Late in the Day and a Bonus

 Celebrating the days when the sun sets after 5 pm Atlantic Standard Time, I made my way to Point Pleasant Park to see off the MSC Kim on its way to Gioia Tauro on MSC's Med Canadian service. 

Of course the ship's actual pilot order time was 1545 hrs, so I was not expecting to be crowding sunset, but as it turned out the ship was still working cargo at the appointed time and it took until 1720 to finish, let lines go and actually get underway. By that time the PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub terminal was all lit up. That certainly helped the exposure time required for a photo of the cranes.

Despite the ship moving away, my camera was still able to capture it without blurring.

A Mediterranean Shipping Copmany veteran, the MSC Kim was built in 2008 by the Zhejiang Shipbuilding Co in Ningbo, to the SDARI 4250 Pmax design. The 41,225 gt, 56,395 dwt measurements give the ship a capacity of 4254 TEU, with 550 reefer plugs.

The MSC Kim made the headlines when it lost power in the Gulf of St.Lawrence, 40 nmi. South of Anticosti Island and 66 nmi. East of Percé on March 7, 2022 while en route from Halifax to Montreal. It drifted for some distance while CCGS Terry Fox broke out a channel at Stepehenville to allow the anchor handling tug Atlantic Kingfisher to reach the ship, and tow it to Sydney, arriving March 11. See Shipfax March 10, 2022 for more detail.

While waiting for the ship to sail this afternoon I did get a bonus view of the Royal Canadian Navy's Halifax based submarine HMCS Windsor arriving from sea. The sound deadening rubber tiles covering the hull do not get as cold as steel, so there did not seem to be any build up of frozen spray on the sub.

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MSC Kim - end of chapter one

 The container ship MSC Kim sailed from Halifax in the late evening of March 5, bound for Montreal. It had been at PSA Halifax for a few hours to decant some cargo to reduce the ship's draft to meet St.Lawrence River restrictions. It is regular practice of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) ships to call in Halifax en route to or from Montreal to off load from or top up to ocean draft. This visit was no different, see Shipfax March 5

The ship was making its way across the Gulf of St.Lawrence in the early hours of March 7 when it had a main engine breakdown 40 nautical miles south of Anticosti Island and 66 nautical miles east of Percé. The ship began to drift in high winds and by today (March 10) it was reported to be 50 nautical miles off Port au Port, NL, still without the use of its main engine.

In the meantime, the ship's owners scrambled to develop a salvage plan. Details have not been released as the whether this was a Lloyd's Open Form (No Cure No Pay) salvage contract, or a more basic towing contract. However in view of the potential of the situation, the Canadian Coast Guard would have the responsibility to oversee and grant approval for any operation.

The CCGS Terry Fox icebreaker was the nearest large CCG asset and it was dispatched to Stephenville, NL where Atlantic Towing Ltd had some powerful tugs laid up. ATL rounded up a crew and quickly mobilized the 16,000 hp anchor handling tug/supplier Atlantic Kingfisher from cold layup. According to reports the Terry Fox provided fuel to the tug then broke out the ice in the bay to allow the tug to sail. It was able to reach the ship and rig a tow in matter of a few hours.

Latest reports on the evening of March 10 have tug and tow due in Sydney harbour in the early afternoon of March 11. CCGS Terry Fox will likely be escorting the pair. The tug Atlantic Spruce out of Saint John, which had just towed the CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 from Shelburne to Halifax, was also sent on to Sydney to assist.

The tug Atlantic Kingfisher was built by Halifax Shipyard in 2002 and was named for the avian emblem of the old City of Halifax which also appears in the middle of the coat of arms and flag of the Halifax Regional Municipality (formed in 1996). (It is apparently a symbol of industry.)

 Ironically, at 23,200 bhp, the Terry Fox is one of the most powerful tugs ever built in Canada, but as a CCG ship it is not equipped or mandated to tow except in dire emergency. Civilian craft are expected to make commercial arrangments for towing. Canada operates no Emergency Towing Vessels (ETVs) on Canada's east coast. A sister ship of Atlantic Kingfisher, the Atlantic Eagle and a similar vessel Atlantic Raven, are contracted as ETVs on the west coast. That controversial contract has been extended but expires in Novemeber of this year (2022.)

CCGS Terry Fox, one of Canada's two big icebreakers, was built as a tug supplier.

MSC times two at PSA

 PSA Halifax handled two ships for the Mediterranean Shipping Co today March 5 - one east bound and one west bound.

The eastbound ship, MSC Sandra arrived last evening March 4 from Montreal on its regular Canada Express 2 service from Montreal to Spain. The ship stops in Halifax to top up cargo to seagoing draft after having to comply with St.Lawrence River draft restrictions.

Before sailing several crew members gathered on the forecastle head to clear lines. The ship had picked up a dusting of frozen spray on its way in. After previous posts on the subject, this is an example of an anchor being iced up, but apparently free to deploy if needed. (The mate may have been having a Jack Dawson moment).*

MSC Sandra dates from 2000 when it was built by Hyundai, Busan. A 43,575 gt, 61,468 dwt vessel it has a capacity of 4340 TEU including 150 reefers. On sailing late this afternoon it gave its destination as Barcelona.

Arriving at noon time today was fleet mate MSC Kim from Sines, Portugal en route to Montreal on MSC's Canada Express 1 service from Italy and Portugal.

MSC Kim is a slightly newer ship, built by Zhejiang Yangfan in 2008. At 41,225 gt, 50,547 dwt it has a capacity of 4254 TEU including 550 reefers. It is due to sail for Montreal overnight after unloading some containers to reduce draft.

A regular on the St.Lawrence River for several years, I photo'd the ship in August 2107, very lightly loaded and doing 18.5 knots. It is always i,mpressive to see these ships booming along at speed.

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* My apolgies for a couple of perhaps oblique movie references in recent days.

The first was in the title to my post of March 3. It was a play on the title of a wonderful 1966 move entitled "The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming", which in itself was a play on the reputed Paul Revere cry "The British are Coming, the British are Coming". The movie was about a Russian submarine crew that sought help from a New England island village when their sub ran aground. If you haven't seen the movie, or haven't seen it for a long time, the Wikipedia entry is worth a read at: Russians

The second reference is in today's post to the fictional Jack Dawson in the 1997 movie "Titanic" who, perched on the very prow of the ship, proclaims that he is "king of the world". 

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Schedule disarray - Quebec Report #8

The temporary speed restriction in the Gulf of St.Lawrence is having an effect on the whales it is intended to protect and on ship schedules.

No ship strikes have been reported, and no dead whales have been found since the ban was instituted. The fallout for shipping has been predictable.

Some inane suggestions about helicopter escorts, special sonar and other speculations on how to speed up ships and save whales have been proposed by some in the shipping industry. If these geniuses would turn their minds to the environment instead of the bottom line for a few moments, they might realize that they and their customers will just have to pay for the privilege of sharing this planet with whales.

Oceanex Connaigra used to be a daytime Saturday sighting, now it passes at night.

The effect on domestic shipping has seen Oceanex introduce a temporary fuel charge to pay for the higher speeds required in other areas to make up for the five hours of slow steaming in the Gulf. Oceanex competes with trucks and Marine Atlantic on what is a far from level playing field, and any change of schedule or costs would certainly hurt them.

 CTMA Vacançier is back to early Thursday mornings.

C.T.M.A., which serves the Magdalen Islands, has curtailed stops in Gaspé in order to keep their cruise ferry CTMA Vacançier on schedule. After a couple of weeks of trying to maintain the schedule, the ship is now reaching Quebec and Montreal on close to the old timetable.

MSC Kim was hurry up then wait on Tuesday afternoon.

Foreign flag container ships are making up the time at sea, but there has been some increase in speed on the river too. I note reported speeds in excess of 18 knots, which is a pretty good clip.  Schedules however seem to be in some sort of disarray, as the MSC Kim, charged past my place at 18.6 knots, but then anchored off Pointe-au-Pic for about four hours. Perhaps they were overly enthusiastic about opening up the throttles and had to back off so as not reach Montreal too early.

 OOCL Belgium made up its time at sea, but was still moving at a good rate this afternoon.

Non-scheduled Great Lakes ships are effected too. Even though the speed reduction does not bother many of them, since they do not go that far into the Gulf (the zone extends as far west as the eastern tip of Anticosti Island) their speed would only be reduced by a knot or two.

 Algoma's newest ship, Algoma Strongfield does not venture far enough east to be effected by the speed limit.

However with a limited shipping season, they need to get in as many trips as possible. Salarium carries salt from the Magdalen Islands, right in the middle of the zone, and it would be difficult to make up lost time in its relatively short trips.

Salarium transits the zone on every trip with salt.

So far I have not heard of any violations of the speed limit.

To add the container shipping misery however, the container carrier Maersk Pembroke was disabled by fire west of the Lizard Point, in the Celtic Sea, August 21. It appears that the ship, which was en route from Antwerp to Montreal, will have to be towed to back to a European port. That will certainly throw a wrench in the weekly service operated by Maersk and CMA CGM.

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