Today

Fog and rain eventually hampered visibility in the harbour late in the afternoon, just as the autocarrier Pleiades Spirit was sailing. I was hoping to catch this ship since it does not belong to one of the well known lines. Built in 2008 by Toyohashi Shipbuilding, it is a 60,330 gt, 17,424 dwt vessel with a capacity in the range of 5232 to 6303 CEU. It is managed by World Wide Marine Co Ltd of Japan as one of 17 autocarriers in its 128 ship fleet. Interestingly the ship arrived from New York and is sailing for Southampton - the reverse of the usual autocarrier route.
Originally to be operated by Nissan, it has been operated by World Wide since 2009. It seems to be on charter to MOL but this can't be confirmed independently.

At Fairview Cove, Yantian Express (photo'd early yesterday) was due to slide back along to the west end of the pier to resume unloading. There are still a lot of the 3200 container still on the ship.

Shippers are being advised that when their boxes are released, upon posting of security, they will be sent to destination, by rail, truck or ship, without inspection, since there is no room to do that in Halifax.

Another "reverse" arrival was Elka Nikolas tying up at Irving Woodside last night. The ship came from Saint John and has a small amount of cargo for Halifax.

Built by Brodosplit in Croatia in 2001, it is a 27,542 gt, 44, 787 dwt ship of the MidRange type. It is part of the European Product Carriers Ltd fleet, based in Athens. Shortly after delivery, the ship was renamed Fusus but reverted to its original and current name in 2009.
Sister ship Elka Eleftheria, built the same year at the same yard, was here May 13, but came from Ijmuiden / Amsterdam then sailed to Saint John.
The ship is due to sail early tomorrow morning and its place will be taken within an hour by Irving's East Coast.

There was no call by Maersk /CMA CGM's Maersk Patras over the weekend. It was scheduled to call May 25, but perhaps the fatal accident last week resulted in a delay. The second officer was lost overboard off the Escoumins pilot station May 19 and his body has not been recovered.
There were protests for safer working conditions when the ship docked in Montreal. Instead of sailing for Halifax, the ship headed directly for Bremerhaven, the next scheduled stop.

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Full House container traffic, not to mention more cars and product tankers

There were four container ships in port on Saturday and three more on Sunday, making for a very full house.

Saturday's arrivals for Fairview Cove were Herma P for Hapag-Lloyd on the G-6 service and Atlantic Compass for ACL.

The big Lift project, to replace the roadway of the Angus L. Macdonald bridge got underway on Saturday, with the first old section lowered to a barge and continued on Sunday with the raising of the first new section. In all 46 sections will be replaced in this way, working across the centre span of the bridge. There were no ship traffic restrictions this weekend (except the cautionary for ships to make a low wake in the area). As the project continues however, there will be over night stoppages for harbour traffic. The process of roadway replacement will take until 2017 and will be done in this way to allow for normal bridge traffic during the day.

 The first new section of roadway was lifted into place on Sunday. It was hoisted from a barge by the yellow gantry unit.

See also Tugfax: http://tugfaxblogspotcom.blogspot.ca/2015/10/big-lift-small-tugs.html


Meanwhile on Saturday at Halterm EM Kea (under charter to CMA CGM) made another call for the Maersk /CMA CGM transatlantic service. First time caller UASC Zamzam called on the other CMA CGM far east service operated jointly with United Arab Shipping Co (UASC) and China Shipping Container Line (CSCL) called Ocean Three.

 UASC Zamzam was here for the first time. Renamed this year from Asiatic Summer it is a 94,784 grt, 112,171 dwt ship with a capacity of 9034 TEU - the largest yet to visit Halifax. It flies the Singapore flag for owners Asiatic Lloyd and was built in 2014 by Hyundai Samho.
It arrived and sailed in the dark.
 
 On Sunday Fairview Cove was full again with NYK Demeter and NYK Rumina  Halterm had 'only' Berlin Express on its east bound call. [The later ship has eluded my camera on several occasions, including today.]

 
Autoport was chock a block once again, with Pleiades Spirit on Saturday, Grande Napoli early Sunday and Hoegh Bangkok later, staying until Monday.

Pleiades Spirit was built in 2008 by Toyohashi Shipbuilding and measures 60,330 grt, 17,424 dwt. It is owned by Mizuho Sangyo and flies the flag of Panama. It is operated by World Wide Marine but its commercial activities are managed by Nissan.

Product tanker traffic was busy too, with BW Panther arriving Friday, STI Seneca sailing Saturday, via anchorage, and Star I  arriving Sunday.

STI Seneca stopped at anchorage for a few hours to pump out something into containment units on a Dominion Diving barge, with tug Roseway in attendance.

Diehards got in some of their last sailing on Saturday as BW Panther  occupies number 4 berth and Algoma Dartmouth uses number 3 berth at Imperial Oil.

BW Panther was launched by SPP Shipbuilding Co of Goseong, South Korea in 2014 as Elandra Panther, but was renamed on delivery to BW Maritime of Singapore. It has typical handysize dimensions of 29,737 grt, 49,999 dwt.

If that wasn't enough the offshore supply boats seemed to be busy with all three Shell charters gearing up for work, as the drill ship Stena Icemax is finally on its way toward the Shelburne Basin to begin drilling for Shell Oil. The ship is off Florida now and will be in position in a few days. It not expected to call in Halifax.

See also Tugfax for more on the suppliers.

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