Thanksgivinig Holiday

Canada declares a holiday on a mid-October Monday, and today (October 14) is the day this year. Traditionally it is the day that we face the inevitable and acknowledge that summer is really over, the leaves are turning and it is time to prepare for winter. Businesses are closed and most workers get a long week end.

It is called Thanksgiving and I want to give thanks to all readers who sent well wishes during my recent health crisis. I am also thankful that there do not appear to be any long term effects and that my return to "normal" is well underway.

That said it was not so obvious that it was a holiday in Halifax harbour today as most activities seemed to continue as usual.

Autoport had  the Hoegh Sydney as an early morning arrival that sailed at noon time. The ship has been here many times over the years since it was built in 2007 by Tsuneishi Cebu, in Balamban, Philippines.

Flying the Japanese flag, the ship is owned by Chijin Shipping SA and on charter to Hoegh Autoliners (a company 61.25% owned by Leif Hoegh  and 38.75% by AP Moller-Maersk). The 51,731 gt, 17,311 dwt ship has a capacity of 4379 CEU.

There was one lone cruise ship in port. Silver Wind tied up at pier 23.

A small (but luxurious) ship of only 17,235 gt, it has a capacity of 294 passengers with 208 crew. Built in 1995 by Canitiere Navale Visentini in Donada, Porto Viro, near Venice, Italy it sails for Silverseas Cruises.

Fairview Cove hosted two container ships, Atlantic Sea and YM Enlightenment, both scheduled to sail after dusk this evening.

It did not appear to be a holiday at Halifax Shipyard either  where workers were overside in a suspended crane basket touching up hull paint on AOPS 1 (Harry DeWolfe) before the ship starts trials - expected soon.

Irving Shipbuilding has extended the expected float off date for AOPS 2 (Margaret Brooke) to late November or even December.

The Norwegian flagged semi-submersible Boabarge 37 stands ready for the operation when it does occur. A new application has been made to for a coasting license to start November 23 and end December 23, 2019. The previous application was for the period October 18 to November 18.

The Royal Netherlands Navy's frigate RLNMS De Ruyter, after a visit shortened to one day, (thanks to foul weather) moved with civilian tug assistance from HMC Dockyard to pier 9 this afternoon for fueling. With no bunkering tanker in Halifax anymore, ships must go to the fuel or it must be brought to the ship by truck.

The tug Atlantic Fir side steps along with the ship as Spitfire III provides the propulsion.

Once in position off pier 9 the tugs swung the ship in the channel and placed it smartly alongside.

Wilson's Fuel's depot on Barrington Street, connected by pipeline to Pier 9, has been the fuel source of choice for offshore vessels and other smaller ships. Irving Oil also provides bunkering at its  Woodside terminal and can accommodate larger ships. To my knowledge Imperial Oil does not offer alongside bunkering, but may provide fuel by truck.

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Flat

Weather moderated considerably last evening and by today, although it was gloomy, Halifax harbour activity returned to normal. Three cruise ships put in, Norwegian Dawn, Zuiderdam and Riviera. Of these the latter two sailed before dark, in calm conditions although there was some residual swell.

Riviera makes its way outbound past a late season sailor (not making much way in fitful conditions) as the substitute pilot boat Capt A.G.Soppit paces the ship.[see below]

Only three minutes later Zuiderdam passes the end of the new pier 42 extension.

(The sailor has made little progress.)

Pilot boat operations in recent weeks have been carried out in part by Captain A.G.Soppit a boat built in 2012 by ABCO in Lunenburg, NS, and assigned to Saint John, NB. The Atlantic Pilotage Authority normally operates the two former Dutch crew boats Nova Pilot (ex SC Lynx) and Scotia Pilot (ex SC Cheetah) in Halifax. The latter is apparently out of service, and the Soppitt has been brought in to ensure that there are two boats available.

Captain A.G.Soppitt has an operating speed of 18 knots.

Nova Pilot although capable of 24 knots operates at a maximum 20 knots.

The Atlantic Pilotage Authority has back up boats available to cover refits, and they do shuffle them around as the various ports have different requirements. The run from downtown Halifax to the pilot station area off Chebucto Head, requires a boat with a reasonable turn of speed and some of the back up boats would not be able to do it in the 45 minutes to one hour that the above boats can do.

While Captain A.G.Soppitt is in Halifax, the port of Saint John is making do with  Fundy Pilot, and A.PA. No.18. The other regular Saint John boat and Soppitt sister vessel Captain E.T. Rogers appears on AIS to be in refit at Meteghan, NS.

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Weather Watch

High winds and rough conditions meant that the port has been on weather watch for more than 24 hours. With pilotage operations at the pilot station suspended Friday afternoon there was little harbour activity to report Saturday. Conditions will be reviewed  again at 2130 hrs ADT Saturday.

Self-piloted vessels,  such as Oceanex Sanderling and Nolhan Ava that did not have to embark or disembark a pilot were able to sail on Friday evening, but other ships that arrived Friday and required pilots to depart, remained in port over night. Arriving ships either put back out to sea to await improvements or by-passed their Halifax call.

It was a gloomy sight that greeted overnighting cruise ship passengers this morning. Pearl Mist remained tied up at pier 23 and Serenade of the Seas loomed over at pier 22.

Driving rain probably convinced most passengers to remain aboard.

Serenade of the Seas did manage to sail late Saturday morning, but whether they carried the pilot over en route to Boston is not known to me. Container ships Zim Yokohama and Brighton also remained in port all day.

Two cruise ships opted to by-pass Halifax. Adventure of the Seas from Sydney, NS carried on for Bar Harbor and Amadea from Baie-Comeau kept on for New York.

Commercial traffic such as Maersk Patras is holding off until Sunday morning along with CMA CGM Elbe. The Netherlands warship HNLMS De Ruyter also put back to sea.

Movements within the harbour returned to normal today. The tanker BW Lynx moved from Imperial Oil to anchor in Bedford Basin Friday evening due to high winds, but returned to Imperial Oil Saturday evening.

The Halifax Police Department boat Garrett Cotter was out and about for a time this morning despite the unpleasant conditions.

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Competition for Newfoundland

Starting Friday October 11 there will be head to head competition for Newfoundland traffic out of Halifax. The route has been served exclusively by Oceanex (and its predecessors), but TSMI will now offer an alternative.

This morning TSMI's inbound Nolhan Ava passes competitor Oceanex Sanderling which was moving to anchorage.

TSMI (which stands for Transport St-Pierre Miquelon Inc or International) operates the weekly service from Halifax to the French islands. Carrying containers and RoRo it conveniently interchanges with ACL for cargo from France, at Ceres Fairview Cove, but also takes traffic for and from Canadian sources. Now it will add Argentia, NL to its route and carry domestic traffic. The added service has been in the planning stage for years, but is finally taking place.

Oceanex runs from Halifax to St.John's (it dropped Corner Brook many years ago) with Oceanex Sanderling and from Montreal to St.John's with Oceanex Avalon and Oceanex Connaigra.

TSMI will be using Nolhan Ava, which has been registered in Canada since August of 2018.

Nolhan Ava exhibiting a new funnel graphic arrives this morning.

Nolhan Ava returned last week from a month away with a new graphic on its engine casing. Built in 2001 as Shamrock for the Halifax / St-Pierre service, it was reassigned in 2004 when the original owners had financial problems. It returned to Halifax in 2015 and was fitted with an exhaust gas scrubber in 2015-2016.

It went into refit in spring of 2109, but then went into another refit in August. Its place was taken until this week by Ocean Force which now appears to have gone off charter and is anchored in Bedford Basin.

A previous announcement that Ocean Force would operate weekly or bi-weekly between St-Pierre and Argentia may or may not still be in the works. Built in 1983 by Husumer Werft, Husum as the barge carrier Condock III the ship was renamed 98: Condock, 99: Penhir, 99: Condock, 00: Condock III, 07: Ocean Force. The 384 TEU ship is still listed as a semi-submersible heavy load carrier.

Oceanex has long standing claims that Marine Atlantic provides unfair competition for Newfoundland traffic because it is heavily subsidized by the federal government, and operates below cost. Marine Atlantic, a crown corporation and successor to Canadian National Railway, provides ferry service as part of the terms of confederation agreed between Newfoundland and Canada. In 1949 Canada took over operation of the Newfoundland Railway and its "steamship and other marine services" and agreed to "relieve the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador from the public costs" to run them. As part of this Canada agreed to offer a freight and passenger service between North Sydney, NS and Port aux Basques, NL.
 
A federal court ruled against Oceanex's claims, but at last report an appeal ruling is outstanding.

No reaction has been reported about Oceanex's reaction to more competition.

More on Camo

Without tryping to sound too silly, there is more to camouflage than meets the eye.

My previous post on HMCS Moncton's re created World War II vintage Admiralty Disruptive paint scheme brought out several interesting comments:

The pattern displayed on Moncton is "Admiralty Disruptive D-Day" , a scheme designed for inshore littoral use, likely to confuse shore batteries.

It differs noticeably from"Admiralty Disrputive Modified Western Approaches" as displayed on Sackville in Halifax and Haida in Hamilton, ON.

It is incorrect to use the term "dazzle" to describe all marine camouflage, as the world describes only one sub-set of disruptive paint, originally developed in World War I, but also used in World War II.




Arthur Lismer's famous "Returning Soldiers 1919" showing RMS Olympic at Pier 2 in Halifax is an example of dazzle.

As I intimated before camouflage is a science and an art. For more on the topic see:
http://camoupedia.blogspot.com/

Little known fact: people who suffer from genetic colour blindness (men only) are not as deceived by camouflage as those with full spectrum vision.  My own father, who was blue green colour blind and served in the Royal Canadian Army from 1939 through to 1945 was often consulted by artillery men on the success of their efforts to conceal their field pieces with netting and leaf patterned tarps. My father, who apparently saw the world mostly in various shades of grey, was seldom fooled and as far as he was concerned they were wasting their time.

Marine camouflage however is quite different. As its name indicates it is intended to disrupt vision rather than hide objects, thus leading to misjudging size, distance or speed.

Last year at this time Sackville was "hidden in plain sight" on the synchrolift at HMC Dockyard. note paint schemes differ on port and starboard sides.

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Business as Usual

There was nothing particularly remarkable happening in the harbour today, but as with most days there were arrivals and departures, sometimes with a little more than meets the eye.

The cruise ship Seven Seas Navigator arrived early this morning, and due to its relatively small size, tucked in at pier 24, its usual berth.

The tug Gulf Spray and its barge remove refuse from the ship for disposal on shore. At least some of the material appears to be recyclables.The rest will be incinerated as "international waste."

The seawall, piers 20-22 was left open for Adventure of the Seas which made a somewhat odd noon arrival at the pilot station.

The Singapore flag product tanker BW Lynx arrived for Imperial Oil from Philadelphia with what appears to be a partial cargo.

Tugs line the ship up and push it alongside Number 3 dock.

 The former Elandra Lynx to 2014, was built in 2013 by SPP Tongyeong, and measures 29,737 gt and 49,999 dwt.

The Integrated Tug / Barge Leo A. McArthur / John J. Carrick arrived from the Great Lakes and tied up at the McAsphalt dock in Eastern Passage.

It made a wide swing west and north of George's Island, instead of cutting south of the Island at Ives Knoll. It probably did this to allow the autocarrier Valiant Ace to clear Autoport, which is the adjacent dock to McAsphalt.

CCGC G.Peddle S.C. sailed from the Bedford Institute for patrol along the South Shore.

The Peddle is regularly based here, and shared patrol duties with Corporal McLaren M.M.V. That boat has still not returned to service since vandals severed is mooring lines and it slipped off its cradle at Sambro last November. CCGC Constable Carrière has been drafted in from the Central Region to take its place.

Asterix - time for a shave and haircut

Canada's naval supply ship NRU Asterix sailed from Halifax today, headed for a maintenance session at its home shipyard, Chantier Davie Canada Inc, in Lévis, QC.

Owned and operated by Federal Fleet Services (FSS), a sister company of Davie, the ship was leased, starting in January 2018 to the RCN after conversion from a container ship.The RCN appears to be happy with the ship's performance as an interim supply ship until new ships can be built. However after several Pacific and mid-East deployments the ship must be in need of some shipyard attention if only for paint.

It will do no harm to have the ship in Lévis in time for the federal election. The governing Liberals no doubt hope to be rewarded for ensuring the survival of the yard thanks to the Asterix, the turn-key project for icebreakers and transfer of the Louis S. St-Laurent heavy icebreaker replacement contract from Seaspan.

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