Nice evening

It was a nice night for a stroll along the waterfront and a chance to see the nine herring seiners tied up for the weekend at the Tall Ships Quay. They are likely to sail early tomorrow afternoon.

New Arrival Bedford Basin

The Polish owned , Maltese registered ZERAN arrived at anchor in Bedford Basin this afternoon. The Roll-On Roll-Off cargo ship had been idle in Montreal since March 3 waiting for cargo. There is a rumour that she may load a shipment of military vehicles, that will arrive in Halifax by rail.

Pea Soup, Halifax style

Halifax is luxuriating in traditional pea soup fog today. Visibility at 8 am is nil. Thanks to AIS (see Armchair Captain for a real time AIS display) I know that ESSEN EXPRESS is docking at Fairvew Cove with the assistance of SVITZER BEDFORD. OCEANEX SANDERLING tied up at Autoport with ATLANTIC SPRUCE assisting. The tug then returned the pilot to the tug dock in Hailfax.
None of this could be seen with the naked eye - although there were some ships' fog horns to be hear.
Fog is a reality- enjoy it while you can!
As far as I can tell there are about half a dozen or more herring seiners tied up at the Tall Ships Quay at the foot of Moris Street. They left port yesterday but returned in the late afternoon. The visibility and weather conditions on the fishing grounds may have been a factor.

Today in port

Today's lineup:
Cruise ship MAASDAM in port for the day .
RICKMERS HAMBURG pier 30, arrived at midnight and will sail, tentatively, at 1300.
FEDERAL MAAS is at pier 27 unloading steel tire cores for Michelin.
ALGOSCOTIA arriving, ALGOCANADA sailing from Imperial Oil.
Tug OCEAN FOXTROT at pier 9.
Herring seiners arriving and unloading at pier 9 and pier 23 this morning, and sailing this afternoon - probably laying over at the Tall Ships quay for the morning.
DUTCH RUNNER arriving at pier 36. (St-Pierre et Miquelon service)
Yachts:
SWEET SARAH at Bishop's Landing and PARADIGM at Queen's Wharf. DESTINATION FOX HARB'R TOO arriving at lunch time.
Habour activivity: workboats from Dominion Diving: HALMAR, DOMINION PURSUIT and ROSEWAY, with scows, setting up for a weekend event on George's Island.
In drydock: CCGS LOUIS S ST-LAURENT, CHERRY

Due in the next few days, Polish owned, Maltese registerd ZERDAN, a RoRo ship which has been lying idle in Montreal for several months.

BUMP IN THE EVENING

Rumours have reached me that HMCS KINGSTON may have bumped another ship while attempting to berth at HMC Dockyard late in the day yesterday. The coastal defence vessel then backed out into the harbour and awaited tugs to assist her in berthing.
KINGSTON is the first ship built in this class of vessels, which are used mostly for reserves training. She was returning to port with sisters SHAWINIGAN and GLACE BAY and the frigate ST. JOHN'S after exercising offshore.
There was slight damage to the other ship, and unknown damage to KINGSTON.

Tugs

With two tug companies in Halifax, operating a total of four tugs, one would be forgiven for thinking that they never seem to be doing anything! Well times are tough for the tugs. There is certainly less work for them, but there are still opportunities.

POINT HALIFAX recently went to Bayside, New Brunswick to dock the ship CHERRY, and SVITZER BEDFORD later went to Bayside and towed the ship to Halifax.

POINT HALIFAX went on to Bull Arm, Newfoundland helping with a float off from a submersible ship. She is expected to go to Quebec to start her summer's work running to the arctic. SVITZER BEDFORD then may go to Bull Arm to relieve POINT HALIFAX.

Meanwhile POINT CHEBUCTO has been doing a lot of the harbour work. Here she is returning to dock at sunset Monday evening after unberthing the container ship SAUDI DIRIYAH.

Oldie

The classic refrigerated cargo ship CHERRY arrived in Halifax in tow of the tug SVITZER BEDFORD on Friday. Built in 1971, she is a true classic.

Not many ships of that age are still sailing, so it is a bit of a treat to see her. She was built by Nylands of Oslo for German owners as CHERRY. She sailed as CAYMAN (1984-87) and R.P. CAYMAN (1987-1996) before reverting to her orginal name. She has sailed under various flags, and presently flies the very rare Cook Islands flag, a flag of convenience usually used by ships that are well past their life expectancies.

Her longevity may be explained by the fact that she is a refrigerated cargo ship. They are more costly to build than conventional cargo ships or bulkers, and so must retain their value over time in order to make a return on the investment.

The ship is in the Scotiadock II floating drydock at Halifax Shipyard, showing off her flowing hull lines (rarely seen on ships anymore.)