Saturday Roundup

The officially renamed Fundy Rose was turned at Pier 9B this afternoon. The ship's port side has been repainted from the shoreside after the installation of new liferaft launching equipment. It will now be the turn for portions of the starboard side.

Fundy Rose comes off the pier, showing the 'blisters" on the hull for the liferaft system.

The ship's former name, Blue Star Ithaki will be burned off bow and stern and the liferaft gear will be installed before repainting. Sadly it appears that the ship's new name will only be painted on - no steel letters welded on. Also yet to come will be the Bay Ferries logo.

The ship is still carrying the temporary name Canada 2014 on its starboard bow and stern, and the old liferaft system.

 
The ship did not use its own engines for the move, but did have a working bow thruster, and the tugs Atlantic Larch and Atlantic Willow provided the power. The ships auxiliary engines were also running to to provide power to the mooring winches.

The ship's bow thruster exerts considerable force.

 Now bow south, the ship is nearly back alongside.

 Atlantic Huron, looking fairly rugged, works off its cargo at pier 26.

At pier 26, Atlantic Huron was unloading the first grain cargo of the season since the St.Lawrence Seaway opened. The veteran self-unloader has been an off and on visitor with grain and to load gypsum for many years.

Forklifts haul away the cargo of bagged nickel concentrate.

Meanwhile at the other deepwater piers, there was more activity. HC Melina at pier 31 was unloading bagged nickel concentrate from Cuba for Nirint Shipping. A newcomer to Halifax, the ship was built in 2011 as Flinterschelde by Ben Kien Shipyard in Haiphong, Viet Nam. It joined IMM Shipping of Germany in 2011 and took its present name. The ship measures 6577 grt, 9120 dwt, has a capacity of 505 TEU and carries a pair of 80 tonne cranes that can work in combination for 160 tonne lifts.

At pier 36 all was quiet aboard Sina, which arrived last night for Melfi Lines. After its last arrival April 11, it went back out to sea to exchange ballast  water.
http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2015/04/whats-with-sina.html
http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2015/04/sina-returns-from-mystery-tour-sense-of.html

This time it appears to be in ballast, with no cargo. Melfi had Helene J. here on Tuesday, so there may not be much cargo for this ship. In any event it is not scheduled to sail until May 27.

Fusion has its pilot aboard and is about to weigh anchor.

Yesterday pier 36 was occupied by Fusion on its regular St-Pierre et Miquelon run. It went to anchor overnight and sailed this morning.

Nolhanava in the foreground, with Algoma Dartmouth at pier 33 in the background.

Meanwhile its replacement Nolhanava ex Shamrock is still at pier 34, with some maintenance work going on, but no indication of when it will actually go into service. It still carries the Thien and Hyenga funnel markings of its previous managers. I expect that to change, and its name too, before it enters service.

.

Sina returns from mystery tour, a sense of scale, and other arrivals

The Melfi Line Sina returned from its overnight mystery trip to sea [see yesterday's post]. After tying up at pier 41 it loaded its cargo and sailed this evening.

 

The ship will win no awards for beauty, being completely free of any shear to its hull, and with a superstructure perched out over the stern and offset funnel. It is nonetheless typical of a whole breed of ships now seen all over the world. It also appears to be in quite rugged condition - unusual for Mefli ships, and for German ships too.

It is sometimes hard to appreciate the actual size of ships because they do not always appear close to other objects of known size. I find car carriers to be the most difficult, especially in Halifax, where it is hard to see them. Today Harmony Leader sailed, conveniently keeping company with the pilot boat and a couple of spectators.

 A spectator at the end of the Halterm breakwater (at left) and the pilot boat give some sense of scale to the ship.

As Chebucto Pilot keeps pace, a crewman with a line green safety jacket looks over the rail from above.

The ship was built by Hyundai Mipo in Ulsan in 2011 and measures 58,767 grt, 20,434 dwt. It is operated by Ray Car Carriers of the Isle of Man, under the Bahamas flag for a NYK Line.


Three more arrivals passed before my lenses today:

Sir William Alexander showing the wear and tear of a hard winter, returned to port with a buoy on deck. Now free of icebreaking activities, the ship can resume its usual routine.

The bulker Ruddy arrived to take a cargo of grain. The ship is a member of the Canadian Forest Navigation fleet based in Montreal, but consisting of chartered ships, usually under Cyprus registry.

Ruddy was built in 2009 by Shandong Weihai Shipyard in Weihai, China, and is a ship of 19,814 grt, 30,930 dwt. As with most CANFORNAV ships it is suited for the St.Lawrence Seaway.
CANFORNAV's website gives general arrangement plans of the different ships in its fleet - well worth a look. http://www.canfornav.com/en/welcome.aspx

 The tanker Cenito put in another appearance.The Italian flag tanker operates for L.G.R di Navigazione of Naples.

Cenito washes down its anchor chain to reduce the risk of sparks as it approaches Ives Knoll.

It has been here before - in May 2014, November-December 2014 and January 2015. Also Chinese built, by Guangzhou International, 29,313 grt, 53,116 dwt, it is a high ice class tanker. After anchoring breifly, it moved to Imperial Oil on departure of the Irving Oil tanker Acadian.

.

What's with Sina

The small container/cargo ship Sina, mentioned yesterday, which arrived for Melfi Lines, sailed this morning, but will be back again tomorrow morning. It is, to say the least, unusual for a ship to do this, thus doubling pilotage and line handling costs, for a single visit.

There are several explanations, one being engine trials after repairs.

However there is another possible explanation. The last time it happened that I recall (several years ago, and another ship) I raised the alarm that the ship had put to sea again for international waters, so that it could dump some contaminated and rotting Cuban sugar cane that was not allowed into Canada. If this is the case AGAIN that the ship is carrying something not allowed into this country, surely someone must speak out.

There is nothing we can do to prevent ships from dumping waste in international waters, but knowingly allowing a ship to leave a Canadian port to do that should not be permitted.

It will be interesting to count the number of containers still on deck when the ship returns, but if it is only the contents of those boxes that disappear over night who is the wiser?

.

Saturday Round Up and spring may be here

It was a busy day in the south end of the port at least, with all berths filled (sometimes twice) at Halterm.
Zim Alabama arrived at pier 42 early and sailed at noon time, with its place taken immediately by fleet mate Zim Virginia.

Zim Alabama completes work at pier 42.

Zim Virginia works its way in. 

 As Zim Alabama clears the berth, ZimVirginia is already swinging round to take its place.

Tugs swing Zim Virginia.

 

Within minutes it is alongside.

Zim Alabama is chartered to Zim from Marown Nav Ltd and managed by Rickmers Ship Management (Singapore) Ltd under the Marshall Islands flag. Built by Jiangsu in Jiangyin, China, the ship measures 40,542 grt, 50,158 dwt and carries 4256 TEU.
Zim Virginia is owned by Ymir International Ltd a subsidiary of Zim and flies the flag of Israel. It was built in 2002 by Hyundai, Ulsan and measures 53,453 grt, 66, 686 dwt and carries 4839 TEU.

Meanwhile at pier 36, yesterday's occupant Fusion, moved out to anchor for the night and sailed this morning, freeing up the berth for Maersk Palermo. The ship came in bow first, then was heavily ballasted down by the bow, probably to make prop repairs. The ship arrived from Montreal, and likely tangled with more than a little ice en route.

Barely visible at pier 41, the small container/general cargo ship Sina

Also squeezing in at pier 41 was the newcomer for Mefli Lines, Sina. Built in 2004 by Qinshan, Wuhan, the 4462 grt, 5608 dwt ship carries 502 TEU (including 84 reefers) and has two deck cranes. It is small for Melfi Lines by today's measure. It has changed name eight time since it was built, indicating a likely short term charter.

Meanwhile in anchorage number one, the Maersk Line container ship Quadriga stopped in for its Canadian Food Inspection Agency checkup for Asian gypsy moth larva. This is surely a sign of spring when there is a concern about moths hatching. As far as I can tell this is the first ship to arrive for such an inspection this year, but there will be many more to come. Ships heading into Quebec and the Great Lakes region will all be subject to these inspections if they do not have recent certificates.

Quadriga gave Montreal as its destination, so the ship has apparently been assigned to Maersk's transatlantic service
Rare among container ships, it was built at Thyssen Nordseewerke in Emden in 2008 for Maritime Reederei, a 14 ship fleet based in Elsfleth. Measuring 36,087 grt, 42,566 dwt it is a substantial ship with a TEU rating of 3426 (including 500 reefers). However on close inspection the TEU rating lowers to 2410 if all boxes are loaded to 14 tonnes each, with centre of gravity at 45% of container height.
In 2013 it came off a five year charter as CSAV Romeral.

Also in port, but idle today was the cargo ship Capri

It is tied up at pier 27 to unload rails. It was last here October 2014 and twice in 2013 with the same cargo.

Autoport Update
Boheme sailed this evening making way for Harmony Leader tomorrow and Artemis Leader to follow. Today's air temperature rocketed to +12C, so the glacial melt must soon free up iced in cars.

.