All Canada Day

There was no foreign flag shipping in Halifax harbour today. All shipping was Canadian - surely a very rare occurrence.

The Royal Canadian Navy's chartered supply ship Asterix returned to port yesterday after a maintenance session at parent shipyard Davie in Lévis, QC. It refueled at the Irving Oil dock in Dartmouth and this morning moved to jetty Juliet in HMC Dockyard. (Its place at Irving was taken by HMCS Fredericton which sailed later.)

During a brief snow shower, the coastal ConRo Oceanex Sanderling arrived from St.John's.

Nolhanva slipped into port around noon time and tied up at pier 27 - not its usual berth at Cerescorp, Fairview Cove.

And late this afternoon Radcliffe R. Latimer sailed after unloading its part load of grain. The ship is bound for Lower Cove, NL in ballast.

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Some grain for Halifax

Normally when grain arrives in Halifax from Thunder Bay by ship, it is in full loads. However today's arrival of Radcliffe R. Latimer marks a departure from the norm.

It was quite apparent as the ship approached pier 25-26 that it was carrying less than a full cargo. A little digging revealed that the ship took a full cargo at Superior Elevators in Thunder Bay on about November 21, but on its way down through the Great Lakes it was diverted to P&H's facility in Hamilton, ON where it appears to have left about half its cargo.  P&H Milling [Parrish and Heimbecker] also operate the flour  mill in Halifax (the former Dover Mills) and so perhaps the cargo was kept "in house" so to speak. Nevertheless it is an unusual event.

P+H in Halifax brings in most of its grain by rail, so does not depend on ships to keep up its supply. However the recent rail strike may have been a factor in all this. Almost all the grain moving through the port of Halifax is for local consumption either for milling or for animal feed. Some small quantities are sometimes exported for food aid.

Radcliffe R. Latimer is the former Algobay of 1978, extensively rebuilt in China in 2009 and renamed in 2012. It is likely to load gypsum after unloading its grain.

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CMA CGM Tage

PSA Halifax (the terminal formerly known as Halterm) welcomed CMA CGM Tage today. Its early morning arrival in darkness precluded photos, but a view from Dartmouth gave a good idea of the size of the ship. It has been a regular caller on the Columbus JAX service since 2016, and carries the distinction of being the first large split superstructure container ship to call in Halifax. At one time it also held the record as the largest container ship to call in Halifax.

With the its decks piled high it is difficult to find the ship's bridge structure (directly under the middle of the three cranes - between the letters C and M) and its engine casing / funnel (under the tip of the right / northmost, crane.) No wonder some crews are nervous about safety in case of fire on such ships.

Built in 2015 by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, it is a 95,263 gt, 112,500 dwt ship with a container capacity of 9,365 TEU including 1458 reefers.

For a more conventional view of the ship see: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2016/10/cma-cgm-anniversary-etc.html
or also this from October 1, 2016:

 I believe the ship is carrying at least one more tier of boxes on deck now, and possibly two tiers in places. If so the TEU figures quoted are likely obsolete.

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The Force is no longer with us

After months of idleness in Bedford Basin, the container / roro Ocean Force sailed Saturday evening for the port of Izmail, Ukraine. The ship had moved this morning to Pier 9C where I assume it took on water and stores for the trip.

Ocean Force in anchorage #13, Bedford Basin, yesterday.

The ship also made a visit to Pier 9C earlier in the month, but has otherwise been anchored in Bedford Basin since  completing its work for TSMI on the Halifax to St-Pierre et Miquelon service in September.

Nolhan Ava returned to the SPM service, but Ocean Force was apparently kept in standby as a backup if needed. That need has now passed and the ship is free to return to its home base.

See also:http://shipfax.blogspot.com/search?q=ocean+force

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Short Term Visitor

I was surprised to see a familiar ship in the outer anchorages today. The Oranjeborg has never called in Halifax before as far as I can remember, but it is a regular caller in Pointe-au-Pic, QC, the port nearest my summer roost in Quebec.

At maximum (200 mm) telephoto my camera unfortunately focused on the water, not the ship! All is not lost however since I have many photos of the ship taken in Quebec.

As previously published in August, the ship loads newsprint rolls through side door and elevator.
http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/08/summer-report-pointe-au-pic.html

This is the ship - in focus - in August 22, 2014.

...and August 1, 2016. Note it is quite assymetrical, with its offset funnel, stern ramp and starboard side elevator anbd side door.

The ship sailed from Halifax later in the day, so it may have been here as weather passed over or even to board a pilot for the St.Lawrence.

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Some harbour action

After a period of delays due to weather, activity picked up in the harbour this afternoon.
Irving Oil's Acadian sailed for Saint John after delivering is cargo of refined product.

Its place at the Irving Oil terminal in Woodside was taken by the supplier Burin Sea.

It is taking on fuel for its next assignment - which it seems will also be its last. It is due to sail for Turkey towing fleet mate Trinity Sea where both boats will be broken up for scrap. They are due to sail Sunday - see Tugfax for an update.

It was still quite breezy in the harbour, (the camera flattens waves) but there were lots of white caps and even the gulls were "sitting it out".

Things were about the same in Bedford Basin where HMCS Toronto took up position on Jonquiere Bank anchorage.

Things were returning to normal at Cerescorp and PSA with the end of the rail strike and given an improvement in weather, shipping should be returning to normal soon.

PSA Halifax - Halterm no more

The Port of Halifax's South End Container Terminal, known since 1969 as Halterm, has been rebranded by its new operators as PSA Halifax. Those owners, part of the Port of Singapore Authority have adopted the name to align with their own image building exercise as a major world terminal operator. It certainly lacks the originality and catchiness of "Halterm" but I guess all things shall pass.

The old Halterm "H" may still be found in a couple of spots:

Such as this RTG which may be the next one for the scrap pile. (See previous post)

The oldest of the ships cranes is the only one left with the Halterm logos (maybe it is bound for the scrapper too?)

The PSA logo has yet to go on the big cranes  but it hasn't exactly been painting weather.

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