Back to Work

 After the Christmas break things begin to get back to normal. Ships put out  to sea, terminals open up and before long there is a return to routine, perhaps even to clear an accumulated backlog.

That has certainly been the case in the Port of Halifax with considerable activity yesterday and today (December 27 and 28)

Two of the three ships anchored in Bedford Basin sailed today - heading in opposite directions. The Boskalis fleet mates Forte and Triumph, in port since December 15 and 16 respectively, ordered pilots for 0830hrs and 0915 hrs AST. That meant the pilot boat only had to make one trip out to Bedford Basin - a one half hour round trip at best.

The Foundation Pilot is the newest pilot boat in service in Halifax, completed this year by the Armon Shipyard in Puerto de Vega, Spain. The 60.54 gt boat arrived in Halifax May 25, 2024 as deck cargo on the Acadia Desgagnés. [see post of that date.]

First away was the Forte heading for Newport News in ballast. The ship shows very little freeboard, even as light ship, and must sometimes see its deck awash at sea.

Triumph followed soon after, heading for St.George's Bay, Newfoundland, (not St.George's Bermuda as AIS would have it.)[The crew member who programmed the AIS will be in for a shock when they arrive in wintery Newfoundland!] The large bay on the southwest coast of the island of Newfoundland is the location of the Port of Stephenville (formerly Port Harmon) where the former military port has become a staging area for offshore wind projects.

The Triumph's deck cargo of wind turbine towers, will be unloaded and stored in Stephenville for transfer to an installation vessel. Work has resumed on the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts after a five month shutdown when one of the (Canadian made) wind blades shattered and fell (in pieces) into the sea. The blade failure was traced to faulty adhesive which was not picked up by QA at GE's factory in Gaspé, QC. Existing blades may have been replaced and new testing procedures have been instituted.

Also in Bedford Basin in was the second ship in two days to load at Gold Bond Gypsum. CSL Spirit loaded and sailed for Tampa December 26 and fleet mate CSL Tacoma arrived this morning.

CSL Tacoma is a regular in Halifax and since its last call November 1 delivered its gypsum cargo to Wilmington, North Carolina, November 9 then proceeded to Puerto Drummond, Colombia to load coal November 14 to 15. I'm not sure why it stopped in Baltimore Decmber 11-12, but it then sailed to Belledune, NB where it unloaded the coal.

The CSL Tacoma, 43,691 gt, 71,405 dwt was built in 2013 by Changxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China and is a Trillium class self-unloader. It can discharge at 4,250 tonnes per hour of coal, 4,500 tph of gypsum, 5,000 tph aggregates and 6,000 tph iron ore.

The oil terminals in Halifax usually work right through holidays and that was certainly yhe case with Imperial Oil this year. The Canadian tanker Qikiqtaaluk W arrived December 24 with product from Sarnia and sailed early December 27 (sorry no photo). Its place at number 3 dock was almost immediately taken by the Malta flagged Aegea from anchorage off Halifax with product cargo from Antwerp.

SLS Shipbuilding Co in Tongyeong, South Korea built the ship as the Mare Di Venezia in 2008. The 29,683 gt, 51,371 dwt Medium Range tanker was renamed in 2018 when it changed hands from Gestioni Armatoriali SRL to Chandris Hellas.

There was also container ship activity, but that may be for another post.

.

More Boskalis, less MSC, plus one

1.  Boskalis 

 Today, December 16, saw the arrival of another Boskalis-owned semi-submersible, heavy load carrier - the Triumph. This is quite a different sub-species of the category however. Instead of a purpose-built ship (see yesterday's long story) this one is a conversion.

 The Triumph started out as the Suezmax crude oil tanker Marble, built by Brodosplit in Croatia in 1992. It was a 77,931 gt, 149,999 dwt ship. As it neared fifteen years of age its owners, the Norwegian company Frontline, opted to sell the ship and the Dutch company Dockwise snapped it up. They sent it to the COSCO Guangdong shipyard where the existing cargo section was removed and scrapped and a new 130m x 44.5m mid-body was inserted. The bow and stern sections were then heavily modified to make the ship semi-submersible. Also an auxiliary navigation bridge was installed on the forepeak for use when visibility from the main bridge is blocked by deck cargo. The "new" Triumph, completed in 2008, was reduced from 269.0m overall length to 216.86m , with revised tonnages of 42,525 gt and 53,818 dwt.

Chinese shipyards made similar conversions, using ships with good maintenance records and reliable engines. The Triumph has a 6 cylinder MAN / B&W Diesel main engine rated at 13,364 kW, built under license by Brododplit, which was likely a factor in its selection.

On arrival in Halifax today it headed for anchorage in Bedford Basin, quite near its fleetmate Forte. Unlike that ship, this one has a deck load consisting of wind turbine pylon components.

 Triumph heading north into Bedford Basin with the Forte in the distance.

The visible pylon section carried the designation AJ 06, which indictes it is likely headed for the Wineyard Wind project, where 62 wind turbines are to be installed offshore Massachusetts.

This is not the Triumph's first call in Halifax. On its previous visit January 8 to January 11, 2011, it showed its versatility by lifting the jack-up drilling rig Rowan Gorilla III.

2. MSC

The movement of containers left in Halifax during the Montreal port workers strike last month continued today with MSC Sagitta III taking another turn. The ship arived yesterday on its second call under a coasting license to carry stranded containers from Halifax to Montreal, and other empties to balance supply. It docked at PSA Fairview Cove where the majority of boxes seemed to have been stored. This morning it moved to PSA Atlantic Hub, but first it did a 360 turn in Bedford Basin, then went to anchor in the lower harbour until berth 41 was vacated.

 

MSC applied to use both MSC Sagitta III and MSC Baltic III for an estimated three trips each between Halifax and Montreal under the coasting license by the completion date of December 31.

The berth at Pier 41 was occupied by the CMA CGM Lapérouse, but it sailed at noon time, and MSC Sagitta III moved in shortly after.

 

 3. Plus One

The Shipfax TMU (terrestrial mobile unit) was kept scurrying today to catch all the action, which also included an Autoport caller. The Traviata appeared in Wallenius Wilhelmsen colours, which have been applied within the last year. 

 The Dominion Rumbler scurries ahead to handle the ship's head lines to the mooting buoy off Autoport.

When the ship was here December 27, 2023 it was still wearing the Wallenius Lines white over green hull colour.

The ship was built in 2019 by Tianjin Xingang, to the HERO class design used by both Wallenius and Wilhelmsen. It must have beeen one of the last - or indeed the last - ship to use the old Wallenius colour scheme. Since it was due for a five year survey in 2023 it was probably repainted during the drydocking.

The 73,358 gt, 23,889 dwt ship, has a capacity of 7656 RT43 autos, and mounts a 320 tonne SWL stern ramp. As with most modern autocarriers it has no side ramp.

.

No Mist for this Gorilla

3. Triumph and Rowan Gorilla III finally outbound for sea. The ship is trimmed by the stern.

2. Passing Halterm, the size of the rig is apparent. A small auxiliary wheelhouse is fitted on the ship's forecastle to allow visibility when carrying large loads.

1. Weighing anchor, the tug Atlantic Oak will assist in turning the ship in the anchorage area.

I was hoping for a misty day so that I could paraphrase the title of Dian Fossey's book Gorillas in the Mist when Rowan Gorilla III left port, but the sun broke out just as her heavy lift carrier Triumph got underway late this afternoon.

It is difficult to visualize the scale of this immense rig, and the size of ship needed to transport it, but as she passed Halterm, some of the dredging equipment in the foreground gives some idea.

The tug Atlantic Oak escorted the ship outbound with a line up on the stern, just to ensure that it was able to turn in the anchorage, and to stay in the channel outbound.

.

Wild day in the harbour

Gales, snow, inconveniences for travellers, but a major headache for the heavy lift ship Triumph.

Yesterday's storm, which dropped a few centimeters of snow on Halifax, brought with it gale force winds, and the Triumph could not keep its position at number one anchorage. They called in tugs to keep the ship head up into the wind. Two tugs attended the ship all times yesterday and through the night - taking turns to allow for crew changes- until conditions calmed down. Even at 0800 this morning, when things looked fairly peaceful, the tug Atlantic Fir has a line up and is pulling to keep the ship in position.

With the huge jack-up drilling rig Rowan Gorilla III on deck acting as a giant sail, the ship's own anchors were not enough to hold it in place. A tracking map on AIS shows the ship moving over quite a large area in the lower harbour.

Other shipping was able to arrive and depart despite the weather, but they had to give Triumph a wide berth as it yawed back and forth.

.

Good Day for a Floatover

1. Late afternoon: rig in place, ship floating up, deck almost clear.

2. Mid-morning: ship deeply submerged and ready for rig.

3. Mid-morning: rig underway in control of four tugs (moving left to right in this photo) with wet snow in the air.

Visibility was partly obscured by wet snow, but there was little wind, and so it was a good day to float the jack-up rig Rowan Gorilla III over the Triumph.

The operation started at 0830 when the pilots and four tugs started to move the rig from its berth at the Woodside pier in Dartmouth. The rig's legs were raised from the bottom and it began to float on its own hull. The tugs Atlantic Fir, Atlantic Larch, Atlantic Oak, and Atlantic Willow then moved the rig across the harbour to number one anchorage and aligned it to float over the Triumph.

Triumph was semi-submerged so that its cargo deck was well below the surface. By about 1100 the "float over" started and the rig was in its final position shortly after noon. It took lots of push/pull on the tugs to get it in the exact position to fit between brackets set on the ship's deck.

As soon as the rig was finally positioned pumping up operations started on the ship. This is a slow process and it was not until late afternoon that the ship's deck began to appear above water.

The ship's crew must now make the attachments to secure the rig for sea before they can sail. This is expected to take a day or so. In the meantime gales are forecast, which will probably keep the ship in port until the first of the week.

Triumph was built as the tanker Marble in 1992 by the Brodospas shipyard in Split, Croatia. It was purchased by Dockwise and converted to a heavylift ship in 2008. Dockwise has a large fleet of similar ships, several of which have called in Halifax, that specialize in moving oil field equipment around the world. Their web site has many spectacular photos of their work, which also includes dedicated yacht transport. See http://www.dockwise.com/

Rowan Gorilla III was built in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1984 by Marathon-Le Tourneau. Owned by the Rowan companies, it is capable of working in water up to 450 feet deep and can drill to depths of 30,000 feet. It has worked in our waters off and on many times over the years. After a 2000 program it was taken to Sabine Pass, Texas where its legs were extended from 343 feet to the present 504 feet.

.

The next big thing

The semi-submersible heavy lift ship Triumph arrived yesterday afternoon. This morning the deck crew was hard at work setting up blocks and other gear on deck. They are getting ready to load the jack-up rig Rowan Gorilla III, which should happen in the next few days.

Because the number one anchorage area was occupied by Chemul, the ship will have to move to that area before the loading takes place.

.