One Summer(like) Day

A rapid turnaround in weather gave Halifax a summer-like day and thus the land side of the waterfront was jammed with people and traffic. This imposed serious limitations on photographic mobility, and so coverage of today's port activity is a little thinner than usual.

Late last night the tanker Zephyros arrived and anchored in the lower harbour.  It is not common for these ships to anchor inside the harbor, particularly when the destination berth is unoccupied. Coming from Port Arthur, TX, the ship has refined product for Imperial Oil.

Built in 2013 by SPP Shipbuilding in Sacheon, South Korea, the 29,924 gt, 50,155 dwt ship flies the Panama flag for the anonymous Zefyros Trading SA of Greece. Management of the ship is handled by Benetech Shipping SA, employing a crew entirely of Georgian nationality through Elvictor Ltd, also of Athens. (The pyramidal shape symbol on the funnel is the Benetech logo.)

The ship is expected to move to Imperial Oil by midnight tonight.

Also at anchor for the morning CMA CGM Libra required an Asian Gypsy Moth inspection before it moved to Halterm for noon.

Cerescorp remained busy today, with Atlantic Sun arriving this morning, sailing this afternoon, and its berth taken by MOL Partner soon after.

MOL Partner works its way inbound with the tug Spitfire III as tethered escort.

The tour boat Peggys Cove Express speeds along inbound for the Cable Wharf.

The Yantain Express did not go to anchor in Bedford Basin last night as expected. Instead it was still working cargo at the west berth through the night. It finally moved to the east berth at 0400hrs this morning. It remained idle today.

One of the large stacks of boxes offloaded from Yantian Express.

It has been reported that it will take twelve days to unload the Yantian Express's cargo. Containers that have been cleared by the insurers will be arranged on the dock to allow forwarding by rail or ship. Another stack will be created for those boxes for which security has not been posted. Their fate remains unknown.

An unusual Saturday arrival at Halterm was Oceanex Sanderling. It normally sails for St.John's weekly on Fridays. However this week it arrived and sailed on Tuesday, making a quick turnaround at Halterm and Autoport. It will now make another hasty round trip, due to heavier summer demand, sailing early tomorrow morning. 

Also from Halterm, dredging work stopped early this week. The last I saw the dredge Derrick No.4 working was on Wednesday. 

McNally's barges and tugs and other gear are now at pier 9 and pier 9C setting up for construction of the cribs for the Halterm extension. The Port Authority states the extension work will be completed in the first quarter of 2020.

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Harbour Business - More Rain and Fog - and some updates

Today's weather forecast is for more rain and fog, so harbour picture taking will again be curtailed. Harbour business continues unabated however.

The Nirint Shipping Augusta Mars at pier 31 is expected to complete unloading the latest consignment of nickel sulfides from Cuba this afternoon then sail for Europe.

The ship arrived yesterday under ideal conditions, and was assisted to its berth by the tugs Atlantic Fir and Spitfire III.

As the ship made its way to pier 31, the outbound container ship Brighton encountered what was believed to be an inattentive pleasure craft crossing its course just south of George's Island. The ship had to sound its signal horn five times to warn off the boat. The ship may also have had to reduce speed or even attempt to stop. It was certainly going very slowly by the time it reached Ives Knoll. The incident was blocked from my view as I was taking the above picture.

Pleasure craft are are an inevitable hazard in summer time and it is a wonder there have not been more serious incidents. Boaters seem oblivious to the presence of big ships and their right of way.

At Fairview Cove, work continues to unload the Yantian Express. The ship has shifted from the west end (big cranes) to the east end (small crane) and back again to make room for other ships, and this evening is expected to move out to anchor in Bedford Basin.

Yantian Express gets ready to shift from the west to east berth at Fairview Cove on Wednesday evening to make room for the Brighton. It moved back again after Brighton  sailed.

Yantian Express will unload all of its cargo in Halifax before sailing to China for permanent repairs to fire damage. Thanks to the trade imbalance with Asia, empty containers continue to pile up in North American and European ports. It is difficult to find room on ships with paying cargo to return the boxes to China for re-use. Several ideas are in the works including folding boxes that can be reduced to about a third of their normal height, and stacked to take up less space for the return trip.

Yantian Express's "non-revenue" trip to China is an opportunity send a number of those empty boxes back (believed to be in the range of 1,000).

More information has emerged about the incident aboard Maersk Patras on Monday when the ship's second officer was lost overboard. The man's apparent death (his body has not been recovered) had nothing to do with pilot boarding, and may have only been coincidental to the ship's position off the Escoumins pilot station at the time.

Maersk Patras heads to sea from Halifax in 2013. The lashings on the containers, secured by longshoremen,  are clear to see - they are the large X-shaped bracing rods connecting the corners of the containers.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) has condemned the dangerous practice of unlashing containers while the ship is underway on the St.Lawrence River. Montreal is one of the few if not only ports in the world where ships are expected to arrive in port with the containers unlashed. The heavy retaining rods are removed by the ship's crew to make the ship ready to unload immediately on arrival.

The ITF states that this dangerous work should be done by qualified longshoremen, while the ship is in port, and not by ship's crews who may be inexperienced and may be shifted off balance while handling the heavy lashing gear at sea. The ITF has requested that the practice be banned by Transport Canada and the Port of Montreal, stating that they have allowed the practice to continue despite warnings about the dangers.

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Coast Guard Renewal

The much anticipated Coast Guard renewal process was announced today by the Prime Minister at a photo op in Vancouver. With a federal election coming in the fall everything is now timed to maximize political benefit.  This announcement could have (should have) been made years ago, but at least the wheels are in motion.

The essence of the announcement as I understand it is as follows:

Halifax Shipyard / Irving Shipbuilding:

•  will build two Arctic Offshore Patrol vessels for the Coast Guard. These will be adaptations of the six AOPS currently contracted for the RCN. (This will provide more stop gap work until the 15 ship surface combatant project gets rolling, and will likely be added at the end of the AOPS program. (That grinding sound you hear in the background is the gnashing of teeth in some CCG circles.) The AOPS ships are the great "unloved" of the RCN and now the CCG!

Vancouver Shipyard / Seaspan:

• will build 16 multi-purpose vessels to include light [I hope this means medium duty at least]  ice breaking, environmental and SAR duties. This represent replacement of the entire current CCG fleet of medium and light duty icebreakers, navaids vessels and offshore patrol vessels of any significant size, except the three recent ex Swedish supplier/icebreakers. There was no indication in the announcement I saw today of how many classes of vessels are involved, but I think there will need to be at least two. One would be medium/heavy duty icebreakers and one would be light icebreaker/navaids types. 
• VSY is also committed to building the polar icebreaker but just when is the question. The plan was for it to follow the JSS (Joint Support Ships) for the RCN which are underway now.That would mean that some of the newly announced vessels could start construction in 3 to 5 years.

"Another Yard"
As part of the announcement the PM said that the CCG will also get a new class of inshore, shallow draft, multi-mission vessels that can do inshore science.
No yard has been selected, but commentators expect that Davie will get the work.
I am not so sure. Details are skimpy on these vessels as of now, but in view of several past decisions, "in-shore" means undersized. Certainly well below the capabilities of Davie, and well within the capabilities of several smaller yards, mainly in Quebec, such as Meridian in Matane and Forillon in Gaspé, perhaps acting in consortium.
Davie has just been handed the Holiday Island and Madeleine replacements, which will be largish ships of medium to high complexity, particulary if they go with eco-hydrid types.

Also
Since the vessels announced today will be some time (5 to 15 years) to complete, the CG has been allotted $2 bn to refit and life extend ships. Some of those will be limping to the finish line, but it will provide work for a variety of yards outside the National Shipbuilding Strategy program.

NSS
The National Shipbuilding Strategy already in place has committed to the following:

Vancouver Shipyard:

• 3 Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels (DFO /CCG)
• 2 Joint Support Ships (RCN)
• 1 big icebreaker (CCG)
• 1 Offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel (DFO/CCG)

Halifax Shipyard:

• 5, recently increased to 6, Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessels (RCN)
• 15 surface combatants - 12 frigates and three? destroyers

Still Missing:
One more interim supply ship for the RCN.  Maybe another sop to Quebec if the election polls are looking bad?

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Grandeur of the Seas - but things not so grand for others.

It was a blustery mid-morning arrival for Grandeur of the Seas today. Its last port was Saint John, NB, so perhaps the skipper decided to take it easy and not press the ship into high winds and seas to get here earlier.
 

The ship is a familiar visitor to Halifax. Now based in Baltimore, it has been calling here since at least 2001. Built in 1997 by Kvaerner Masa in Helsinki, the 73,817 gt  ship has a passenger capacity of 2446 with 760 crew. The Port of Halifax schedule indicates it may be carrying 2000 passengers on this trip. Weather is always an issue this early in cruise season, especially for the smaller ships.

Yesterday's caller, Pearl Mist bravely set out last evening for its next port of call which is to be Pictou.

Two cruise ship visits to Halifax have already been cancelled this year. The small cruise ships Victory I (scheduled for May 5) and Victory II (scheduled for today) are now operated by American Queen Steamboat Co. Last year they took over Victory Cruise Lines that market summer Great Lakes region cruises.  Victory I may simply have bypassed Halifax due to weather. The ship is already on the Great Lakes.
Victory II has just left West Palm Beach, FL, and is due in Montreal May 30. It may have experienced some sort of technical issue.

Not included in the regular Halifax cruise schedule are the ships of One Ocean Cruises. A Canadian company that organizes Arctic and Antarctic cruises they have been using the Russian research ships Akademik Sergey Vavilov and Akademik Ioffe since 2011. Last year the latter ship ran aground in the arctic and evacuated all passengers and non-essential crew (more than 100 people) to the former ship. The damaged ship then spent several months at the Verreault Shipyard in Méchins, QC undergoing repairs.

This year One Ocean planned extensive cruising in the north and had been granted a coasting license for the Akademik Ioffe starting in July. However it is now reported that the Russian Shirshov Institute, owners of the ships have withdrawn them. Fortunately One Ocean has a third ship, Resolute, with available space and it appears that the summer season will not have to be cancelled.

The two Russian ships have called in Halifax from time to time for stores while repositioning from the Arctic to the Antarctic, but have not been regular cruise ship callers since they are not usually carrying passengers when they call here.

They have been covered in previous posts: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2018/09/akademik-sergey-vavilov.html

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Fire not the only hazard

Today's arrival in Halifax, the Yantian Express, is just one of several ships that have suffered fires at sea recently. Ships of Grimaldi Lines (parent company of ACL) have suffered two fires in past months, one of which resulted in the total loss of the ship when it sank in the Bay of Biscay. In the other, two fires broke out in the same ship on different decks within an hour or so. In that case the crew was able to extinguish both  fires and minimize damage.
The chairman of Grimaldi Group is calling for stronger regulation to control the contents of  containers, and the condition of automobiles shipped by sea.

Recent fires have been traced to containers that were improperly labelled or stowed, but there are other causes too. Another regular caller in Halifax suffered a serious fire in the engine room. November 1, 2016 while 90 miles ESE of Las Palmas, a major fire erupted in the engine room of Maersk Patras knocking out the main engine and generators. Fortunately the fire was suppressed by the on board CO2 system and no lives were lost. The ship eventually returned to service and is on the Canada Atlantic Express operated by Maersk and CMA CGM, calling in Montreal and Halifax.

 Maersk Patras with its accommodation ladder raised.

 It will be lowered when it is time to disembark the pilot. No pilot ladder will be used

On Sunday May 19 while Maersk Patras was inbound on the St.Lawrence River to embark a pilot at Escoumins, QC, one of the crew members fell overboard. Despite an immediate response with the ship's own rescue boat and the pilot boat and a large SAR operation with Coast Guard vessels and aircraft, the victim was not recovered from the 6 degree C waters. Reports indicate that it was the ship's second officer that was lost, and that he was not wearing a PFD or life line.

Particularly with high sided craft such as container ships and tankers in ballast, ships use what is called a "combination ladder", that is  an accommodation ladder in combination with a pilot ladder.

 Making the awkward transition between pilot (rope) ladder and accommodation ladder is difficult enough in calm harbour conditions at anchor let alone with the ship underway in any kind of seas.

Some container ships and autocarriers have side port doors low on the hull to eliminate the need for a combination ladder. That is no guarantee of safety however. In a recent incident a sea broke into the opening as two crew members were opening the inner door. One man was swept away and the other injured.

Crew members frequently have to use the accommodation ladder while the ship is underway to ensure it is rigged properly for the pilot. And pilots have to use the ladders all the time while embarking and disembarking. It is unfortunate, but accidents still happen despite measures to make boarding and disembarking safer.

Maersk Patras is due in Halifax next weekend on its way back to Europe. As with any ship that calls in certain ports regularly, crew members have friends or family in those communities, and I am sure there will be many in Montreal and Halifax who will be grieving the loss of this officer.  I extend my sympathy to those effected.

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Yantian Express arrives

The much anticipated arrival of the Yantian Express this morning was obscured to a degree by rain. As the ship worked its way up the harbour, the rain intensified, but it was still possible to see some of the impact of the fire that destroyed 202 containers and damaged as many as 460 others.

The ship was en route to Halifax January 3 when the fire broke out northeast of Bermuda. Weather conditions were severe and firefighting was difficult for the small crew. Help arrived in the form of a nearby tug Smit Nicobar and over the next several days it was assisted by the Maersk Mobiliser out of St.John's and Horizon Star from Halifax and relived by the Sovereign, sent out from Rotterdam. By the time the ship finally arrived off Freeport, Bahamas January 30 the fire was subdued, although there was still concern about hot spots.

The laborious process of removing damaged containers and inspecting others, then cleanup and making repairs to the ship's hatch covers took until early this month. The ship was finally cleared to sail May 15.

On arrival today two other ships were occupying the berths at Fairview Cove and they had priority, so for the present Yantian Express is anchored in Bedford Basin awaiting its turn.

The ship is carrying no containers in the forward holds where the fire took place, and thus is trimmed down slightly by the stern, with the top of the bulbous bow just visible above the waterline. Containers originally destined for Halifax will be unloaded here, but it is unclear how the other containers will be dealt with.

Atlantic Bear on the flank and Atlantic Fir on the stern escort the ship to the anchorages.

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No Holiday

Although it is the Victoria Day holiday weekend on land, it does not appear that Monday will be a holiday at sea. The three herring seiners that have been in port since Friday sailed this afternoon for the fishing grounds.

 Morning Star is the newest and smallest of the three, built in 1991 by Caraquet Marine in New Brunswick. First owners, from Wilson's Beach, Grand Manan Island, registered the vessel in St.Andrews, NB. Ownership has since changed to Scotia Pelagic Inc of  Yarmouth, NS, but the port of registry remains unchanged.

Quick snap from my phone caught Morning Star easing away from its dock at Bishop's Landing early this afternoon.

Once Irving Oil's East Coast completes its work at Woodside early tomorrow morning. Its place will be taken later in the day by DL Rose which is currently unloading at Imperial Oil's #3 dock. (see yesterday's post).

East Coast is due to sail in the wee hours.

Since DL Rose will only be at Irving Oil for a few hours, I expect it will be there to take on bunkers rather than discharge or load any cargo.


The harbour looks to be quite busy tomorrow with three ships scheduled for Fairview Cove. Regular callers Atlantic Star and Budapest Bridge will dock on arrival, but the third will go to anchor.

That ship is the much anticipated Yantian Express, originally due the first week of January. Delayed by fire and the subsequent cleanup and repair in Freeport, Bahamas, the ship will now arrive with the surviving cargo destined for Halifax. There is no clear information from the shipping line or insurer what will happen then. I expect only the Halifax cargo will be unloaded here and the ship will proceed to New York for cargo that was destined there and on to its other east coast ports until all cargo is discharged. 

It is also unclear what condition the ship is in, and whether it will take on new cargo or will only unload  and eventually proceed to a shipyard for refit. Reports indicate that the hatch covers that were damaged by the fire have been repaired sufficiently for the ship to sail safely, but there must be other damage that will require substantial repair work.

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