Anchor or Dock on Arrival

 Container ships callling Halifax usually dock on arrival. Unless they require Canadian Food Inpection Agency clearance from invasive species or some repair, they rarely anchor in the harbour. Today, March 29, was one of the exceptions as the MSC container ship Karlskrona arrived and anchored in number one anchorage for several hours. All the berths at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway were free, so I am assuming some repair required shore assistance from a technician or parts. Another explanation is that the ship was late for the normal "start of day" work for longshore workers, and would thus incur overtime if it docked on arrival. Moving to the dock for an evening start could mean that the ship could be worked within an eight hour shift.

 

The Karlskrona has been here before, December 14, 2024, and had to standby offshore for a few days, but that was due to weather.

Odense Staalskibs in Lindø, Denmark built the ship for its parent company AP Moller-Maersk in 1996. Named Karen Maersk until 2008 it became Maersk Karlskrona until 2016 then MSC Karlskrona to 2018 when it was renamed Karl, briefly, in 2018 and then Maersk Karlskrona. In 2023 it took its present name. The 81,488 gt, 96,103 dwt ship has a capacity of 7403 TEU with 703 reefer plugs. It is noteworthy due to its full width enclosed bridge, usually a sign of an Ice Class ship.

With the Karlskrona in number one anchorage, the next inbound, the NYK Rigel, opted to stay well clear and passed west of George's Island on its way inbound to PSA Fairview Cove.  

NYK Rigel built by Hyundai, Samho in 2009 is a 55,487 gt, 66,051 dwt ship has a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. It is a very familiar ship to Halifax, having called on the former THE Alliance AL5 (Atlantic Loop) service. THE Alliance has been renamed the Premier Alliance due to the withdrawal of Hapag-Lloyd. H-L has formed a new alliance with Maersk, called the Gemini Cooperation. So far that union has not listed Halifax among its ports of call.

Premier Alliance ships will apparently still use the same route designations, and the AL5 loop will still call at the same ports.

[  Why were the letters THE capitalized in the name of this THE Alliance ? (CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, ONE, Yang Ming) As usual the shipping world loves acronyms and abbreviations, and THE was supposed to stand for Transport High Efficiency.

[  A harder question to answer is why the AL5 is called the Atlantic Loop. European ports are (in order) Southampton, Le Havre, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp. The first North American port is Halifax, followed by Port Everglades, Cartagena, Panama, Los Angeles / Long Beach,  Oakland, Tacoma and Vancouver. The return eastbound leg is then Oakland, LA/LB, Panama, Caucedo Dominican Republic, Saint John, Halifax and Southampton. ]

Despite Hapag-Lloyd's exit, there are apparently still H-L boxes in transit. MSC also has a slot charter arrangement on some routes with Premier, but is not a member of the Premier Alliance. The members of the new Premier Alliance are ONE, HMM, and Yang Ming. 

The presence of a CMA CGM box on the ship is also interesting as ONE announced three joint Transatlantic services with CMA CGM and the other Ocean Alliance members (COSCO, OOCL, Evergreen) starting in February, as a Vessel Sharing program.  None of the services will be calling in Halifax.

 

Friday exodus

 Ships like to sail on Fridays, in part to avoid  possible overtime charges or weekend rates, but also because many cargo terminals operate Monday to Friday at the land gate, with no truck arrvials and departures processed on the weekends. 

It is therefore not unusual to see several ships sailing from Halifax on a Friday afternoon, but today (April 19) was still notable notable due to the number leaving in quick succession.

When I got to my favourite vantage point at Point Pleasant Patk shortly after 1800 hrs ADT, the Atlantic SaiI was out of sight, but I did just manage to catch the EF Ava well off in the distance, having left PSA Halifax's South End Container Terminal (SECT) about 20 minutes before.

EF Ava 18:26 hrs ADT

It is headed for Reykjavik on Eimskip's weekly Green Line service to / from Portland, ME.

At the same time the NYK Rigel was passing my position outbound on The Alliance's AL5 route to Port Everglades.

NYK Rigel 18:26 hrs ADT

No sooner had the NYK Rigel passed than the MSC Sines R got underway from the SECT for Sines, Portugal on the CANEX2 service from Montreal. The ship was here March 15 westbound en route to Montreal.

 

MSC Sines R 18:29 hrs ADT

In a break from commercial activity the next outbound was the CCGS Jean Goodwill on SAR patrol east.

CCGS Jean Goodwill 18:39 hrs ADT

Next along was the auto carrier Morning Lynn from Autoport en route to New York. It was following the usual Wallenius Wilhelmsen transatlantic port rotation of Bremerhaven, Goteborg, Zeebrugge, Southampton, Halifax.

 Morning Lynn 18:45 hrs ADT.

 

The ship was built in 2009 by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industry Co Ltd and is registered at 68,701 gt, 28,092 dwt with a capacity of 8,011 CEU. Eukor is the former car carrier divison of Hyundai Merchant Marine acquired by Wallenius Wilhelmsen to gain control of Korean auto exports (and fend off the Japanese car carriers). It is still a South Korean company, but is now jointly owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen, American Roll-on-Roll-off Carriers (ARC) and United European Car Carriers.

The ship is also equipped with a larger than usual side ramp, mounted well aft. Newer ships have dispensed with side ramps as they are seldom used in most ports, and cannot be used in Autoport due to the narrow pier. 

Waiting patiently at Pier 42 for this parade to pass was the Silver Arctic the interim ship on TSMI's St-Pierre et Miquelon and Argentia, NL service. It was facing bow north, so had to turn off the dock before heading out to sea.

Silver Arctic 18:47 hrs ADT

The Silver Arctic is a six to eight week replacement while TMSI's CONRO ship the Nolhan Ava is on scheduled refit [see previous posts]. Despite having no RoRo capability, the Silver Arctic was carrying acouple of cargo vans which appear to be lashed to a 45 ft platform type container (with no walls or roof, but a heavy flat base.) It will require special sling arrangements to off-load, as a standard container spreader will not work.

Also sailing, but a little later in the evening, was Oceanex Sanderling after dark.

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Meet and Greet

 The navigation channels leading into Halifax from sea and within the harbour itself can be narrow in places (viz. The Narrows) and therefore large ships heading in opposite directions need to coordinate their "meets". Failure to do so can have disastrous results, and the December 6, 1917 explosion is still a reminder of what can happen. 

There were two big ship meets in Halifax Harbour today, January 29, and both were well co-ordinated by the respective harbour pilots and went off without a hitch.

The first meet was between the inbound MOL Experience heading for PSA Fairview Cove from Antwerp on THE Alliance's AL5 service and NYK Rigel outbound for Southampton on the eastward leg of the same service. The ships arranged to meet "port to port" in the broad section of the lower harbour north of George's Island, with NYK Rigel taking the channel west of George's Island and MOL Experience taking to the east.

As MOL Experience rounds George's Island inbound...

...NYK Rigel passes close to the Halifax shore outbound...

...giving lots of room...

...for the ships to pass each other safely....

.. and for MOL Experience uninterrupted passage to the Narrows and into Bedford Basin.
 

MOL Experience built by Hyundai, Ulsan in 2007, is a 54,098 gt, 62,953 dwt ship with a capacity of 4803 TEU including 330 reefers. It carried the name APL Experience from 2008 to 2010.

NYK Rigel built by Hyundai, Samho in 2009 is a 55,487 gt, 66,051 dwt ship with a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers.

The other meet was in mid-afternoon and conditions were not quite as placid, as the wind had picked up a bit, however visibility was unlimited and conditions were good. At PSA Halifax Hub, Southend Terminal, the MSC Aniello was getting underway. The ship arrived early this morning from Italy and Portugal to lighter off some cargo to reduce draft before proceeding to Montreal on MSC's Canada Express 1 service.

Once clear of the berth the ship met the inbound autocarrier Don Carlos in the Middle Ground, the area between the Ocean Terminals and the Mauger's Beach lighthouse. MSC Aniello favoured the western side of the channel for a "port to port" meet with Don Carlos in the eastern or main channel.

 

MSC Aniello continued on to the western channel as tugs met the Don Carlos and headed for Autoport.

MSC Aniello dates from 2000 when it was delivered by Hanjin Heavy Industry + Construction in Busan, and is a 40,631 gt, 56,903 dwt ship with a capacity of 4056 TEU including 150 reefers.

Don Carlos was built in 1997 by Daewoo, Okpo and lengthened 8.6 meters in 2006 by Hyundai Vinashin in Vietnam and is now 62,141 gt, 28,147 dwt with a capacity of 7194 CEU. When the ship was lengthened the large billboard lettering on the sides of the ship was not re-centered, giving a slightly unbalanced look.

Not only were these meets an example of well planned pilotage, but the ships themselves represented the major shipbuilders of South Korea.

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Centre of Attraction

 Thanks to widespread media coverage of the visit of USS Gerald R. Ford to the port of Halifax, thousands of residents and visitors flocked to the waterfront yesterday and today (October 30) to see the ship. All vantage points were crowded with hundreds of cameras and cell phones capturing the sight. (Selfies seemed to be a popular form of view.)

To add to those gazillion images I did manage to take one or two to add to my own collection [none were selfies]. The late afternoon sun and the ship's position in anchorage Number One gave an ideal angle from the Tall Ships Quay.

The barge Irving Cedar alongside with refuse containers marred the ship's waterline somewhat, but the huge sponsons to the flight deck were clearly visible.

Numerous small craft either on security patrol or working as "liberty boats" buzzed about the ship.

When the inbound container ship NYK Rigel came along it passed west of George's Island, giving a close up look (it would normally have passed through number one anchorage and on the eastern side of George's Island.)

The "visiting" tug Atlantic Cedar is forward and the Atlantic Fir is aft. (Atlantic Cedar brought the barge Irving Beaver from Saint John and the tugs Atlantic Bear and Atlantic Beaver are in Saint John to work an LNG tanker.)  The other regular Halifax tugs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Oak are also on harbour duty. The "outside" tug Atlantic Elm is also in Halifax en route from its summer duties at Baker Lake, NU.

The Islander VIII has been brought in from Lunenburg for "ferry" service to the carrier.

Among the official craft in view were the Canada Border Services Agency's patrol boat (a 2019 Rosborough Roughwater) which carries the unofficial name Bob Anand. (The 14.99 gt boat is registered by number only: C29624NS). It seems to have accompnaied the NYK Rigel through to Bedford Basin, although it was traveling much faster than necessary.

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Saturday - seeing stars

The ship Nica sailed this afternoon after discharging her cargo of nickel from Cuba (see yesterday's post). The ship belongs to the Lingenberg fleet of Albert Hauschild which specializes in smallish container feeder types. However Nica carries a pair of 40 tonne cranes, and can also carry general cargo, including the bagged nickel.

 

 Built in 2003 by Jinling Shipyard, Nanjing, it is one of a large number of similar feeder ships.
The ship is returning to Moa, Cuba, for Nirint Lines, perhaps for more of the same cargo.
 
There were a pair of NYK ship movements today - hence the "seeing stars". Arriving for Autoport, the Eridanus Leader passed the awaiting Adriatic Highway (from rival K-Line) still anchored offshore - it will not come in until late tomorrow.

Built in 2010 by Shin Kurushima, Toyohashi, Eridanus Leader measures 59,501 grt, 18,056 dwt.

The other NYK Line ship in port was NYK Rigel, on its regular rotation for the G6 Alliance. Built in 2009 Hyundai, Samho, the ship has a capacity of 4922 TEU (including 330 reefers) on 55,487 grt, 66,051 dwt.

It was pictured yesterday anchored off port.

Also in was Zim San Francisco, 50.963 gt, 63,355 dwt. Built in 2010 by Daewoo, Okpo, the 4884 TEU (including 560 reefers) stubbornly remained alongside so that I could not get a picture of it underway.
 

When the ship was built, its deadweight tonnage was listed as 50,963. This was increased dramatically to the current figure, when it was  determined that the deck load could be increased in height.
The ship is owned by an investment syndicate and managed by Niderelbe Schiffahrts GmbH + Co KG.

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