Buoy oh buoy

Due to the many rocky shoals and shallows, navigation into and out of Halifax harbour requires skill and knowledge. Harbour pilots have this in abundance, and coupled with their use of radar and satellite technology, they make hundreds of safe transits every year.

However not all mariners using the port have that skill and local knowledge. And surely there are times when the radar and Satnav may not be working. In such cases finding the channels and maintaining a safe course may have to rely on such centuries old devices as buoys and lighthouses.

Unless of course that century is the 21st and the year is 2020 and the time is right now.
I have it that at least three buoys and one lighthouse are currently unlit and have been so since before Christmas. Although these failures were reported to the CG nothing has been done to make repairs.

The Canadian Coast Guard has the responsibility for maintaining what are known as NAVAIDS (Aids to Navigation) and has its base right in Halifax harbour, at the Bedford Institute.

Under the jurisdiction of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Bedford Institute is also the Canadian Coast Guard base.

The buoy maintenance and repair facility is right here in the port and is to the left in the photo.

The buoy yard at the old Coast Guard base in Dartmouth (seen here in 1977) was relocated to the Bedford Institute when the old Coast Guard base  was shut down.

Even though the CCG is responsible for maintaining the buoys and lights in Halifax harbour (and throughout much of Nova Scotia and beyond) I cannot place all the blame for this on the CCG. Thanks to government policy (or lack of it) they have been chronically underfunded and under resourced for years. With aged ships constantly in need of repairs and the others stretched thin, it is no wonder there is a waiting list for work. Nevertheless working Navaids should be essential in a busy harbour.

There are three Navaids ships based in Halifax, but with multi-tasking required of CCG ships these days all are also expected to do Search and Rescue and icebreaking, so are only part time Navaids vessels. So where are these ships now?

CCGS Sir William Alexander has been undergoing a lengthy in water refit at the Bedford Institute, that included rebuilding its crane. Despite some sea trials recently, the ship has not yet returned to service.

CCGS Edward Cornwallis 

In December the ship was sent to the Great Lakes to cover the closing of the St.Lawrence Seaway. Presumably this was to break ice and prevent a recurrence of late season blockages, or maybe to lift some summer buoys.  This trip must have been to cover for a ship in the Central Region that was unavailable.

The Edward Cornwallis was then sent to the Gulf of St.Lawrence for ice breaking and is currently in Sydney., NS.

CCGS Earl Grey

The Earl Grey has been at work icebreaking in Newfoundland, as far north as the Strait of Belle Isle and now in Botwood. Again it is probably covering for a ship from the Newfoundland region that is unavailable. CCGS Ann Harvey, which ran aground in 2015 and was extensively rebuilt afterwards may or may not be in service.

The federal government has finally decided on how they will get around to building replacements for these three ships (and several others including heavy icebreakers) by going with Davie Shipbuilding in Quebec. In one way this was a good decision - Davie has the physical capacity  to build the ships and a very thin order book. However they have no recent experience building icebreakers and no track record of building multi ships orders, quickly. Yes they should be building two or three (or four or more) big icebreakers but that is it.

In order to re-equip the CCG quickly with smaller ships, there needs to be at least one more shipyard brought into the equation. There is the skeleton of a shipyard in St.Catharines, ON, the former Port Weller Dry Dock. To re-equip it to build ten to twelve new navaids ships would be worth the investment if a suitable operator was selected. (The federal government already owns the drydock and land). Heddle Marine thinks they are capable of operating such a yard,but a proper selection process is still needed. Particularly if it is a build / maintain contract, a dedicated CCG shipyard might be worth considering.

But back to Halifax. There is no doubt that the CCG is in need of many replacement ships, but is that the reason why Halifax harbour navigation aids are being neglected?

Perhaps the old question could be asked - how many Coast Guard ships does it take to change a light bulb?

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Nunavik - unusual request

There has been an unusual request for a Canadian coasting license.

Canadian laws require that cargo shipped between Canadian ports must be carried by Canadian flagged ships. In the event that no suitable Canadian ship is available, the Minister of Public Safety may issue a coasting license to a foreign flag ship.

A vital bit of cargo is required to keep a mine operating all winter in the Canadian far north and Fednav Limited has applied to use some of its foreign flag ships to deliver the cargo. Its only Canadian flag icebreaking ship, the Arctic, is overbooked for cargo and thus not available.
The cargo, a type of wire mesh used to reinforce the mine, was delivered defective and has now been replaced, but there are no other Canadian ships that can navigate into the north this late in the year to deliver it directly from Quebec City.

Arctic delivers ore from the Raglan mine to Quebec City and returns with general cargo and fuel.

The Arctic would normally carry the cargo from Quebec City to Deception Bay as part of its regular supply trips. However the additional 150 tons of material cannot be accommodated. Therefore Fednav wants to ship the cargo from Quebec to either Antwerp, Belgium or Pori, Finland using Federal Baltic, Federal Champlain or Federal Rhine or Wagenborg's Aragonborg.

Federal Baltic is one of Fednav's foreign flag carriers operating between Canada and Europe.

There the cargo would be transferred to Nunavik, Fednav's Marshal Islands flag icebreaking bulk cargo ship, and sent back to Canada, to Deception Bay.

Nunavik is an icebreaking cargo ship that delivers ore from the mine to customers in Europe.

For more details on the application and the ships see:
https://forms.otc-cta.gc.ca/maritime-marine/avis-notice_eng.cfm

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NACC Quebec

The bulk cement carrier NACC Quebec arrived at pier 27 late Tuesday (January 7).

The ship operates for McInnis Cement from its Port-Daniel, QC plant on the Gaspé peninsula. During the St.Lawrence Seaway season the ship runs into the Great Lakes, but in winter shifts to coastal runs to the US.

The ship has flown the Canadian flag (port of registry Gaspé) since May 19, 2017, after it was rebuilt from a conventional bulk  carrier for Nova Algoma Cement Carriers.  It has called in Halifax on a few occasions, most recently in March 2019, and has been referred to in this blog:

http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2017/08/nacc-quebec-quebec-report-10.html
http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2018/01/weather-bomb-part-1.html

The ship has been a lot more co-operative for photos in the past, particularly when it passed the pilot station at Trois-Rivières-Ouest one August evening in 2018:

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Beach Weather

With a temperature just edging above zero C and bright sun, it was perfect beach weather (for some people) as they explored Black Rock Beach at low tide, and incidentally took in the arrival of  Atlantic Star and  Augusta Sun.

Snow was washed away below the high tide mark, but remained above the mark and left a thin  coating on what are normally black rocks when they are wet.

Once Atlantic Star had worked its way up through the harbour past the Narrows, it was perfectly framed between smoke stack and pylon before passing under the MacKay bridge.

Soon after,  Augusta Sun picked its pilot and made its way in for pier 31.

The ship is arriving from Moa, Cuba, on its regular route for Nirint Line.

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Queen Mary 2 emergency medevac

The Queen Mary 2 is due in Halifax at about midnight tonight for an emergency medical evacuation. The ship will tie up at pier 21-22 long enough to disembark the person then put back to sea. The Cunarder is en route from New York for Southampton.

The ship is a regular caller during the cruise season.

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Saying Goodbye

The cargo ship Ethan (ex Melissa Desgagnés ex Ontadoc) sailed this afternoon after fueling yesterday. [see previous posts]

Heading out into windy conditions and rough seas, in ballast. 

After a delay of nearly two hours when the aftermost crane apparently broke down while trying to retrieve the gangway, the ship finally got away from pier 31.

The last piloted shipping movement from Halifax for the year and the decade, the ship is heading for Freeport, Bahamas. The Caribbean seems to be a black hole into which old ships are sucked and sometimes vanish. Perhaps this one will be an exception.

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Full Astern

It seems that all the photos I wanted to take today had to be from astern. Not my favorite angle for a ship photo, but that's just the way it turned out.

Ethan tied up at pier 31 and spent the day fueling from RST trucks.  RST is a company owned  by the J.D.Irving side of the Irving family, and not the Irving Oil side of the company. However the trucks generally do carry Irving Oil.

The Togo flag flies from the stern of the Ethan.

The ship may sail tomorrow, with Freeport, Bahamas as its destination. [see previous posts for more on this ship.]

The only vantage points I have to get photos of Fairview Cove result in stern shots, and so it was with Dalian Express and Atlantic Sun.

There was no cargo work on Dalian Express but there was a dive tender along side (believed to be Captain's Pride).

The tanker East Coast made a late afternoon arrival at Irving Oil, Woodside, with the tugs Atlantic Willow forward and Spitfire III.

And at pier 25 the tug/supplier Siem Commander remains idle after towing in the oil rig Noble Regina Allen.

Note in the background, under the spouts, the bulk carrier Federal Churchill due to sail this evening.

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