Norwegian Joy plus

On Sunday September 11, 2022, Halifax played host the passengers and crew of the Norwegian Joy. It was a perfect day, with cloudless skies, temperature in the low 20s (C) and the occasional breeze. All this was thanks to Hurricane Earl, which was passing well out to sea, but dragging warm weather up from the south.

 Those conditions also made for excellent lighting for photography as the ship sailed for Saint John, NB. Unfortunately even those conditions could not distract from the elaborate water slide forward of the funnel, the lurid hull graphics and the top heavy looking 20 decks of accommodation.

Built in 2017 by Meyer Werft, Papenburg, the ship is a Breakway plus class vessel of 167,725 gt, with a capacity of 3,833 passengers and 1,700 crew.

The bright sun also didn't do much to enhance the looks of the auto carrier Treasure (see also yesterday's post). The 23 year old is certainly showing signs of wear and tear. It is headed for New York.

.

Treasure for Autoport

 An unusual arrival for Autoport today (September 10) was the Liberian flag Treasure arriving from Zeebrugge on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean transatlantic 1 service.

As the Treasure rounds Ives Knoll, the tug Roseway heads to Autoport for line handling.

An antique among auto carriers, the Treasure was built in 1999 by Hashihama Zosen in Tadotsu, Japan. It comes in at 58,684 gt, 21,199 dwt with a capacity of 5,718 CEU.

Orginally named HUAL Carolita for Höegh Ugland Auto Liners, it became HUAL Treasure in 2000 and Höegh Treasure in 2006. It was renamed Treasure in 2014 for current owners Blue Arrow Navigation Ltd with management by ASM Martime BV of Amsterdam. The upswept hull colour toward the stern is a remnant of the Höegh paint scheme.

 With the assistance of the tugs Atlantic Willow (forward) and Atlantic Oak the ship makes its way into Eastern Passage, passing the Shearwater Yacht Club moorings on its port side and popular anchorages at Macnab's Island on the starboard side.

.

Carnival Legend and Container Piers

 Legend

Most cruise ships arrive at the break of day to provide for a full day ashore. With three ships due in port today September 8, one ship had to be the last and that was Carnival Legend, arriving at the pilot station as late as 1000 hrs. This ship also tied up at Pier 31 which has been cleaned up and fenced off for the cruise season. (Zaandam tied upat Pier 20-21 and Adventure of the Seas at Pier 21-22.)

Built way back in 2002 by Kvaerner Masa, Helsinki, the ship somehow survived the purge of older ships in recent years. The 85,942 gt ship has a capacity of 2,124 passengers and 930 crew.

It is the first Carnival ship I have seen with the big blue "swoop" on the bow. It might be interesting to see this feature from a distance, which resembles the disruptive colour patterns used in war time. The new paint scheme, which includes a red and white stripe the full length of the hull, was introduced in 2021, and is in celebration of the company's 50th anniversary.

HMCS Moncton carries a disruptive paint pattern in commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic. (September 3 photo)

 Containers

 There has been considerable activity at the container piers recently, which may explain an unusual move. 

CMA CGM Marco Polo sailed this morning after a 48 hour (approximately) stay at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway. 

The current record holder as largest container ship to call in Halifax, and any other Canadian port, was not the only ship served by the terminal in the past few days, it surely taxed the capacity of the facility.

With CMA CGM Marco Polo at Pier 41 and Tropical Lissette (left) at Pier 42 and Oceanex Sanderling at Pier 36 (barely visible at right) there was no more room at the Southend Terminal.

The MSC Sandra which had been at the southend terminal, was "bumped" Sunday September 4, and went to to anchor in Bedford Basin (see previous post). First thing this morning,instead of going bac=k to the southend terminal, it moved alongside PSA Fairview Cove where there was an available berth.

It seemed to be that the cranes were working the after deck, which is usually reserved for empties. MSC ships do dock at Fairview from time so this is not a unique event, except that the ship used both terminals during its stay in Halifax. The ship will sail this evening (September 8) for Europe.

.

 

Federal Rideau

 Although it is the largest Canadian shipping company, Fednav's ships are rarely seen in Halifax. The Montreal based company operates a large fleet of owned and chartered bulk / break bulk carriers and has a number of other shipping related business interests including a dozen or more cargo terminals. Aside from two Canadian flagged carriers, the company's 60 or more owned ships and additional 60 charters operate internationally under offshore registries.

Today's (September 6) caller was a typical Fednav ship, the Federal Rideau a 20,659 gt, 36,563 dwt bulker fitted with three 30 tonne capacity cranes.

Built in 2000 by Oshima Shipbuilding, it is a DNV ice class 1C "handysize laker". Fednav is one of the largest users of the St.Lawrence Seaway and many of its ships are built for convenient use of that waterway. It has larger ships also, and trades world wide.

Federal Rideau is en route from Vila do Conde, Brazil to Baie Comeau, QC, with a cargo of bauxite ore for the Alcoa aluminum smelter. While in Halifax therre was a launch alongside, which I was not able to identify. From the large amount of equipment on deck, the boat appeared to be a diving tender.

 .

Three by Two

 Today (September 5) was the first "three ship" day of this year's cruise season. It was also a day with two ships anchored in Bedford Basin.

Threes

Early morning harbour watchers were rewarded with the arrivals of Mein Schiff 1,  Seabourn Quest and Caribbean Princess. All three arrived within an hour of each other and took up all available space at Piers 20-21, 22 and 23.

 Mein Schiff 1 is a 111,554 gt ship with a capacity of 2,534 to 2,894 passengers (in 1447 cabins) with a crew of 1,000. Built in 2018 by Meyer Turku at the Perno Shipyard in Finland, it is owned by TUI cruises and caters to German passengers. The hull graffiti promotes the healthy and luxurious ocean cruise experience and defies literal translation.

 Despite its name it is the second ship to carry the name, and replaced the 1996 incumbent.

Next in line was one of the smallest, but most luxuriousof the main line cruise ships. Seabourn Quest can accommoidate 450 passengers with 335 crew.

Built by the T.Marriotti Shipyard in Genoa in 2011, it received a major refit at the same yard in 2013,  and is now registered at 32,477 gt. It will be staying in Halifax over night.

The third ship was the Caribbean Princess which has already been here this year - and was posted on this blog on August 1. Its capacity is maximum 3600 passengers with 1200 crew. 

It is difficult to see much of the cruise ships from the Halifax side of the harbour, but suffice it to say it is an impressive sight to see so much tonnage in one place.

 I did manage another photo with three ships in the frame. As Seabourn Quest was arriving it overtook the container ship Tropic Lissette while the Humen Bridge languished at anchor off the port. (It arrived September 1 and is now due alongside September 7.)

Twos

There is lots of room for tonnage in Bedford Basin. The famous World War II pictures showing scores of ships anchored there preparing to sail in convoy, attests to the size of this "lake" (actually an enclosed bay) at the head of Halifax harbour. Its extreme dimensions are 8 km x 5 km (4.9 miles x 3.1 miles).

Even so it is rare nowadays to see more than one ship anchored there at the same time. This morning's arrival of  the bulk carrier Baie St.Paul is typical of the ships that make use of the anchorage before loading at Gold Bond Gypsum.

A diver's launch was alongside the ship this afternoon. That may be the reason the ship did not go in to load. However other ships in the past weeks have also anchored for a time before going in.

Despite up to six trains a week (with 65 or so hopper cars) from the gypsum quarry in East Milford, NS, Gold Bond's stockpile appears to be relatively small right now, so it may be that strong demand is taxing the loading facility to keep up. (Note the "stacker" is loading up the stockpile in the photo.)

It is rare to see a container ship at anchor in Bedford Basin. Short duration stays normally anchor in the lower harbour, but ships that are in for an extended period are usually directed to Bedford Basin. MSC Sandra arrived yesterday (September 4) from Montreal to top off its cargo before heading to Europe on MSC's Canada Express 2 service. It moved to Basin anchorage last evening. 

Built in 2020 by Hyundai, Busan, the 43,575 gt, 61,468 dwt MSC Sandra has a capacity of 4340 TEU including 150 reefers. It does not appear to be fully loaded to ocean draft, so may be awaiting the end of the longshore Labour Day "no work" period before completing the loading process.

MSC's schedule shows the ship sailing September 6, but that may be optimistic as PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway will not have an available berth until at least September 7, as Tropic Lisssette is occupying Pier 42 and tomorrow will see the arrival of the giant 16,020 TEU CMA CGM Marco Polo at Pier 41.

.

Two by Two

 Two PCTCs

The first arrival in Halifax this morning, September 3, was the Pure Car and Truck Carrier Themis, from the usual ports of Zeebrugge, Bremerhaven and Southampton.  A Wilhelmsen ship, it is operating on the transatlantic service of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean. It tied up at Pier 9C and unloaded a vast array of mining, agricultural, forestry and construction equipment and machinery.

The ship was built by Hyundai Samho in 2016, and is a 75,223 gt, 23,786 dwt vessel with a capacity of 8,000 RT43 cars. It has a 320 tonne stern ramp, and is exhaust gas scrubber equipped. It will move to Autoport tomorow to offload cars.

Later in the morning another autocarrier arrived and went directly to Autoport.     

The Violet Ace was here as recently as July 26. Since then the ship has called in Houston August 2-3, Veracruz August 6-8, and Emden August 25-26. As noted in the July post, it is a somewhat smaller PCTC of 49,708 gt, 13,370 dwt but with a respectable capacity of 5,000 CEU. It was built in 2011 by Ha Long Shipbuilding Co in Ha Long, Vietnam.

 

Two Container Ships

Sailing again late this afternoon for Davisville, RI, the ship passed the Humen Bridge which has been anchored offshore since September 1. Another container ship MSC Esthi had also been anchored offshore, but it moved in to PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway this morning (sorry no photo except yesterday's silhouette in the background).

Two Tankers

An unusual morning arrival was the crude oil tanker Sonangol Namibe.

 The ship tied up at Pier 27-28 to take on bunker fuel.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co, Okpo, delivered the 83,469 gt, 158,425 dwt ship in 2007. The Sonangol Group is the multi-faceted state owned oil company of Angola. They have partnered with Stena to operate the Stena Sonangol pool of twenty-one Suezmax tankers.

 Sonangol Namibe sailed from Ras Tanura July 6, and stopped in Walvis Bay anchorage, Namibia, July 31 and the Girassol Terminal in Angola August 9-10. It then proceeded to Point Tupper, NS, anchoring August 29 then moving to the Everwind Terminal (formerly NuStar) August 31 to September 1. It presumably offloaded a storage cargo in Point Tupper.

On sailing this afternoon for New York the ship did not appear to be carrying much if any cargo. 

Later tonight the Bangladesh flag product tanker Banglar Agrajatra (see yesterday's post) will move from Irving Oil's Woodside terminal to Pier 27-28, also to take on bunker fuel, delivered to the ship by truck. 

.

 

First timer

 What I believe to be the first ship to call in Halifax flying the flag of Bangladesh arrived this morning, September 2. Banglar Agrajatra is a tanker operated by the state owned Bangladesh Shipping Corp.

Built in 2019 by Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding in Jingjiang, China, it is a 24,167 gt, 38,867 dwt vessel in the Mid Range 1 (MR1) size classification (35,000 to 44,999 dwt). Foreign flag product tankers calling in Halifax are usually MR2 class (45,000 to 54,999 dwt).

Bangladesh, located to the east of India on the Bay of Bengal, is better known for its shipbreaking, but it has had a small merchant fleet since 1972 (shortly after it became independant from Pakistan). The current fleet stands at about eight ships, three of which are product tankers. (This ship's name - roughly translated from Bengali, means Bengal Advance- the country name Bangladesh means land of Bengal).

Banglar Agrajutra tied up at Irving Oil's terminal in Woodside, to deliver refined product loaded in Amsterdam. If past patterns are any guide, it will likely unload some cargo here then proceed to Saint John to unload the rest.

.