Twin Citieis Part 1

The cities of Sioux City, Iowa and Wichita, Kansas may not have much in common, and as far as I know are not twinned, except in the names of two new ships for the United States Navy.

Both ships, USS Sioux City LCS-11 and Wichita LCS-13 have been completed by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin and are on their delivery trips. Both are scheduled to visit Halifax en route, and the first arrived today.

Today's fog and rain added to the ship's stealth characteristics.

USS Sioux City was laid down February 19, 2014, launched January 30, 2016 and delivered to the USN on August 22. After acceptance trials, it sailed from Marinette October 23. After a stop in stop in Detroit it made its way through the Welland Canal, escorted by the Hamilton, ON based tug Océan A. Gauthier and the St.Lawrence Seaway with the assistance of the tug Océan Henry Bain. After a stopover in Montreal it sailed November 3.  It is another in the Freedom class of Littoral Combat Ships built at Marinette, all of which have stopped in Halifax on their delivery trips.

Next week the next in the series USS Wichita is due in Halifax*. It was laid down February 2, 2015, and launched September 17, 2016.  After acceptance trials it was also handed over to the USN on the same day as Sioux City, August 22, 2018. It sailed from Marinette November 1 and following the same route, with the same escorts, arrived in Montreal yesterday, November 5.

Both ships have thus avoided last year's fiasco when LCS-9, USS Little Rock was beset by early forming ice in the St.Lawrence Seaway and had to spend the winter in  Montreal. Instead of arriving in Halifax over Christmas, it did not arrive until April 3.


The latest arrivals are not the last we will see.  A total of fifteen ships of the class have been built or are on order, with Marinette Marine, with eight still to come our way.


Update: As you will see from the comment below, someone is reporting that the USS Wichita visit will not take place.

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Finale

Finale
With the arrival today of two ships, the Halifax cruise season for 2018 has come to an end. Insignia tied up at pier 22 and Silver Wind at pier 23 on another day of high winds and driving rain. The last few weeks have been plagued by wild weather, and one wonders if lines will continue to come so late in the season where weather can be an issue. It is not just the missed or delayed port arrivals, but conditions at sea between ports must be less than idyllic too.

An uninviting looking pier 22 and pier 23 greeted the last visitors of 2018.

Insignia had an abbreviated visit October 29 - which was late at night and only long enough to take on needed fuel - and dropped its Sydney call altogether to head on to Quebec City. Silver Wind was also late arriving October 16 due to weather and sea conditions. Once again, as it did then, it used two tugs to berth. Remarkably I counted only two outright cancellations due to weather this year.

The ship Victory II that was late entering service from its refit and had to change its itinerary. That resulted in the loss of several calls. It, along with Pearl Mist,  each cancelled a late season call, likely due to weather. There was the abbreviated call mentioned above and some unplanned overnight stays that likely resulted in cancellations at other ports.

Halifax has experienced a continued growth in the cruise business this year, and will likely do so again next year.  A second berth in Sydney, NS next year is expected to mean more and larger ships in that port. It will also mean that fewer ships will have to tender passengers ashore from anchorage, making a Sydney call more attractive. The ports of Saint John, Sydney and Charlottetown see many of the same ships as Halifax, and improvements in one port will benefit all.

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Value Added

The self-unloading bulk carrier Algoma Value arrived this morning and tied up at pier31. I noted some tank trucks waiting, so it is likely to be bunkering, but may also have some maintenance work to do.

CSL Value "puts on the brakes" as it reverses engines to slow down before turning into pier 31. Two tugs are on the ship's starboard side.

 
This is the ship's third name - at least for part of it. As re-counted here in  Shipfax March 7, 2016 
the ship was built as the tanker Polysunrise in 1981 then converted to a self-unloader with a new forebody in 2006 and renamed Baldock. When owners Klaveness decided to exit the CSL self-unloader pool, Algoma picked up the ship and hastily renamed it Algoma Value as of January 1, 2016. Now that the ship has been in Algoma service for a couple of years, they have had time to repaint it in Algoma colours.

 Still with remnants of its Klaveness colour scheme, Algoma Value bunkered at anchor in March 2016.

Its last port of call is listed as Montreal, but I can't confirm that (AIS is sometimes mistaken).

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Sunday containers

After a very stormy night, with high winds wreaking havoc with power lines ashore and regional ferry services, shipping seemed to return to normal this morning, even though it was still windy, with the arrival of three container ships. Regular callers Atlantic Star and Bilbao Bridge, one after the other for Fairview Cove had all four harbour tugs in Bedford Basin at one time.

However before that happened a first time caller tied up at Halterm. CMA CGM Amazon arrived on the Columbus JAX service. Although similar in size to the other 18 or so ships on the rotation, it is not owned by CMA CGM or their wholly owed APL. Its owner is listed as Dias Container Carrier SA c/o Capital Ship Management of Piraeus, Greece. With 60 plus ships of all types totaling over 7mn tonnes deadweight under its control, Capital is one of the larger Greek shipping companies. Most of its ships' names begin with the letter "A".

Built in 2015 by Daewoo Mangalia, the 96,424 grt, 115,145 dwt ship has a capacity of 9288 TEU including 1500 reefers. It has open bridge wings unlike the recent APL ships that have full width enclosed bridges.


When CAM CGM Amazon arrived at Halterm, it squeezed in astern of San Adriano, yesterday's sole arrival, but which could not work last night due to fierce winds.

San Adriano, sailing on the Maersk Montreal Mediterranean Express (MMX) service, completed loading and sailed late this afternoon (and in daylight, thanks to the switch back to Standard time.) It is one of five ships on the service, that seem to be changing out from the original callers that started calling here in August, so this is likely its last call.


Owned through the Claus-Peter Offen interests of Hamburg, the ship was launched in 2008 under its present name, but was renamed Ibn Qutaibah for a year before reverting back. It is a product of Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan and at 22,914 grt, 28,300 dwt, has a capacity of 1819 TEU including a large reefer component of 462. It is also equipped with three 45 tonne cranes.

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More Boister

Another boisterous day on Halifax harbour, and there was only one commercial arrival and no departures. Some ships that were due today have delayed arrival until tomorrow when things are expected to calm down.,

In the harbour traffic was limited to the usual ferry crossings between Halifax and Dartmouth, with Halifax Transit's newest vessel Rita Joe doing the honours. The boat was completed by A.F.Thériault in late September and arrived in Halifax ca. September 30. Although it entered service about October 22, it was not officially welcomed into the fleet until a ceremony on October 26.

Passengers enjoy a splashy trip from Dartmouth to Halifax. 

 

It is the last of the five boat replacement fleet built since 2014, and means that Woodside I, built in 1986, has been removed from service. Both Dartmouth III and Halifax III have been sold to Toronto Island Transit Services Inc, with the first named delivered to Toronto last year, and the second still sitting in Sambro, NS awaiting delivery. 

In the murky reaches of anchorage number 2, at the entrance to Eastern Passage, CCGS Sir William Alexander and CCGC Sambro, with a number of CCG RHIBs were conducting a Search and Rescue exercise, well beyond clear camera range from Halifax.

At HMC Dockyard HMCS Windsor was enjoying shore leave so to speak, on the synchrolift. The sub was away from Halifax all summer and is no doubt in need of some maintenance.

A white tent structure erected astern may be related to prop work.

Today's one arrival, San Adriano appears to have moved up a day, to allow for tomorrow's arrival at Halterm, CMA CGM Amazon, a 9288 TEU ship that would be unwieldy to berth in today's windy conditions.

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Now We Are Six

As children of a certain era will recall, A.A.Milne's collection of poems for young readers was entitled "Now We Are Six".Today the minister of defence read from a sort of juvenile script - meant to reassure Halifax shipyard workers that all is right in the world and there is nothing to fear.

He managed not to sound embarrassed to announce that Halifax Shipyard will be building a sixth Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS). He sounded very complimentary to Halifax's shipbuilders, and promised them that there would now be continuity between completion of the AOPS work and the start of the frigate replacement program. Six AOPS had always been planned, but only five were contracted, with the sixth held out as a plum for good behaviour. Now that they have been good little boys and girls (and not messed up any welding) they are being rewarded with something that they had already earned and are entitled to.

As paternalism goes, this has to be one of the most blatant sops that government has made in recent memory.

In exchange for giving away millions of dollars of refit work to the existing Halifax class frigates, the government got off cheap, and relatively unscathed - so far. The timely start up of the new frigate program is hardly certain, and if it is delayed at all, then the promised continuity will be lost.

The recent announcement that half of those Halifax class life extension upgrades would go to Davie, a shipyard with no naval experience in recent memory - was totally political. Just because Halifax shipyard currently has only one drydock does not mean that a way can't be found to refit two frigates at once. But that was the excuse given for the giveaway. Instead, why not give Davie the job of building a new floating dock for Halifax. [This was how the late lamented Novadock came to be built mostly in Sorel and partly in Pictou - not for Halifax Shipyard, but for the Province of Nova Scotia. That floating dock was sold out from under our noses, and maybe Irving Shipbuilding's nose is being tweaked for that.] Davie benefits from a federally owned graving dock, so maybe a federally owned floating dock for Halifax is not a bad idea.

So spreading the soft SOAP (AOPS re-arranged) fell to the Minister, and he may have pacified some objectors. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how Davie can be expected to survive on handouts, and maintain any consistent level of expertise if the only work it can find comes as political crumbs. Davie risks becoming a chronic welfare case, always having to beg and never satisfied with what they are getting. They will always be playing the political card and will always drain off work from Halifax to get it. It remains to be seen if the refit work will give Davie sufficient expertise to force themselves in on the frigate construction.

It is virtually impossible to form a federal government in Canada without a majority in Quebec as any politician knows, but rather than be so blatantly political, surely their skills could be put to work in finding other work that Davie can do and provide them with some bankable expertise. I can think of no better way than to make them the go to yard for new conversion, rebuild and new construction for the Coast Guard.

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White on White

As the penultimate cruise ship day for the 2018 season, Halifax greeted the Seven Seas Navigator. The last day of the season will be November 6 with both Insignia and Silver Wind scheduled. However for today visitors were "treated" to a good old pea souper that developed as the morning wore on. Passengers were seen emerging with complimentary blue brollies and boarding buses for sites that may also be almost invisible.

Essentially the same scene as my October 23 post, minus the wind - plus the fog 

(and a supervising gull.)

The late days of this season have brought frightful weather which goes some way to explaining why there have not been many posts lately.

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