Pearl River takes a break

1. Pearl River looms out of the fog as she backs in toward pier 25.

2. Atlantic Fir straightens the ship out to come in alongside.

3. A spare prop blade, and railings carefully picked out in red. Note there is no hold space below the stack of containers forward of the bridge- that is engine room space below deck.

The CMA CGM container ship Pearl River worked at Halterm today then moved to pier 25. Built in 2008 by Qingshan Shipyard in Wuhan, China, the ship has a capacity of 1118 TEU (including 220 refrigerated) and has tow 45 tonne cranes. It measures 9940 gross tons.

The ship was built as Pearl River, but renamed CMA CGM Sierra shortly afterwards, It reverted to Pearl River in 2009, but still works for CMA CGM.

The ship got away from pier 42 without a tug, but was met off pier 25 by Atlantic Fir which brought it in.

Back in Business-1000 hrs update

1. Pearl River I at pier 36 - the first arrival since Sunday.

2. Pearl River weighs anchor at 1000, and is the first piloted vessel to sail since Sunday.

By 1000 hrs AST the Port of Halifax was back in business, with ships entering and leaving. First to arrive was Pearl River I, a Zim container ship, bound for Halterm. It picked up its pilot about 0930.

First to leave was Pearl River, the CMA/CGM ship that has been in port since Sunday. It got underway from anchorage at 1000.

It is not unheard of, but certainly rare that two ships with such similar names would be passing each other in the harbour!

Pearl River I is a Liberian flag vessel, built in 2007 by Dalian New Shipbuilding in China. It is a 39,906 gross tons ship with a 4250 TEU capacity. It was built as Zim Vancouver, but adopted its current name soon after. It is owned by Ofer (Ships Holding) Ltd of Haifa- the principal shareholders in Zim. It is of the same class as other Zim ships that call here, but is the only ship on the rotation without a Zim name.

There will be a steady stream of ships coming in for the rest of the day, and pilots and tugs will be kept very busy.

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Black Pearl Starts Weekly Service

CMA/CGM announced last week that their Black Pearl service will sail weekly to the west coast of South America. When the servce started last year it was every two weeks.

The first ship was due Monday December 13, but it arrived today ahead of bad weather predicted for tomorrow.

Pearl River flies the flag of Cyprus, but it is Dutch owned and managed (by Universal Marine BV.) A vessel of 9940 gross tons, it carries 1118 teu, of which 220 may be reefers. It also has two 45 tonne cranes.

The ship will sail from Halifax to Jamaica, Columbia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. The return leg will call in Miami, Philadelphia and New York before returning to Halifax. It is a 41 day round trip.