Sunday traffic - mostly departures

At sunrise this morning the open hatch cargo ship Star Kilimanjaro sat peacefully in one of the outer anchorages, awaiting her turn at the grain berth.
By late morning the departures began with the crude carrier Kim Jacob sailing from Imperial Oil in ballast, giving Covenas, Columbia as her next port. Algoscotia sailed from the adjacent berth a little later.

.All three tugs, Atlantic Larch (bow), Atlantic Willow (midships) and Atlantic Oak (stern) push up on the ship while the lines are let go.

Once clear of the dock Atlantic Willow scooted around to the port bow to assist in pushing the ship out into the stream.

Once a tug was clear of the tanker, Novia upped anchor to go alongside pier 41 to get ready to work tomorrow. The Melfi Lines ship arrived last evening and spent the night at anchor.

It was a late afternoon departure for Kile Express. The ship arrived before first light this morning and sailed from Fairview Cove for Antwerp.

Last out was the Egyptian bulker Wadi Alarab with a partial load of grain. It is heading next for Port Cartier, QC to top up before heading to sea.

IT Intrepid and IT Interceptor, seeing double at pier 9

The cable ship IT Intrepid arrived this morning and tied up alongside IT Interceptor at pier 9. Soon after the crews began transferring material from one ship to the other.
International Telecom Canada Inc was granted a coastal license to all IT Intrepid to work in Canadian waters (the ship is registered in Barbados) to repair a fibre optic cable in the Cabot Strait off Rose Blanche, NL, using a type of unmanned submarine, or ROV. The license covers the period March 13 to March 25.
The ship is specially equipped with a gantry aft, which I assume is to handle the ROV.

Kim Jacob - Suezmax tanker arrives

The Suezmax crude tanker Kim Jacob arrived this afternoon after an earlier arrival was scrubbed. The ship was built in 1998 by Daewoo Heavy Industries in South Korea and measures 81,265 gross tons and 159,211 deadweight.
Originally scheduled for an 0800 arrival at the pilot station, the ship in stead went to anchor until early afternoon. As usual for sizable tankers, the ship was met by the tug Atlantic Oak which put up a stern line and acted as tethered escort from the area of the inner pilot station. The  other tow tugs, Atlantic Larch and Atlantic Willow met the ship at the Middle Ground and berthed it at the Number 5 dock at Imperial Oil.
The ship is operated by the German company Ernst Jacob, based in Flensburg, but it flies the Liberian flag.
For more on her owners and some additional photos of the ship see: http://www.ernstjacob.de/

Leif Ericson - departs at last

Marine Atlantic's truck ferry Leif Ericson got away form the Novadock late this afternoon after a six week refit.

The ship spent yesterday and today afloat in the Novadock, seemingly ready to sail.

It appeared however that one of the travelling platforms mounted on the drydock wall was out of position at the south end of the dock, hanging out over the water.

However by 1630 the ship was clear of the dock and in the lower harbour preparing for a compass swing before heading to sea. The ship did not use any tugs to leave the drydock.

Today's activities-from the Dartmouth side

Bess at Autoport, unloading an endless stream of Mercs and Bimmers:

Acadian at anchor waiting a berth at Imperial Oil, while Survival Systems lifeboat training goes on:

Repairs to Louis S. St-Laurent continuing (note the odd shape around the anchor pocket):

and CNAV Quest made a cold move to the gun wharf:

Nordpol - repairs completed

The bulker Nordpol sailed this afternoon after completing repairs to her prop at pier 31. The ship had damaged the prop in ice during her trip to La Baie, on the Saguenay River with a cargo of bauxite ore from Kamsar, French Guinea.
She is now headed for Trombitas, Brazil for another load of the same mineral.

Halifax back to normal

The port re-opened for business this morning when it became safe to board pilots at the pilot station off Chebucto Head. Maersk Patras and  Zim Rio Grande arrived for Halterm and OOCL Shanghai.for Fairview Cove, and Zim Barcelona and Fusion sailed from anchor, the latter not until 1300 due to concerns about its low freeboard and pilot safety.
Also the bulker Wadi Alarab, a gearless Panamax ship  arrived at pier 27-28 to load grain. Owned by the National Navigation Co of Cairo  (see http://www.nnc.com.eg/home/index.html ) it appears to be a hard bitten piece of work despite its fairly recent age.

Built in 2005 by Daewoo's yard in Geoje South Korea, it measures 37,500 gross tons and 64,214 deadweight tonnes. Since Egypt lies very low on the Paris MOU list, I expect it will receive lots of attention from the Steamship inspectors. The Paris MOU list rates state flags for incidence of detentions per inspection and Egypt is fifth from the bottom, with only Viet Nam, Cook Islands, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines below it.