Spring Cleaning

The bulk carrier Nordic Yarra anchored this morning for Asian Gypsy Moth inspection. This annual spring cleaning event occurs frequently in Halifax harbour when inspectors from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency board ships that have been in parts of eastern Asia recently and wish enter Canadian waters.

The examination takes only a few hours as the inspectors know where to look for the larva, usually found around light fixtures. If the search is negative, the ship is soon on its way to inland ports where trees could be adversely effected by moth infestations.

Nordic Yarra was built in 2012 by Yangzhou Guoyu to a Handysize Seahorse  standard design, measuring 24,212 grt, 37,205 dwt. It carries four 30 tonne cranes and can handle a variety of bulk products in its box shaped holds. The ship is in ballast and is headed for Sorel-Tracy, QC.

At Pier 9B the former Nore is now the CL Aquarius under Canadian flag and was registered yesterday in Vancouver. The Newfoundland ship managers Canship Ugland Ltd are listed owners representatives, but it is still not clear who the west coast operators will be. Ships normally take bunkers from barges on the west coast.

There was much activity on board bringing the ship up to Canadian standards, including jettisoning some life rings that apparently do not comply.

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Sunday arrivals - through thick and thin

The long awaited arrival of the semi-submersible barge for Halifax Shipyard finally took place this morning. Boabarge 37 arrived in tow of the tug Boa Bison (see Tugfax). It was originally expected on April 17 but the tow met with some extremely heavy weather and was battling head winds for many days. However once clear of the bad weather it made good time (for a tow).

In drizzly gray weather, the pilots disembark from the tug Boa Bison to board the Boabarge 37 for its inbound passage to Halifax Shipyard.

The barge has been hired to float out the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) from their building berth at Halifax Shipyard. Last week the shipyard made application for coasting licenses to use the Norwegian flagged barge in Canadian waters. They explained in the application that each AOPS will be moved onto the barge using Self Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs) with 232 axle lines and six power packs. The ship plus its temporary cradles and the SPMTs will weigh 7,129.5 tonnes. Once aboard the barge, the SPMTs will move off leaving the ship on its cradles. The barge will then be moved by tugs to Bedford Basin where the it will be submerged and the ship floated off. The first float off for AOPS #1 Harry DeWolf will take place in September.

Harbour tugs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Oak take charge of the barge in the Narrows, and dock it a Pier 6

 

In the meantime the barge will also be used to transport modules from the Woodside fabrication shop to the shipyard. These modules are components for the next ships in the production line, and will weigh from 13 tonnes to 60 tonnes.

After several days without tanker activity Imperial Oil has now received two tankers in two days.
Yesterday (in even thicker fog and heavier rain) Conti Agulhas arrived from Port Neches, TX and tied up at dock #4.

 Conti Agulhas sports a spotless red hull.

A Handyszie tanker of 23,403 grt, 37,606 dwt it was built by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan in 2008. Owners CONTI Group of Munich (but with operations in Hamburg), registered the ship in Liberia.

This afternoon, in bright sunshine, a slightly larger ship, of the the Mid-Range class, High Voyager, arrived at number 3 dock from Paldiski, Estonia.

Tugs push High Voyager alongside at number 3 dock.

Also built by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan, but in 2014, it comes in at 29,935 grt, 45,999 dwt and flies the Maltese flag for d'Amico Tankers DAC of Italy.

There were some developments at Pier 9B where yesterday's arrival, Nore, while still flying the flag of Malta, is now nameless, in anticipation of a good painting day - perhaps as early as tomorrow - to apply its new name and port of registry.

Making a 180 turn and facing south, the Algoma Dartmouth was bunkering the tug Boa Bison. The Halifax based tanker is virtually indistinguishable, except for hull colour, from the ex Nore.

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Bunkering tanker Nore at Pier 9B

The Malta flag bunkering tanker Nore arrived (in dense fog) at pier 9B today. A sister ship to the Halifax bunkering tanker Algoma Dartmouth and the Come-by-Chance tanker North Atlantic Kairos  it has apparently been acquired by Canadian owners.

 

By late afternoon the fog had cleared and rain stopped enough to get a "through the fence" look at Nore at Pier 9B. (That is Atlantic Condor at Pier 9C in the background.)

[ The only potential buyer for such a vessel that I can image is indeed North Atlantic Refining Ltd (NARL), owners of the Come-by-Chance refinery and a growing retail operation in Newfoundland and Labrador, now with 53 gas stations and 14 Orangestore locations. From its origins in 1973 the refinery has had five owners, with the latest taking over in September of last year. The new owners, Silver Range Partners LLC of New York acquired the business from Harvest Energy a subsidiary of the Korean National Oil Corp. NARL under Silver Range ownership is marketing its low sulphur products more widely, and its tanker North Atlantic Kairos was here twice in March with product for Wilson's Fuels. Although nominally a bunkering tanker, the ship can carry a a variety off fuels and is more than capable of short sea voyages.] 

The above was a wild guess, and apparently quite wrong.  Certainly no other east coast operator would be in the market for such a vessel, but I had forgotten that Canada also has a west coast! Word has reached me that it will be going to British Columbia -the first Canadian flag coastal tanker there in many years- and will be named AC AQUARIUS for as yet unidentified owners.

(Another Newfoundland operator, Coastal Shipping, part of the Woodward Group, has acquired tow tankers recently Icdas-09 and Icdas-11 are 13,097 grt, 19,984 dwt are ice class Turkish built by Icdas, Biga in 2010 and 2011 respectively. No new names have been announced yet. Coastal has rarely renamed their tankers after acquiring them from European owners, but perhaps they will make an exception in this case and chose some northern Canadian names that reflect the areas they will serve.)



Nore was built in 2007 in Tuzla, Turkey, with construction started by Dearsan Gemi and completed by Yardimci Gemi Insa SA. It measures 2999 grt and 3569 dwt. Built as Samistal, it was renamed CT Wexford in 2008 and from 2011 flew the Russian flag as RN Taurus. Early this year it was renamed Nore for Arsland Nore Ltd under Turkish management. [That the first three NOR appear in this name and in NARL can't be a coincidence.]  

Nore followed a similar trajectory to North Atlantic Kairos sailing from Tuzla, bunkering in Ceuta and arriving at Pier 9B. North Atlantic Kairos arrived as CT Wicklow (launched 2008 as Clipper Boca, 2985 grt, 3669 dwt) June 16, 2016 and was soon renamed and reflagged to Canada. I expect the same to happen with Nore.

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