The Campbells are coming

Well only one Campbell, and it is USCGC Campbell WMEC 990, a Famous class medium endurance cutter based in Kittery, ME. It has called in Halifax on several other occasions as a courtesy visit, often towards the end of military exercises.

USCGC Campbell glides past Macnab's Cove on its inbound passage this morning.

Built in 1986, commissioned in 1988, the cutter has figured in several important drug busts in addition to the usual search and rescue operations. It is a member of the Famous class, named for previous USCG cutters that achieved fame. In fact it is the sixth cutter named Campbell, but it was the fifth one that achieved the most fame, a veteran of World War II., Korea and Viet Nam, that lasted 46 years in service.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Campbell_%28WPG-32%29
Also see the current Campbell's official web site:
http://www.uscg.mil/lantarea/cgcCampbell/

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Finesse new to Nirint

Nirint Shipping's regular service from Cuba brought in a ship that has not been here before. Finesse anchored first for Asian gypsy moth inspection, then moved to pier 31 to unload the usual cargo of bagged nickel concentrate.
Finesse was built in 2008 by Qingshan Shipbuilding in Wuhan, China for the now defunct Beluga Shipping as Beluga Finesse.

Finesse has the blank sided accommodation of the Beluga ships, originally used to display a large graphic of a whale's tail.

Beluga, of Bremen, Germany, was taking the shipping world by storm with is new fleet of multi-purpose ships with heavy lift capacity when it collapsed amid fraud charges. Its fleet was dispersed among many different owners, several of them from Germany. Finesse and some sisters went to Peter Doehle of Hamburg in 2011 and has operated for them ever since.
The ship can carry 665 TEU, including 25 reefers, and has two 150 tonne cranes that can be combined for a 300 tonne lift. Its tonnages are 12,684 grt and 12,782 dwt.

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Quiet on the eastern front

It was a quiet day on the waterfront - if you don't count herring seiners - which I do. There were six. All arrived this morning and it was a major traffic jam at pier 24 as they unloaded and some took on ice.
Aside from the four boats that have been here regularly, the Tasha Marie finally made an appearance.
Built in 1979 by John Manly Shipyard in Vancouver as Cindy H, it is owned by the intriguingly named Turpentine Seiners Ltd of Wedgeport, NS.

Tasha Marie tucked in at Queen's Wharf after unloading then returned to pier 24 to take on ice. 

The skull and cross bones on the right was part of a waterfront event, not associated with this boat.

Also arriving for the first time this year was Sealife II. It is now owned by Comeau's Seafoods Ltd of Saulnierviulle and sports the company's blue hull colour, but it was always a red hull before that.

Sealife II rounds up to come alongside the Tall Ships Quay.

Built in 1970 by Ferguson Industries in Pictou, NS, it is a sister to Lady Janice II, which started life as Sealife No.1 in the same yard in the same year. Sea Life Fisheries (1988) Ltd is a division of Comeau's Seafoods, however it was a previous company that owned these boats during the original herring boom. 

Comeau's is a large business and also has a ship repair facility in Saulnierville Meteghan, which includes a marine railway [edited]. When I was there last November, Sealife II was on the cradle.

Most of the other comings and goings of the day took place in pouring rain, which is my excuse for not taking photos.

However the air cleared off somewhat for the late afternoon arrival of the "off again/on again" Canadian ship Qamutik. The ship dates from 1994 when it was built by Friesian Welgelegen at Harlingen, Netherlands for Spliethoff's. Named Edisongracht, it traded for them until 2008 when an arrangement was made with Umialarak Transportation for seasonal service to do northern supply work in Canada.  To be managed by Transport Qamutik In (Logistec) it would return to Spliethoff's for the remaining eight months of the year. 

It was renamed Qamutik (translation: ice sled, also known as komatik) for the summers of 2008 and 2009. reverting to Edisongracht each fall. In 2010 it became Qamutik permanently, and is now bareboat chartered back to Spliethoff's in the off season without change of name.

 Amongst its deck load of containers, the ship is also carrying a shrink wrapped pleasure craft. Spleithoff's has a large business in transporting yachts.

Its arrival today was under the Dutch flag, but it is due in Valleyfield, QC, its loading terminal, later this month where it will hoist the Canadian flag again and sail June 21 for the north.

Still wearing Spliethoff's funnel marking and flying the Netherlands flag. Note the stern anchor, fitted for compliance with St.Lawrence Seaway rules, but also for anchoring in the north where there are no permanent harbours, and cargo must be lightered ashore.

The ship measures 8448 grt, 12,754 dwt and carries three 60 tonne cranes and can carry 730 TEU. It berthed at pier 9c where it will offload some containers.

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Contrasts + update

The St-Pierre et Miquelon feeder service was expecting to inaugurate its "new" ship today, marking the end of the line for the veteran Fusion. When Fusion loomed out of the fog this morning, it headed to pier 31 41 to unload. At the same time Nolhanava ex Shamrock moved from pier 34 to pier 36 to begin loading.

A deck hand heads aft to prepare for tying up at pier 41.

At some point during the day the loading of Nolhanava was cancelled and instead it now seems that Fusion will be making at least one more trip.Nolhanava arrived April 23 and there has been activity on deck and elsewhere indicating repairs and maintenance to ready the ship for its return to the St-Pierre run after an 11 year absence. See addendum



Speaking of fog the intense blanket was only beginning to burn off this morning as Selfoss arrived at Halterm pier 42 a few minutes before the Fusion.

As George's Island becomes visible, the fog still conceals most of the Dartmouth side of the harbour. No audio on this shot, but the ferries were sounding their fog horns.

 Selfoss emerges from the fog. A bit of photo editing shows more of the ship than I saw.

The fog soon burned off completely, and at Pier 9c there was good news for the Harefield as some new component arrive in a large crate. Work under the ship's stern has been going off and on, but it was apparent that they were waiting for something to be manufactured.

A crane gets ready to offload a crate, positioning it so that the Harefield's engine room gantry will be able to access its contents. Note the exhaust scrubber adjacent to the ship's funnel, partly blocking the Gearbulk logo. It allows the ship to burn heavy fuel and still meet emissions regulations.

Addendum:

Saturday update: Nolhanava idle at pier 36, Fusion loading at pier 37 Saturday morning, with a sailing time scheduled for later in the day.

No fun: Fusion loading in the driving rain, and Nolhanava idle.

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Big Tanker, Small Cruiser

As the cruise industry continues to expand and as the Esso refinery is no more, we have become accustomed to ever larger cruise ships and an endless parade of handysize product tankers. Today the table turned somewhat as the large tanker Princimar Joy and the small cruise ship Saint Laurent arrived.

Princimar Joy, built in 2010 by Jiangsu Rongsheng in Rugao, China measures 83,850 grt, 156,493 dwt. Princimar Maritime is based in Southport CT, but the ship is managed by Northern Marine Management of Clydebank, Scotland.It flies the Marshall Islands flag.

With stern escort tug Atlantic Oak in close company, Princimar Joy anchors in number one anchorage. Esso's Imperoyal facility in the background no longer refines oil, but there is no sign of the promised dismantling.

The ship was at anchor for little more than two hours- just long enough for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to conduct an Asian gypsy moth inspection. It then sailed for Saint John, NB with is cargo of crude oil.

Following soon after was Saint Laurent:

Saint Laurent began life in 2001 at Atlantic Marine in Jacksonville, FL as Cape May Light, one of a pair of "retro" look pocket cruisers that attempted to recapture the bygone days of the bay, sound and river passengers ships, such as CSL's Great Lakes and St.Lawrence cruise boats.
Cape May Light operated for a few months in 2011 until the 9/11 terror attacks resulted in the bankruptcy of several cruise companies, including its owners American Classic Voyages. Both Cape May Light and the uncompleted sister Cape Cod Light were repossessed by the shipyard and eventually sold by the U.S. Maritime Administration in 2008 to Clipper Cruises Ltd (managers International Shipping Partners). Renamed Sea Voyager the former Cape May Light was chartered by the United Nations to house aid workers in Haiti in 2010.
It received a Canadian coasting license to house construction workers at Deception Bay, Nunavik for Xstrata's Raglan (now called Katinniq) nickel mine's port expansion from July to November 2011.
After another period of layup Fleetpro (formerly International Shipping Partners) announced in September last year that a charter had been agreed with Haimark Line, a UK company. A $3.5 mn refit followed and the ship entered service this spring as Saint Laurent cruising the east coast, St.Lawrence and Great Lakes. It will move to the Caribbean and South America for the winter.

Saint Laurent is dwarfed even by the modestly sized Maasdam as it nestles up to pier 21.

Fleetpro are the technical and hotel services managers, as they are on the Nova Star ferry among numerous other ships:
https://www.fleetpro-psm.com/press-release/ms-saint-laurent-proudly-sailing-fleetpro
Haimark are the cruise operators:
http://www.haimarkline.com/

Designed by Guido Perla & Associates, for 227 passengers and 77 crew, it is now marketed as 105 staterooms and all new expedition type amenities.It is powered with azimuthing stern drives, driven by two main engines at 1970 bhp each and a 1,000 bhp bow thruster.

During some refit it lost its forward dummy funnel, but its prominent steering pole was extended, and it received some cranes to handle expedition boats, bridge awnings and other minor adjustments.

In its only season of operation as Cape May Light it visited Quebec City and tied up at the Pointe-à- Carcy sea wall astern of Queen Elizabeth 2. Note it has a forward dummy funnel and short steering pole.

This may be the look they were trying to achieve in the original design. I will let you be the judge.

Canada Steamship Lines' Quebec and its fleet mates were the epitome of  gracious cruising on the St.Lawrence, while also carrying some freight and vehicles.

 This photo was taken about 100 yards from the photo immediately above it.

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Colour commentary

The herring seiners were not the only colourful ships in harbour today. An early arrival was the autocarrier Suzuka Express.

Suzuka Express has taken its tugs on the way in this morning.

Wearing the colourful livery of  Vroon BV of the Netherlands, the ship was built in 2010 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Shimonoseki, Japan. It has a capacity of 3,930 cars on 10 decks, and measures 43,810 grt, 15, 154 dwt.It flies the Panama flag Unusual for car carriers, its owners publish a spec sheet on their web site: http://www.vroon.nl/  (Look under fleet)

Passed Indian Point outbound this afternoon.

Later in the day the Marshall Islands flag tanker Torm Ragnhild came to anchor for Asian gyspy moth inspection before it moved to Imperial Oil to unload.

Dominion Diving's launch Halmar has taken the pilot off the ship because the pilot boat is outside working another ship.

A fairly typical handysize tanker of 30,018 grt, 46,168 dwt, it is a stand out due to its owner's colour scheme, and the rare sight of a hull banner on a product tanker..

Built by STX Shipbuilding Co in Jinhae, South Korea, it is operated by Torm A/S: http://www.torm.com/
The well known Danish company has been experiencing heavy financial weather since 2010, and has been restructured. It has just shown its first profitable quarter thanks in part to an increased demand for tankers.

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And they're off

Like the start of a horse race, the herring seiners headed for sea starting at 1400 hrs this afternoon. They had been in port for several days due to foul weather which prevented fishing.
First off was Lady Janice II - this time in clear weather.

It was followed by Silver Harvester 1, which began to deploy its paravnes almost as soon  as it was off the dock., with Lady Melissa  following behind.

Going fishing for the first time, Dual Venture was the next to go.

Leroy and Barry No.II also sailed, but carried out a compass adjustment before it left port.

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