Cruise Ship Countdown - CORRECTED

October 31 is the last day of the cruise ship season. We were expecting one last ship today, but as it turned out there were four ships in port, thanks to some very rough weather outside.

The remnants of tropical storm Philippe passing out to sea brought very high winds to Halifax and as a result
there were many delays in sailings and arrivals since late last week.  The Silver Whisper was one of two ships that arrived on Sunday October 29 and opted to remain in port.

Although not exactly red, the Sunday morning sky certainly gave sailors a warning of what was to come. 90 kph plus winds and lashing rain were the order of the day from Sunday evening to late Monday afternoon, when the rain let up but not the wind. High seas delayed pilots from getting to ships and there were numerous cancellations or postponements.
For more photos of the ship, scroll down to September 23 and October 7.

T minus 4

Silver Whisper sailed early this morning.

T minus 3

Crown Princess arrived on Monday October 30 and opted to remain in port over night. The 113,651 grt ship, built in 2006 by Fincantieri Italiani, Monfalcone, with a capacity of 3,080 passengers is one of the larger ships to call this year,.

It sailed late this afternoon, still in a brisk breeze, but at least the seas had subsided.

T minus 2

Scheduled to be the last cruise ship of the season, Sevens Seas Mariner arrived on schedule this morning, and sailed this afternoon.

At 48,075 grt, it is one of the mid-size ships, carrying only 700 passengers. Built in 2001 by Chantier de l'atlantique, St-Nazaire, it was the world's first "all-suite / all-balcony" cruise ship.

Seven Seas Mariner was the last scheduled cruise ship of the season, however....

T minus 1

The honour for last ship however will go to the inland seas vessel Victory 1. Returning from its cruise season on the Great Lakes, it arrived in Halifax Sunday, remained in port and is planning to sail late this evening.

Tucked in at pier 24 it was only possible to get a broadside shot of it.
For more, see  Shipfax 2016-10-12 and 2015-06-04 .

The End ...

of the cruise ship season for this year anyway.
By my count there were 180 cruise ship calls this season. There were also two brief med-evacs that did not tie up (not included in that number). The number does include two unscheduled diversions to Halifax due to weather. There was also only one cancellation that I am aware of. Artania AIDAmar was on the schedule for October 27 but may have by-passed Halifax due to weather The pilot boat was off station at her scheduled arrival time and I believe she kept on for her next port in rough weather.

P.S. Thanks to readers for the correction to a double error. Artania arrived on the 25th and sailed on the 26th. I may still be in error, but I am fairly certain that AIDAmar did by-pass Halifax - I await further information. 

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Large Day at Halterm

An old expression in the Maritime Provinces to describe fine weather "it's a large day" applied twofold today at Halterm. Bright sun and above normal temperatures coupled with two ships kept the terminal busy.
The morning arrival was Camellia the newest ship on the CMA CGM / Maersk transatlantic service on its second call after permanently replacing the burned out Maersk Pembroke.  It used the two slightly smaller cranes at pier 42.

Parents, kids and dogs enjoy Point Pleasant Park as Camellia works at Pier 42.

 

The mid-morning arrival was APL Houston for the Columbus JAX service. One of four APL ships and 13 CMA CGM ships currently on the service, it is a 109,712 grt, 108,000 dwt vessel built in 2014 by Daewoo, Okpo. As the line upgrades its ships from 8200 to 9200 TEU range, this is one of the latter. It still wears its APL (American President Line) markings more than a year after CMA CGM took over parent NOL (Neptune Orient Line) of Singapore. CMA CGM recently unveiled a new logo and is slowly re-branding its ships and new containers. There is no word on how long APL will retain its identity in CMA CGM.

CMA CGM was formed in 1996 with the merger of Compagnie maritime d'affrètement and Compagnie générale maritime, and has grown to have a fleet of 445 vessels.

Atlantic Fir on the stern and Atlantic Oak on the bow turn the ship off Halterm.

With both tugs now on the port side, the ship backs in toward Pier 41.

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As soon as Camellia was loaded, the two cranes it was using  moved to pier 41 to assist the two large cranes working on APL Houston.

Workers in a basket from one mobile crane assist rigging the second crane to lift off a boom section of the decommisioned container crane. The third crane awaits is fate.

Meanwhile Halterm continues to dismantle obsolete container cranes. Work has started on removing the second crane of three old units. The crane at Pier 36 may be next - it has not been working for months.
Halterm has announced some new equipment recently, such as five high straddle loaders, but so far has not announced new container cranes. Speculation abounds that the operation is due for another expansion since moving container activity to Dartmouth is not feasible. A third 1000+ foot berth with at least two cranes would seem to be the absolute minimum they need to handle future traffic.However they would need to serve any ship with at least four cranes. Adding a contiguous 1100 foot berth to the existing Pier 41 and 42 (each 1,093 feet) would be, to say the least, quite challenging.

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Don't forget the big picture

An on-line dictionary defines 'the big picture' with an example:




"He's so involved with the minutiae that he misses the big picture"




As the cruise ship Disney Magic arrived in Halifax this morning it was hard to miss the impressive sunrise as a big picture backdrop.

However for those of us interested in more detail, the ship is also impressive in its own right.



Although only one of the funnels is for the propulsion system, the two funnel arrangement is distinctive and balances the ship's massive profile. It was very windy this morning and the ship used a tug to reach its berth at pier 22.

Although I could do without some of the whimsical décor, the Disney people got it right with the ship's lines and classic colour scheme.


Built in 1998 (and refit in 2013) with a passenger capacity of 2700 (but only 875 cabins) the ship is not a big one by current standards at 83,338 grt. It has called here a few times each year as a break from its usual Caribbean operations.

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Sunrise on Neah Bay

No I am not travelling - I am still in Halifax - not in Neah Bay. It is a small port in the northwest corner of Washington State, on the Olympic Peninsula, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is just about as far away from Halifax as you can get on the mainland of North America.

The United States Coast Guard named one of its Bay class icebreaking tugs Neah Bay WTGB-105, after the area where it maintains a base. Although the cutter is based in Cleveland, OH its leaves the Great Lakes periodically for refits, and returns in time for the winter and spring icebreaking season.


It arrived yesterday for a brief stopover on the return leg of its latest trip.

At sunrise this morning, the cruise ship AIDAviva had just tied up at Pier 20 and the George's Island light was cutting through the deep shadows.


This is the Neah Bay's second call here in two years - for info on its last call see: Shipfax May 14, 2016

Lots of Length

There was lots of length at pier 20-22 today - that is if you count part of the Tall Ships Quay. Two years ago the Port installed an extra bollard at the TSQ to use when there are two large cruise ships in at the same time. It has seen frequent use as the ships get bigger and bigger.

The Seawall, as it is called, is just over 610m (2000 feet) long and was built to take two of the largest passenger ships then afloat. At the time however even the largest ships barely exceeded 900 feet, Such ships as Cunard's Aquitania (902 feet) and White Star's Olympic (883 feet) were among the biggest ships, with only the German giants Bismarck (956 feet) and Vaterland (950 feet) closing on triple digits.  

Today is was Crown Princess 290m (951 feet) and Celebrity Summit 294m (965 feet) with the bow of the former extending well north of pier 20. With three headlines out to the TSQ bollard the ship was well secured.

 
Crystal Symphony sailed first, backing out into the stream from pier 20-22. It was then the turn of Celebrity Summit which called in the tug Atlantic Willow to lend a hand pulling it off the pier and lining it up for its north about run around George's Island.

With shorter days there may be very few evening photos for a while.

Unless it is with the smart phone.

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Crystal Serenity

Crystal Serenity, a 1,000 person capacity cruise ship that called in Halifax October 9 returned again this evening but only briefly and put back out to sea in an hour. Normally such a short visit means a medical emergency evacuation.

The ship is well known for its two Northwest Passages, starting in 2016. This year's 32 day cruise from Alaska to Greenland,  when it was accompanied by the ice escort vessel Ernest Shackleton, the on to New York via Halifax, was apparently not sold out and will not be repeated.

A new ship, Crystal Endeavour , a 200 passenger polar-code megayacht is due for delivery next year, but may be working a different itinerary. The impact of huge numbers of passengers on tiny arctic communities will certainly be more manageable with a smaller ship.

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Early Arrival

Taking ship photos in the early morning from Halifax is much easier when there is a bit of cloud cover as there was this morning.

That meant that Zuiderdam's port side, while in shadow was reasonably visible without the blaring sun directly behind it.

One of four Holland America ships regularly calling in Halifax during the cruise season, Zuiderdam was built originally in  2002 by Fincantieri Breda in Marghera, Italy. It is a Vista class ship, one of four, each named for the directions on a compass (Oosterdam = east, Westerdam = west, Noordam = north and Zuiderdam = south).

The ship received a major refurbishment in 2015 boosting its gross tonnage from 81,769 to 82,820. With this the ships has a maximum capacity of 2272 passengers, although the normal load is 1916 with 842 crew.

The ship has an unusual propulsion system, consisting of five diesel engines (three of 16 cylinders and two of 12 cylinders) and a gas turbine driving electric azipod thrusters.