Beat the Rush

 Like last minute shoppers, ships continued to hurry in and out of port today (December 24) as they did yesterday. Some of the ships had lost time due the recent storms and had to stand by or anchor offshore, so did not did not want to lose more time due to the imminent holiday. (Several of the ships mentioned below were also noted in yesterday's post.)

For container ships there was only one arrival, the MSC Marianna from Sines, Portugal on the westbound leg of the Turkey-Greece run. It arrived as soon as the berth was available at PSA Atlantic Gateway.

Built in 2002 by Hyundai Ulsan, it is a 73,819 gt, 85,506 dwt ship with a capacity of 6730 TEU including 400 reefers. The ship is expected to remain idle on Christmas Day, with work resuming Tuesday December 26. It is rare, but not unheard of, for a ship to remain in port over the holiday. 

There were several container ship departures:

ONE Eagle got underway from pier 41 on THE Alliance's EC5 service, eastbound for Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates, with an ETA of January 19. The ship was built by Japan Marine United in Kure in 2016 as NYK Eagle and adopted the Ocean Network Express (ONE) name and colour scheme in 2019. It is a 145,251 gt, 139,335 dwt ship with a capacity of 14,026 TEU. As for cargo it appeared to be maxed out by volume if not by tonnage. Based in the ETA the ship will use the Suez Canal route and will therefore transit the Red Sea. It would take considerably longer than 26 rays if routed via rhe Cape of Good Hope. If events overtake the ship before it reaches the Suez Canal it could still be diverted.

Lagarfoss also got underway from the adjoining berth Pier 42. The ship is headed for Reykjavik on Eimskip's Green Line service from Portland, ME.

The 880 TEU capacity ship of 10,119 gt, 11,811 dwt was built by Rongcheng Shenfei Shipbuilding Co in 2014. It is fitted with two cargo cranes.
 

Navios Indigo also sailed for ZIM but the feeder Annie B (see previous posts) did not sail, but instead went to anchor in Bedford Basin where it is expected to remain until December 26. NYK Rigel also sailed from PSA Fairview Cove.

The bulker Baie St. Paul departed Gold Bond Gypsum for Côte Ste-Catherine, QC. The port is located on the South Shore Canal segment of the St.Lawrence Seaway west of St.Lambert, location of the Seaway entry locks.

The Seaway will be closing on January 5, so the ship has time to reach the port and unload. It may also exit the Seaway and continue trading before going into winter layup.

Also sailing was the heavy load ship GPO Sapphire. After unloading its cargo of wind turbine towers it is returning to Rostock, Germany for more.

Sister ship and fleet mate GPO Grace remains alongside at Woodside with more towers, wating for the return of the installation ship Orion which sailed overnight December 22-23.

Also sailing today was the general cargo ship Ayita after unloading is cargo of rails from Poland.

 The Ayita arrived December 16 [see post] and is now headed for Grande-Anse, QC, presumably for an export cargo, which could be lumber, paper or aluminium ingots.

There was also activity at the tanker berths. Irving Oil's East Coast arrived on its usual round from Saint John and tied up at the company's Woodside terminal.

As the East Coast made its way inbound there was an interesting sidelong view of the container ship CMA CGM T. Jefferson at the outer anchorages. It is not often that the spaces between the containers are so distinctly visible.

Also lingering offshore is the Algoma Integrity waiting to load gypsum. Gold Bond is probably shut down for a few days.

Another tanker, Kivalliq W. sailed from Imperial Oil's number 3 dock. It had been holding offshore due to swells at the oil dock and finally got in on Friday, December 22. The much travelled ship was recently reported in Goose Bay November 18-20, Nain November 24-27, Goose Bay December 3-4, Montreal December 8 then upbound in the Seaway December 9. After loading in Sarnia December 12-14, it was downbound again December 16.

The ship has an interesting history. It was laid down in 1999 and launched in 2000 but not completed until 2004 at the Binjiang Shipyard in Yangzhou. The 8,882 gt, 13,670 dwt ship was delivered as the Falcon and in 2009 was renamed Sten Fjord for Swedish owners. Coastal Shipping Ltd of Happy Valley Goose Bay NL acquired the ship in 2015, but did not rename it until 2018. In summer it serves northern ports, but every year since 2016 it has been flagged out from January to May or June to trade internationally.

With Kivalliq W.'s sailing Algocanada was finally able to go alongside number 3 dock. The reason that Kivalliq W. "jumped the queue" was probably because it is headed back to the Lakes, to Nanticoke this time, and in order to load and exit the Seaway before closing, it needed to get underway as soon as possible.

Last, but not least, is the ConRo business. Namely Oceanex Sanderling which finally moved from anchorage to PSA Fairview Cove last night, and did not sail today so will be in port for Christmas.

One other ConRo ship was in port today, but was not carrying any containers. Instead it had RoRo cargo for Autoport. Grande Luanda is an unusual ship for transatlantic car carrying as it was built for Container / RoRo / General cargo service between Europe and Africa. It not only has a pair of 40 tonne SWL cranes it also carries grabs for bulk cargo. With the current high demand for autocarriers in Asia, it seems to have been pressed into service on this route as many of the high capacity ships have gone east. Recent calls have been Southampton Dec 6-8, Antwerp December 8-10, Vigo, Spain December 15-16. It is now due in Veracruz, Mexico December 30.

 

Dating from 2015, the 71,543 gt, 32,346 dwt Grande Luanda was built by Hyundai Mipo in Ulsan. 

Also very unusual for a transatlantic car carrier it has vehicles stowed on the open deck. I imagine they had a pretty good bath in the recent weather, but will need a freshwater encore when they reach port.

They appear to be Ford Transit cargo vans and passenger vans.(Note the cargo grab stowed along the ship's rail.)

Conclusion:

So far there is no scheduled traffic in the harbour tomorrow, Christmas Day, so there will likely not be any Shipfax post. In that case I wish all readers and loyal followers a Merry Christmas. 

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Round Up and Update

Activity in Halifax Harbour has been a bit thin over the past couple of days, and with the hours of daylight nearing their minimum, it has been a challenge to catch the most interesting ships.

CAM CGM Zephyr arrived this morning, December 16, on the Columbus JAX service. Its route from Colombo, via Suez took it through the Red Sea, apparently without incident. Both Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd ships have been attacked off Yemen, and Maersk specifically, and perhaps others have begun to re-route ships via the Cape of Good Hope.

The CMA CGM Zephyr dates from 2021 when it was completed by Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Shipbuilding, A 154,995 gt, 156,198 dwt ship, it has a "maximum theoretical capacity" of 15,536 TEU. Exactly what that means is open to discussion, but most sources agree that it is in the 15,000 TEU+ category. The ship has an advanced air quality system, but again this is vague, and it only means that its scrubber is capable of running in closed loop mode. (Removing particulate and storing it on board until it can be sent ashore for recycling.) It may also run in open loop mode - washing the material into the sea - which is a controversial technique and banned in many places.

At nearby Pier 27 the Ayita is discharging a cargo of rail from Poland for CN (the Canadian National Railway). It arrived from Szczecin on December 14.

I had no better luck photoing the ship when it was here under a previous name March 4, 2016, also with a load of rail.

The 7813 gt, 10,385 dwt ship with a pair of 80 tonne SWL cranes, was built in 2004 by Damen with the hull built at their Galati, Romania yard, and the work completed at Hoogezand, Netherlands. It started life as the Ile de Molene but was renamed in the same year Ile De Batz and also in 2004 S. Pacific. In 2010 it became Batz and in 2012 BBC Chile. In 2015 it took the name Onego Batz and it was under that name that it called in Halifax. Later in 2016 it changed its name to BF Ayita and kept that name until May of this year when it changed to Ayita with a quick flick of the brush. The ship is still chartered to Onego however.

Unfortunately the view of Pier 27-28 is becoming more and more constricted as time goes by. The new PSA Halifax Gateway maintenance and operations building at Pier 29 has been under construction for some time. With the steel frame now in place cladding has been installed on the south section. 

Although the use of old containers is a novel approach to cladding, there are two problems. The first is that it effectively blocks the view of Pier 28 (just the top of the grain gallery is visible above the roof) and the second is the future maintenance issue as the paint weathers. I doubt that ZIM will want to ante up for re-painting their former seacan. I hope the designers know how to detail a properly vented and draining cavity wall (to be built from the inside out!), as otherwise I give this one about five years before replacement will be necessary.

Arriving at Autoport this morning was the familiar caller Taipan, 57,692 gt, 21,021 dwt, built in 2006 by Gdynia Stozcnia, with a capacity of 6500 RT43 size cars, and a 150 tonne capacity stern ramp.

 The reliable Roseway leads the way toward Autoport to take headlines to the buoy as the tugs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Beaver assist in the turns.

Once off the dock, the tugs turn the ship to tie up starboard side to the jetty.

This is the ship's third visit this year, with calls on May 11, 2023 and June 13, 2023. As reported then, the ship had also called on September 28, 2019 but on that visit it was wearing Wilhelmsen red/oranage hull paint.

Also as reported the ship was launched as Morning Countess, apparently for EUKOR (which is owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen) but was delivered as Taipan. I wonder if it had EUKOR colours when launched.

Activity at Richmond Terminal yesterday saw arrival of the cable ship IT Integrity at Pier 9C, where it refueled, then moved to the IT International Telecom marine base at Pier 9A.

Built in 2001, its hull came from Aker Tulcea and it was completed by Soviknes Verft, Sovik. The 2244 gt, 3200 dwt supplier was named Highland Fortress and worked for several Tidewater operations in Europe until 2020 when IT acquired the ship and converted it for cable work (including laying, repair, plough burying and ROV splicing).

 Its most recent port was Port Alberni, British Columbia, sailing from there November 12, and transiting the Panama Canal December 1-3. I assume the ship was working on Google's Topaz fibreoptic cable that runs from Port Alberni to Ibaraki and Mie, Japan.

Genco Endeavour Update

Late this evening (December 16) the Genco Endeavour appears underway on AIS at normal speed from its position off Sctarie Island. It may be a on a trial trip as it sailed northwest bound in Cabot Strait, then turned on a southeast bound course. It is still giving Sydney for destination, (As usual many ship's AIS stations give Sydney, Australia for Sydney, Nova Scotia.) The ship had been stationary for most of the week effecting engine repairs [see yesterday's post] . One report had the tug Atlantic Elm ferrying a part from the ship to shore. (It is more likely that a new part was ferried from shore out to the ship.) In any event the tug is still standing by off Main-à-Dieu. Also, and perhaps coincidentally, the slightly more powerful tug Lois M is underway from Sydney Harbour with a destination of Sydney given. Perhaps there will be a rendez-vous to disembark a technician? Revision: the tug is headed for Halifax.

As far as I can tell no high powered towing vessel appears to be in the vicinity or headed in the direciotn of the ship.

With more bad weather coming Sunday and Monday, it would be good news if the ship has been repaired and can be on its way.

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