Port Cleans House

 The Halifax Port Authority recently advertised for the sale of two boats that it has owned and operated for many years. Although not named in the newspaper ad, they are the J.R.Mitchell built in 1990 and Garret Cotter built in 2004. Both boats were removed from service in the past year or so and are presently stored on dry land on Port property in the south end of Halifax.

The registrations for both boats have been suspended, suggesting that neither is operational.

The Garret Cotter (visible in the above photo) is a former police patrol boat and J.R.Mitchell (shrink wrapped in the background) was used for port inspection tours. I covered their histories in a post on :  November 25, 2020

The J.R.Mitcheell was named for the long time Port Manager in the 1950s and 1960s.

The port is allowing an inspection for one hour on March 7 and tenders are due March 10, 2022. The boats are offered in "as is" condition.

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ZIM Vancouver - now in port

 The container ship ZIM Vancouver finally entered port yesterday February 21. Although it tied up at PSA Halifax it did so at Pier 36, a part of the Southend container terminal that is not served by container cranes

The ship arrived off Halifax February 5 on ZIM's ZCA service from the Mediterranean. Port schedules at that time showed the ship was due February 11, but its actual ETA was February 23. I suspected that the two week delay was due to the ship being quarantined, but there has been no official statement to that effect.

The ship appears to be close to fully loaded with a good variety of ZIM's own containers but also with HAPAG-Lloyd boxes. The ZCA service also operates as HAPAG-Lloyd's AL7 service. Effective December 2019 H-L signed a 1300 TEU per week slot charter agreement with ZIM's ZCA service in return for slots on several H-L services. (Subsequent amendments may have bee made).

At the time of this post (2020hrs AST 22-02-2022) the PSA schedule shows the ship moving to Pier 42 (where there are cranes) on March 3.

For more on the ship see previous post: February 14

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Autos - safely delivered

 With ships carrying cars and trucks much in the news lately (more on that below) the Pure Car and Truck Carrier Grande Florida arrived at Autoport this morning February 21 with vehicles loaded in Gioia Tauro, Italy.

Built by the Yangfan Group in Zhousan, China in 2020, the 65,148 gt, 15,583 dwt ship has a capacity of 7600 CEU (car equivalant units). It is also equipped with a 150 tonne capacity stern ramp to handle oversize loads such as machinery.

The ship made its first call in Halifax in October 2021. I managed to catch the ship outbound  and its yellow hull certainly stood out on tnhat clear day. (There was light haze in Halifax this morning.)

Car manufacturers are building inventory for the usual spring sales rush and Autoport is chock-a-block with vehicles of various brands. Autoport also preps and stores cars and dispatches them by train, truck (or ship to Newfoundland) on demand.

Grimaldi Group, owners of the Grande Florida are also the owners of Grimaldi Euromed, the operators of the unfortunate car and truck ferry Euroferry Olympia which caught fire February 18 off Corfu while en route from Igoumenitsa, Greece to Brindisi, Italy. A huge rescue and fire fighting operation managed to save 281 people, including two stowaways, but ten truck drivers are still missing. There were reported to be 153 trucks and 32 cars on the ship which will be towed to a nearby port. Salvors have already boarded the vessel and begun the task of recovering remains and extinguishing hot spots. It is believed that the missing or dead truck drivers were sleeping in their trucks on the car deck. There may also have been more unrecorded migrants.

Meanwhile off the Azores salvage vessels are en route from Gibraltar and Rotterdam to the burning autocarrier Felicity Ace. All 22 crew were rescued, but the ship is in danger of sinking as the fire has not been extinguished. Salvage experts have said that the burning batteries of the many electric cars on board add to the difficulties of fire fighting. Temperatures of 1500 degrees C (where steel melts) and 2000 degrees C (when water atomizes, and foams do not work) may mean that allowing the fire to burn itself out will be the only option.

The most recent reports I have seen say that there were 3,965 cars on board, including 1100 Porsches and 189 Bentleys with a value of $255 million (USD). Most of the cars were  German built and loaded in Emden. The ship was bound for Davisville, RI when the fire broke out February 16. 

By coincidence, its last visit to Halifax was also in October 2021.

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Oceanex update - Delay

 On Wednesday, February 16 Oceanex informed its valued customers by e-mail / letter that there will be a delay in the return to service of the Oceanex Sanderling. The workhorse of their weekly Halifax to St.John's service was sent to Amsterdam for mandatory drydocking at the end of 2021. The drydocking / refit, required in order to maintain the its classification, was to be a particularly thorough one in view of the ship's age. Regular five year "surveys" become more and more onerous with time and a ship that is 45 years old must be "put through the wringer" to maintain its status.

According to the Oceanex letter the planned four to five week drydocking has been extended due to unexpected additional repairs that must be completed during this work period. That sounds serious, so apparently involves some major component or system that must be rebuilt or requires the fabrication of something new before the ship can sail again. The ship's classification society DNV GL (Det Norske Veritas / Germanischer Lloyd) like Lloyds Register, Class NK or other similar organizations has very strict standards to ensure the safety and integrity of ships (and thus the safety of the cargo they carry). Maintenance of Class rating is critical to the insurability of ship and cargo, but also to the continuation of the ship's registration by its flag state.

The "bottom line" of the Oceanex letter is that Oceanex Sanderling is not due to return to service, until its sailing from Halifax June 17, 2022!

In the meantime the company's other two ships, Ocean Avalon and Oceanex Connaigra will continue with alternate weeky sailings from Montreal and Halifax. That will mean RoRo service will only be available every two weeks from each port. It also means more business for Marine Atlantic and TSMI (Transport Maritime St-Pierre International, which runs from Halifax to Argentia) but with a high level of inconvenience for shippers and Newfoundlanders in general. In fact Marine Atlantic may be obliged to add sailings.

As I have stated before the Oceanex Sanderling is a ConRo (container and RoRo ship) and is a comparatively rare type ofvessel and a major investment compared to straight container ships. It might have been replaced years ago if a suitable replacement could be found at a reasonable price. Even a short term temporary substitute would be nearly impossible to find, since all ships of the type are in dedicated service elsewhere.

One of the important features of the Oceanex Sanderling is the slewing stern ramp, which can be turned to suit the docking arrangement.

 The Oceanex letter contained no detail as to the nature of the unexpected work, but in view of the definite return to service date, they must be confident that the repair can be made.

For a time the ship was a 'heavy smoker" but that was fixed during a previous refit.

While the Oceanex Connaigra (pictured in yesterday's post) is also a ConRo, the third member of the fleet, Oceanex Avalon has no RoRo capability.

Seen here doing 19.9 knots on the St.Lawrence, Ocean Avalon must contend with ice this time of year, and "slow go" whale zones in season in order to make its weekly trips to Newfoundland.

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PSA Double Header - updated

 The Southend container terminal operating as PSA Halifax was quiet all week until late this afternoon (February 19) when two ships arrived in quick succession.

The first arrival was MSC Leigh from Montreal, here to top up cargo before sailing on for Barcelona and Valencia on MSC's CANEX2 Mediterranean service.

Built by Daewoo, Mangala in 2004, the MSC Leigh is a 50,963 gt, 63,410 dwt ship of 4884 TEU including 560 reefers. It certainly appears to be lightly loaded, leaving lots of extra capacity for the trip.

Following soon after, the Canadian flag Oceanex Connaigra arrived from St.John's on the weekly Oceanex service. 

The Oceanex Connaigra and Oceanex Avalon are alternating their weekly Montreal / St.John's trips with Halifax trips while fleet mate Oceanex Sanderling is in refit in Amsterdam. 

The Sanderling refit was initially reported to be a five week operation starting in January, but now appears to have stretched to eight weeks or more. The Oceanex schedule shows the current arrangement continuing until the end of February - that is as far as the schedule shows.   

Update:

See New Post, February 20, 2022.

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Star Pyxis - leaves with a souvenir

 The bulker Star Pyxis, at anchor in Bedford Basin since February 2 for unspecified repairs finally sailed today for Norfolk, VA. See previous posts February 7  and February 9.

The ship carried with it - at least for a time - a souvenir of its visit. Draped from its port anchor was a large gob of prime quality Halifax mud and some old wire, dredged up from the anchorages. (The ship had to re-anchor at least once when it began to drag anchor in high winds.)

The harbour bottom is littered with the detritus of centuries, including wire, chain and other jetsom. It is not unsual for ship's anchors to foul something and it may require assistance from divers or others to free the material. 

In the case of the Star Pyxis, the ship's own crew were working with a chain and grapple attempting to remove the wire. 

 

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Felicity Ace - fire on sometime Halifax caller

 On February 16, 2021 the Panama flag auto carrier Felicity Ace reported a fire on one of its cargo decks. The ship was 90 nautical miles SSW of the Azores bound from Emden, Germany to Davisville, RI carrying approximately 4,000 Porsche and Volswagen cars.

 

The ship is a sometime Halifax caller and was in port in March and October last year: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2021/10/more-cars.html

The most recent reports indicate that the crew of 22 have been evacuated from the ship and that salvors have been appointed under  Lloyd's Open Form "No Cure - No Pay" agreement, with a tug underway to take the ship in tow. 

I am sure more details will emerge, but at this time (1800 hrs AST February 17) there was nothing else to report.

Built in 2005 by Shin Kurushima, it is a 60,118 gt, 17,738 dwt ship with a capacity of 5232 Car Equivalent Units. It is operated by Mitsui OSK Lines and uses the "Ace" suffix, which stands for Auto Carrier Express.

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