Friday - big rush

 The end of the work week is usually a busy time in the Port of Halifax as ships complete their work and time their departures to be at sea on weekends. However today Friday, June 28, was a little unusual as there were also several arrivals. 

One notable arrival was the CMA CGM Leo on the Ocean Alliance from Colombo (June 4) via the Cape of Good Hope. Ships of this line usually call in Halifax on Saturday, but the ship began working on arrival at Pier 41, PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway. 

There was a stiff breeze so the ship took four tugs on arrival, with the Atlantic Larch far forward. (I suspect the ship had a faulty bow thruster). Atlantic Bear and Atlantic Beaver tethered aft and Atlantic Willow on the port side well forward. [Atlantic Larch is based in Saint John and considered to be the "outside tug" for work away from that port. It has exchanged places with the Halifax based Atlantic Fir for the past few weeks.]

CMA CGM Leo is a 131,332 gt, 131,236 dwt ship built in 2010 by Hyundai, Ulsan. It has a container capacity of 11,388 TEU. It is another of the largest type of container ship with the bridge aft. Many ships of its size have the bridge structure well forward.

Also at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway was the Vega Vela arriving yesterday from Valenica, Spain and sailing this afternoon for Mariel, Cuba for Melfi Marine Corp. It is a new ship to the route, and was previously reported in Tunisia.

Carrying the usual deck load of containers, the ship also had a truck with a stainless steel tanker body just forward of the superstructure, likely secured on a platform or flat rack container. The ship also loaded an unusual piece of unknown function. Spreaders and slings were used to hoist the unit aboard.

Vega Vela is a 9931 gt, 13,879 dwt ship with a container capacity of 1118 TEU. Most of the ships running to Cuba carry cargo cranes, but this ship does not. It was built in 2005 by Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing as Ulrike F and became TS Singapore in the same year, but reverted to Ulrike F in 2007. In 2012 it was renamed Paola and in 2015 E.R.Hobart. In 2019 it settled in as Vega Vela.

PSA Halifax's Atlantic Gateway also worked the Nolhan Ava which vacated Pier 41 and sailed for St-Pierre et Miquelon as CMA CGM Leo  arrived.

PSA Fairvew Cove was also active with ZIM Iberia arriving early a.m. and sailing for New York late afternoon.The ship is a regular on the ZCA service from the Mediterranean.

While it was outbound the ZIM feeder ship Contship Art was inbound.

It will pick up containers dropped off from ZIM Iberia and take them to ZIM's hub port of  Kingston, Jamaica for Caribbean desintations. It appears to be returning empties to Halifax.

PSA Fairview Cove also had the Oceanex Sanderling on its weekly run to St.John's, NL

 

And yes that is the Mi Cabana of Tiki Tours motoring alongside, thatched roof and all, lending a tropical touch to the scene. This is the boat's second season of operation. See my opinion from last year: July 29, 2023.

Once the Sanderling was clear the arriving Atlantic Sail took its place at the Fairvew Cove west berth RoRo ramp. (No photo of the ACL this time.)

Autoport was not to be left out as it had the SFL Conductor from Emden with a load of Volkswagen products.

 Find out more from my March 29, 2023 post. Its charter to VW has been extended to the fourth quarter of 2026.

SFL Conductor carries a side ramp. It would be interesting to know when the ship uses this ramp. Many newer auto carriers don't have side ramps at all, so it is likely that very few ports use them. Autoport cannot accommodate side ramps as they would project over the opposite side of the jetty.

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Tankers, Containers and Cargo

 Arrivals in the Port of Halifax today (October 12) saw the usual array of ship types. Included were several familiar callers including the cruise ship Emerald Princess (see also October 4) and container ships NYK Daedalus and NYK Remus for PSA Fairview Cove.

An early afternoon arrival was the tanker Alpine Marina [conjurs up a strange mental image] from Saint John for Irving Oil and prior to that from Amsterdam.

An MR2 chemical product tanker of 29,155 gt, 46,162 dwt, it was built in 2010 by Hyundai Mipo in Ulsan. Operator Oxygen Maritime Management Inc is based in Zurich and runs four tankers in total, in this case for the ship owner Tornado Navigation Inc.

The Alpine Marina may not be in port very long, since it appears to be very lighly loaded. [Irving Oil's Saint John refinery is in the midst of a $190 million maintenace "turn around" period, so I expect to see more ships from Amsterdam.]

Arriving from Sines, Portugal on the CANEX 1 service for MSC, the MSC Mexico V tied up at Pier 41-42. [The Nolhan Ava is at Pier 41 using the RoRo ramp - see yesteday's post].

 A veteran carrier, built in 2002 by Hyundai, Ulsan, the 53,453 gt, 66,547 dwt ship has a capacity of 4839 TEU.

It also has a history with Halifax, having arrived here for the first time April 5, 2002 on its maiden voyage. It was then called ZIM Mediterranean and continued to call here for several years. It was the first of a series of six Panamax ships built for ZIM, and flying the Israeli flag.

(I managed to get a picture on its second arrival, in May of the same year.)

In 2014 it was chartered to OOCL and renamed OOCL Mexico and called here June 12, 2016.

 

On that trip it docked at Fairview Cove for what was then the G6 Alliance. As far as I can recall it did not adopt the OOCL colours or hull banner.

In 2016 it was again renamed, this time simply as Mexico, carrying that name until 2022 when it was briefly renamed MSC Mexico before taking the "V" suffix as MSC Mexico V later in 2022.

On its current visit to Halifax the ship is en route to Montreal and is due there October 16. It does not appear to need much in the way of draft reduction, so will be here for only a short stay.

To fill out the berths at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, Eimskip's Skogafoss arrived late in the afternoon and eased in to Pier 42, possibly without tug assistance. (It was a pleasantly calm day,)

A regular on Eimskip's Green Line service since 2011, the ship is one of three ships on the Reykjavik, Halifax, Portland and return (via Argentia) line that also acts as a New England feeder from Halifax for CMA CGM. It is due in Argentia on October 14 and Reykjavik on October 20 on the eastbound leg.

United States flagged ships are a rarity in Halifx, and it was interesting to see the arival of the general cargo ship SLNC Magothy this afernoon.[SLNC stands for Schuyler Line Navigation Company from Annapolis, MD, which names its ships for rivers in Maryland. Its four crane bulker SLNC Severn has been here a couple of times en route to or from Auld's Cove for aggregates.]

The ship was built in 2009 by Qingsham, Wuhan as an ice class tween decker of 15,459 gt, 17,478 dwt, fitted with two 400 tonne and one 120 tonne SWL deck cranes. It can carry 1,009 TEU. Orginally named the Beluga Persuasion, it was renamed Beluga Singapore in 2010 but was then caught up in the fraud-related collapse of the Beluga Shipping, and resulting sell off of its heavy lift fleet. It became Singapore in 2012,  HHL Lisbon in 2012. Norfolk in 2015 and SLNC Magothy in 2019. As a non-Jones Act ship (i.e. not built in the USA) it cannot trade between US ports, but it is given preference over foreign ships for US government cargo. 

I am assuming, since it tied up at Pier 9C that it is here to load a couple of dozen US military Light Tactical Vehicles, (ATVs) that have been arriving by truck over the last few days.
 

Built by Oshkosh, they come in several versions and are used by the US Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy. They have also been exported to other nations.

Lined up at Pier 9C, they would seem to be more easily loaded on a RoRo ship. Since the ship has recently been in Poland, I am also guessing that these vehicles may be headed for Europe. How it is that they would be shipped thtough Halifax is so far unexplainable. (Note the Nova Scotia license plate on the truck trailer above. The tractor was from elsewhere - possibly Ontario.)

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Return from the Med

A strange sight for Halifax today was the arrival of an OOCL ship in non-OOCL livery. The Panamax OOCL Mexico arrived on G6 Alliance service and tied up at Fairview Cove.

OOCL Mexico in the Narrows en route to Fairview Cove.

 

Built in 2002 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea it immediately went into charter as Zim Mediterranean and arrived in Halifax for the first time April 5, 2002 It was the first of six Panamax sister ships to go to work for Zim. It flew the Israeli flag and was owned by the Ofer Brothers Group, then a major shareholder of the previously state owned Zim.

Zim Mediterranean in bound to Halterm on its second visit to Halifax May 7, 2002.

The ship measures 53,453 grt, 66,686 dwt with a capacity of 4,839 TEU, including 350 refrigerated. Its 9 cyl B+W engine is rated at 55,890 bhp giving a cruising speed of 24 knots.

The seven stars of the Zim funnle marking were painted over when the Zim charter ended.

On completion of the Zim charter in 2014 the ship was then chartered to OOCL with only the name changed and Zim markings painted over. It also hoisted the Liberian flag. In 2012 the Ofer Holdings Group changed its name to XT Group of Tel-Aviv, and they are listed as the ship's current owner.

For more on the history of Zim see: Zim.com legacy

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