramount arrived October 19 and has exactly the same tonnages of 71,902 gt, 72,968 dwt, capacity of 6350 TEUs, including 500 reefers and also came from Koyo Dockyard in 2005.

MOL Partner passes pier 9C inbound for Fairview Cove.

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One Summer(like) Day

A rapid turnaround in weather gave Halifax a summer-like day and thus the land side of the waterfront was jammed with people and traffic. This imposed serious limitations on photographic mobility, and so coverage of today's port activity is a little thinner than usual.

Late last night the tanker Zephyros arrived and anchored in the lower harbour.  It is not common for these ships to anchor inside the harbor, particularly when the destination berth is unoccupied. Coming from Port Arthur, TX, the ship has refined product for Imperial Oil.

Built in 2013 by SPP Shipbuilding in Sacheon, South Korea, the 29,924 gt, 50,155 dwt ship flies the Panama flag for the anonymous Zefyros Trading SA of Greece. Management of the ship is handled by Benetech Shipping SA, employing a crew entirely of Georgian nationality through Elvictor Ltd, also of Athens. (The pyramidal shape symbol on the funnel is the Benetech logo.)

The ship is expected to move to Imperial Oil by midnight tonight.

Also at anchor for the morning CMA CGM Libra required an Asian Gypsy Moth inspection before it moved to Halterm for noon.

Cerescorp remained busy today, with Atlantic Sun arriving this morning, sailing this afternoon, and its berth taken by MOL Partner soon after.

MOL Partner works its way inbound with the tug Spitfire III as tethered escort.

The tour boat Peggys Cove Express speeds along inbound for the Cable Wharf.

The Yantain Express did not go to anchor in Bedford Basin last night as expected. Instead it was still working cargo at the west berth through the night. It finally moved to the east berth at 0400hrs this morning. It remained idle today.

One of the large stacks of boxes offloaded from Yantian Express.

It has been reported that it will take twelve days to unload the Yantian Express's cargo. Containers that have been cleared by the insurers will be arranged on the dock to allow forwarding by rail or ship. Another stack will be created for those boxes for which security has not been posted. Their fate remains unknown.

An unusual Saturday arrival at Halterm was Oceanex Sanderling. It normally sails for St.John's weekly on Fridays. However this week it arrived and sailed on Tuesday, making a quick turnaround at Halterm and Autoport. It will now make another hasty round trip, due to heavier summer demand, sailing early tomorrow morning. 

Also from Halterm, dredging work stopped early this week. The last I saw the dredge Derrick No.4 working was on Wednesday. 

McNally's barges and tugs and other gear are now at pier 9 and pier 9C setting up for construction of the cribs for the Halterm extension. The Port Authority states the extension work will be completed in the first quarter of 2020.

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A Doubly Glorious Day in Halifax for Ship Watching

Bright spring sunshine, but air temperature barely above freezing, would not normally register as a glorious day, particularly a doubly glorious day, however today was different. That's because there were two auto carriers in Halifax, one named Glorious Ace and one named Glorious Leader.  Operated by competing Japanese lines,  ~Ace by MOL, which calls all its auto carriers "ACE" for Autocarrier Express and ~Leader by NYK which calls all its auto carriers Leaders.

I have made note of Glorious Leader before, since it has called in Halifax many times, and its name likely reminds everyone of North Korea's despotic leader who likes to be thought of as glorious, just as his father did.

Glorious Leader on a previous visit.

Glorious Leader was built in 2007 by Stocznia Gdynia in Poland, has a capacity of about 6700 cars, and measures 57,692 gt, 20,999 dwt. Owned by Ray Car Carriers it is on long term charter to NYK Line.

Glorious Ace is a new one for me, built in 2010 by Minami Nippon, in Shitanoe, the 58,939 gt, 18,836 dwt ship has a capacity of 5291 CEU. It is fitted with a 100 tonne stern ramp, which allows for carrying some heavier cargo than just cars. However it is a relatively small ramp compared to some newer ships where the capacity exceeds 300 tonnes.

After unloading at Autoport, last night the ship moved over to pier 31 this morning where its giant sized name was just visible above layers of security fencing.

On departure the Glorious Ace held off until a tanker was past Ives Knoll inbound for Imperial Oil.

All but the smallest ships are using the western channel in and outbound these days as Dominion Diving is working off York Redoubt, I believe on underwater cables for the navy's static sound range. Since the western channel, also known as the deep water channel is relatively narrow ships are taking turns in and out to avoid meets.

Ridgebury John B makes its way inbound in the western channel, keeping well clear of Dominion Warrior (right background) working in the main channel.

The Marshall Islands flagged Ridgebury John B is a 28,063 gt, 45,975 dwt Mid Range product tanker, built in 2007 by Shin Kurushima, Onishi as Challenge Pioneer. It was acquired and renamed by current owners Ridgebury Tankers in 2014, an American company, and is assigned to the Danish based Norient Tanker Pool. It was here once before in November 2014, shortly after joining Ridgebury.

The ship is inbound from Ijmuiden (Amsterdam) for Imperial Oil, and has been waiting outside for a couple of days for Algonorth to off load. Normally ships from Amsterdam are for Irving Oil, so this is a bit unusual.

 

Algonorth has now gone to Bedford Basin to anchor. It has been doing the Lévis / Halifax shuttle (with its last trip from Montreal instead) for most of the winter, but may now be waiting out for a spell for a new assignment since the St.Lawrence Seaway is more or less open for business.

There was other traffic in the harbour today, but mostly regulars, including MOL Partner which made a good impression squeezing through the Narrows en route to Cerescorp in Fairview Cove.

The 6350 TEU ship is on its eastbound leg for the EC5 Alliance service. It was westbound March 9 and it appeared in that day's Shipfax.

I mention it again only because the three big Japanese shipping companies, K-Line, MOL and NYK are fierce competitors in most lines of shipping (see auto carriers above, for example) but agreed to merge their container lines to survive intense competition from the giants Maersk, COSCO, MSC and CMA CGM. However the merger has been much more difficult than originally hoped. The Ocean Network Express, ONE, (see magenta containers in photo above),  is losing money hand over fist as it tries to gain that magic "synergy" so beloved of merger fans. So far not so good. Vastly different corporate cultures and computer systems are at the root of the problem.

New ships are being delivered with magenta hull paint and ONE names, but the ships of the component fleets, at least so far, are retaining their "heritage" names and liveries. 

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Saturday in the port

The Canadian flag Nolhan Ava arrived today on its first return trip since it began using the Cerescorp container terminal in Fairview Cove. It was a very short trip since the ship only left Halifax on Tuesday. The ship serves St-Pierre et Miquelon for TMSI and it was recently announced that it would also be calling in Argentia, using a new crane there.

However there was certainly not time for the ship to have made that loop since Tuesday. On arrival the ship also took the tug Atlantic Willow as tethered escort, indicating that it had some sort of problem, perhaps related to steering. That would not be surprising if the ship had a run in with ice. The Gulf ice has now spread well out from the Cabot Strait into the Atlantic and down the Nova Scotia coast to 45 degrees North Latitude

Today's ice map shows 9/10 to 10/10 cover from Cape Ray, across Cabot Strait and as far along the Nova Scotia coast as Musquoboboit Harbour (63 degrees West longitude), and extending well out to sea,  perhaps as far as 59 degrees West, and off the coast as  much as 30 or 40 miles. The rest of the Nova Scotia coast has  ice cover of 3/10 past 65 degrees West, (where the map ends). 

Shipfax predicts a repeat of 1987's ice clog in Halifax for next week. More on that when it happens!
Marine Atlantic predicts trouble next week when the wind forces the ice into Sydney harbour.

Not having trouble with the ice, or anything else, the substitute pilot boat  Capt. E.T.Rogers (ex Chebucto Pilot) has been performing well since it was brought back from Saint John to cover for the poorly performing Scotia Pilot and Nova Pilot. As a casual observer, I think it is able to work in conditions that the other boats were not. There have certainly been fewer suspensions of pilotage operations since it came to work. 

Capt. E.T.Rogers comes splashing in to port and into a head wind.That wind is all that is keeping the ice offshore -so far.

Last Sunday's arrival, HOS Renaissance sailed today, and as predicted gave a destination of Portsmouth, NH, where fibre optic cable is manufactured in nearby Newington.  If it fitted any special cable handling equipment while in Halifax, it was not visible.. All that it seemed to be carrying was a deck load of snow picked up in Monday's snow storm.

  

Also arriving today MOL Partner, after re-joining THE Alliance's EC5 roster of ships. With the Yantian Express fire, the line had to find ships to take up the slack, but with service changes in the port rotation, there have also been other ships added and removed. The "new" ones will start to show up in the next few weeks.

MOL Partner re-joins sister ships MOL Paramount and MOL Paradise on the 11 ship service. It was previously here in May and June 2018. Built in 2005 by Koyo Dockyard Co in Mihara, it is a 71,902 gt, 72,968 dwt ship with a capacity of 6350 TEU, including 500 reefers.

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Paxi works and Paramount waits, and waits

The G6 Alliance ship Paxi, a first time visitor to Halifax arrived this morning and docked at Fairview Cove west end. A big ship of 70,262grt, 80,087 dwt with a capacity of 6865 EU it is about as big at the Ceresorp terminal can work due to the bridge clearances.

The big cranes work the Paxi at the west berth. The small crane doesn't have the reach for big ships.

It was built in 2014 by Hanjin Heavy Industries + Construction Ltd shipyard in Subic Bay, Philippines. Although launched as Paxi it was immediately renamed CCNI Iquique for charter to Compagnia Chilena de Navegacion Interoceanica SA. That company was taken over by Hamburg-Sud in 2015 and in the same year the ship returned to its original name of Paxi. The name Iquique of course denotes the nitrate port made famous in the last days of sail as a major source of cargo. The seemingly inexhaustible supply of guano was transported for fertilizer in Europe at the lowest possible cost by sail in the days before the Panama Canal. Paxi (or Paxoi) is an island in the Ionian Sea of Greece.

At Fairview Cove the Berlin Bridge sailed from the east end but that berth remained empty as the big cranes worked the Paxi. When MOL Partner arrived later in the afternoon, unlike its arrival exactly two week ago to the day, it did not berth but remained at anchor in Bedford Basin. Later tonight Paxi will sail and Atlantic Sun will arrive and work at Fairview Cove west overnight. Only then will MOL Partner move in after it sails in the morning.

The pilot disembarks to the Halmar once the ship is securely anchored in Bedford Basin.

The 71,902 grt, 77,968 dwt, 6350 TEU MOL Partner made is first westbound call in Halifax May 18. for EC5 service of THE Alliance. This is the eastbound leg of that trip. I did not mention in that last post that the ship had also called here in 2010: Shipfax 201-10-10

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Busy Friday

A number of ship movement are taking place Friday afternoon, and several at the same time, so only some will receive notice here. Some moves may have been due to the upcoming holiday Monday.

A late posted arrival this morning was MOL Partner. The 71,902 grt, 72,968 dwt ship arrived from Colombo, via the Suez Canal on THE Alliance EC5 service, again apparently replacing a regular ship in the rotation as part of the Japanese container line merger. Built in 2005 by Koyo Dockyard Co in Mihara, it has a capacity of 6350 TEU, including 500 reefers.

The ship anchored in Bedford Basin at first then is to move to Fairview Cove on departure of  Brevik Bridge. YM Modesty is also in at Fairview Cove - all for THE Alliance.

Later in the afternoon Algoma Integrity made its first arrival in Halifax. Built as Gypsum Integrity in 2008 by Estaleiro Ilha SA in Rio de Janiero, the self-unloader was built to the same spec as Gypsum Centennial. Both ship were operated by Gypsum Transportation, the cargo carrying division of Canadian Gypsum / United Sates Gypsum. When that company closed up its Canadian mines, first in Hantsport than in Grand Narrows, the ships were out of work. However Joint Venture partners in Beltship Management, Globe Master, found other work for the ships shuttling iron ore in Afrcia. At the end of that operation Algoma Transportation acquired the ship in 2015 originally as a two year stop gap until new ships were delivered. Registered as Algoma Integrity in Hamilton, ON on April 23, 2015 the ship was dedicated to running from Port Cartier to Contrecouer, QC. Last December the ship was laid up for the winter in  Montreal. On April 26, 2018 its Canadian registry was closed and it was transferred to Algoma's international fleet to work in the CSL pool of ocean self-unloaders under the Bahamas flag.
A 33,047 grt, 47,761 dwt ship it had many innovations when built including a telescoping self-unloading boom.

After a busy stretch at Autoport this week, the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Tugela sailed. Classed as a Large Car and Truck Carrier, the ship first berthed at pier 31 Wednesday and offloaded wheeled machinery. It moved to Autoport yesterday.

Hyundai Heavy built the ship in Ulsan in 2011 and it has a capacity of 7,934 RT43 type cars.

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Howdy Pardner

MOL Partner arrived at 1700 hrs on February 10, and the tug Atlantic Willow came alongside to move her into the berth at Halterm. The ship is typical of the post-Panamax ships on the Mitsui OSK Line roster. Built in 2005, 71,902 gross tons and with a capacity of 6350 TEU, the ship is also capable of 26 knots. In these days of slow steaming she probably seldom achieves that speed. Events in Egypt may have a bearing on that however.

If ships are forced to divert to the Cape of Good Hope route instead of the Suez Canal they will certainly have to speed up to maintain weekly schedules. Lines will have to add at least two ships to their Asia/Europe loops as well. It has been estimated that up to 100 more ships would be needed to maintain current levels of service!

According to Aplhaliner the sailing distance from Singapore to Rotterdam via Suez is 8,300 nautical miles, taking 18 days at 20 knots.

Via the Cape it is 11,800 nautical miles and 25 days at 20 knots.

[see also October 10, 2010 posting on this ship]