Orion - big crane in demand

 The crane ship Orion, a familiar caller in Halifax last year, made a "non-working" visit today.

Its 5,000 tonne capacity main crane dominates the skyline, even when the boom is secured in the down position. 

When the ship was here last year it loaded monopiles then installed them at the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusets. The ship then returned to Vlissingen, Netherlands where it made preparations for another monopile installation project off Scotland. Working out of Invergordon, it installed twenty-nine monopiles, each weighing 2,000 tonnes over a two month period on the Moray West project.

Its arrival in Halifax early this morning was for a crew change, which was accomplished in an hour or so, with boat(s) from Dominion Diving.  The ship did not anchor, but used its Dynamic Positioning system, to remain motionless. On completion of the transfer, the ship spun round on its own axis and headed for sea.

The ship is destined for Norfolk, VA where it will work to install 176 foundations for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project for Dominion Energy. (Installation work for the Vineyard project is now being done by the ship Sea Installer working out of Sydney, NS.)

The Orion was built in 2019 by COSCO Qidong, China. It is a 58,203 gt, 60,575 dwt ship with a payload capacityof 30,000 tonnes. In addition to the 5,000 tonne capacity crane it also carries a 1,500 tonne capacity auxiliary crane. It has an accommodation capacity for 160 persons, expandable to 239 persons.

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Partings

 Normally I avoid "going away" photos - particularly if I have decent photos of the ships already. However today, April 23, was a day for departures as far as my camera was concerned, and as there was something noteworthy about the ships, I clicked away. 

First off was the tanker CB Pacific which made a very brief call at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. It arrived in the evening of April 22 and sailed at noon today, the 23rd, after a stay of just over twelve hours, giving the destination of Montreal.

 It was an unusually short stay in port, and as the ship sailed it appeared to be lightly loaded.

The ship was here previously March 21 to 22 unloading at Irving Oil, then went to anchor until March 25. I noted the ship has a "turtle back" over the fore deck, an unusual feature for a tanker. Since that visit the ship has been to Boston, New Haven, Albany and New York.

When the ship was here in March, its covered covered fore deck was noted.

Departing from Autoport the Wolfsburg is destined for Davisville, RI. This was the ship's second trip to Halifax since it was delivered in November 2023 by Guangzhou Shipyard International. The 69,470 gt, 19,203 dwt ship has capacity of 7,000 Car Equivalent Units on thirteen decks. Unusually for a newer auto carrier, it is fitted with a side ramp.

 On charter from SFL to Volkswagen it is a dual fuel ship, capable of burning LNG or conventional fuel. Unlike its sister ship Emden that was here last week, it did not emit plumes of black smoke. The ship arrived yesterday (April 22, photo below) from Volkswagen's export facility in Emden, Germany.

Also sailing today, April 23. from PSA Haifax Atlantic Hub, ONE Cygnus on THE Alliance's EC5 service, took two escort tugs, Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Bear.

ONE Cygnus was built by Japan Marine United in 2019 and is the last of the ten ships of the bird class. All but ONE Cygnus and ONE Wren were built with NYK prefixes, but they have now been renamed with "ONE", as they are all working for the Ocean Network Express, the joint venture of the principal Japanese container lines (NYK, K-Line and MOL). [As an aside it is interesting to note that there was already a "Swan" in the group - NYK Swan built in 2017 and renamed ONE Swan in 2020; cygnus being the Latinized Greek name for the swan: cygnus atratus.]

The 146,694 gt, 138,611 dwt ship is rated at 14,026 TEU. Its last port was Colombo, Sri Lanka, and it apparently sailed non-stop via the Cape of Good Hope.

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First Grain - Algoma Mariner

 The self-unloading bulk carrier Algoma Mariner arrived in Halifax April 19 with the first load of grain from the Lakehead this year. Starting from Montreal where it spent a brief maintenance period from March 13-30, the ship made its way up the St.Lawrence Seaway and arrived in Goderich April 3 presumably for a cargo of salt. It then proceeded to Thunder Bay where it offloaded then took on the grain load for Halifax.

On arrival in Halifax the ship tied up at Pier 26 where it discharged, using its own machinery, into the hopper connected by conveyors to the grain elevator.

On sailing today April 21 the ship gave a destination of Lower Cove, NL. There it will load limestone, an ingredient in steel making, and will return to the Great Lakes, likely to Hamilton, ON.

Atlantic Bear assists the Algoma Mariner off the dock April 21 and in the background the tanker Wicky Spirit (see yesterday's post) unloads at Imperial Oil.

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Wicky Spirit - next in line

 A first time tanker caller in Halifax anchored in the lower harbour today to wait its turn at Imperial Oil. The Wicky Spirit is a member of the McKeil Tankers Ltd fleet that usually serves the Great Lakes and St.Lawrence region.

 

Better known for its tugs and barges, McKeil Marine has expanded into dry cargo and tankers in recent years. The company, based in Burlington, ON was founded by a Nova Scotian, Evans McKeil, and passed to his son Blair McKeil. In 2016, the venture capital firm TorQuest Partners made a major investment in the company allowing it to broaden its interests. In November 2023 the Greenwich, CT based Astatine Investment Partners added McKeil Marine to its portfolio with the intention of making further expansion.

The Wicky Spirit is a 8,660 gt, 13,947 dwt chemical /product tanker built in 2008 by Gisan Gemi in Istanbul. An ABS Ice Class 1A twin screw ship it can carry clean or dirty product and carries its own nitrogen generator for inerting, and deck mounted tanks for tank washing slops. It was built under the name Turqoise-T and was renamed Turquoise I  for a time in 2019 before it was sold to McKeil and renamed.

    The Wicky Spirit is named for Robert Wickens an NTT Indycar racer sponsored by Petro-Canada Lubricants. McKeil has a sister ship named Hinch Spirit (ex Topaz-I, ex Topaz-T) , named for another NTT Indycar racer, James Hinchcliffe. McKeil Tankers carries Petro-Canada product and thus promotes its relationship with Petro-Canada.

The Wicky Spirit was in Europe from October 2023 to March 2024 at the Gryfia Shipyard in Szczecin, Poland and on return to Canada loaded in Nanticoke, ON and Sarnia, ON then headed for Halifax.

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Friday exodus

 Ships like to sail on Fridays, in part to avoid  possible overtime charges or weekend rates, but also because many cargo terminals operate Monday to Friday at the land gate, with no truck arrvials and departures processed on the weekends. 

It is therefore not unusual to see several ships sailing from Halifax on a Friday afternoon, but today (April 19) was still notable notable due to the number leaving in quick succession.

When I got to my favourite vantage point at Point Pleasant Patk shortly after 1800 hrs ADT, the Atlantic SaiI was out of sight, but I did just manage to catch the EF Ava well off in the distance, having left PSA Halifax's South End Container Terminal (SECT) about 20 minutes before.

EF Ava 18:26 hrs ADT

It is headed for Reykjavik on Eimskip's weekly Green Line service to / from Portland, ME.

At the same time the NYK Rigel was passing my position outbound on The Alliance's AL5 route to Port Everglades.

NYK Rigel 18:26 hrs ADT

No sooner had the NYK Rigel passed than the MSC Sines R got underway from the SECT for Sines, Portugal on the CANEX2 service from Montreal. The ship was here March 15 westbound en route to Montreal.

 

MSC Sines R 18:29 hrs ADT

In a break from commercial activity the next outbound was the CCGS Jean Goodwill on SAR patrol east.

CCGS Jean Goodwill 18:39 hrs ADT

Next along was the auto carrier Morning Lynn from Autoport en route to New York. It was following the usual Wallenius Wilhelmsen transatlantic port rotation of Bremerhaven, Goteborg, Zeebrugge, Southampton, Halifax.

 Morning Lynn 18:45 hrs ADT.

 

The ship was built in 2009 by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industry Co Ltd and is registered at 68,701 gt, 28,092 dwt with a capacity of 8,011 CEU. Eukor is the former car carrier divison of Hyundai Merchant Marine acquired by Wallenius Wilhelmsen to gain control of Korean auto exports (and fend off the Japanese car carriers). It is still a South Korean company, but is now jointly owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen, American Roll-on-Roll-off Carriers (ARC) and United European Car Carriers.

The ship is also equipped with a larger than usual side ramp, mounted well aft. Newer ships have dispensed with side ramps as they are seldom used in most ports, and cannot be used in Autoport due to the narrow pier. 

Waiting patiently at Pier 42 for this parade to pass was the Silver Arctic the interim ship on TSMI's St-Pierre et Miquelon and Argentia, NL service. It was facing bow north, so had to turn off the dock before heading out to sea.

Silver Arctic 18:47 hrs ADT

The Silver Arctic is a six to eight week replacement while TMSI's CONRO ship the Nolhan Ava is on scheduled refit [see previous posts]. Despite having no RoRo capability, the Silver Arctic was carrying acouple of cargo vans which appear to be lashed to a 45 ft platform type container (with no walls or roof, but a heavy flat base.) It will require special sling arrangements to off-load, as a standard container spreader will not work.

Also sailing, but a little later in the evening, was Oceanex Sanderling after dark.

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BBC Rhonetal sails

 After the laborious process of loading several hunded (maybe as many as one thousand) sections of gas pipe, the BBC Rhonetal sailed today, April 19, for Moerdijk, Netherlands.

The pipe, according to the markings I could see, was manufactured in Japan and coated in Canada. The shipment was then transported to Halifax on railroad flat cars, usually with eleven pipes per car, (There were a few pipes of different diameter and length.) It took a hundred or more cars to transport the shipment. As mentioned previously the pipes were loaded aboard ship one at a time or in small bundles of two or three, using the ship's own cranes. Apparently the cargo filled the holds and a dozen or so pipes were secured on deck.

The BBC Rhonetal arrived in Halifax March 29 from Port Cartier, QC where it had off-loaded some wind turbine components. It had been waiting off Port Cartier for a time as fleet mate BBC Topaz was off-loading first. When it arrived in Halifax, there was BBC Topaz was occupying the berth and it had to wait at anchor until April 7 before it could begin to load the pipe.

 BBC Rhonetal was built in 2013 by Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering Co and is a general purpose type ship with full width hatches and box shaped holds. The 14,941 gt, 17,577 dwt ship carries three 80 tonne SWL cranes that can be combined in pairs for 150 tonne lifts. It is also rated for 1047 TEU (nominal) with 152 reefer plugs.

There have been several posts on this blog over the past few weeks on both ships.

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This and That

 Halifax may now be noted as a container port (it exceeded 500,000 TEU again in 2023) but there are lots of other things happening in the port too, and today (April 18) was an example.

 The third cruise ship of the season arrived and it is another of the small "expedition" types. Viking Octantis is en route to a summer on the Great Lakes.

Built in 2021 it is a 30,114 gt ship with a capacity of 378 passengers in 189 staterooms. It is rated as a Polar 6 class and was designed specifically for Antarctic and Great Lakes cruising. Initial construction took place at the Tulcea, Romania yard of Vard (Fincantieri). The shell was then towed to the Søviknes Shipyard in Norway for finishing. After a day in Halifax the ship will head for Toronto, where it will be based until October 15.

 At Irving Oil's Woodside terminal their tanker Acadian was discharging product from the Saint John, NB refinery. It arrived last night and will be sailing late this afternoon.

The Canadian flag ship, is on long term charter from the Dutch Vroon (Iver Ships BV). Built in 2005 by Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co Ltd in 2005, it is a 23,552 gt, 37,515 dwt product tanker. It operates from Saint John primarily to the Atlantic Canada ports of Halifax, Charlottetown and Saint John's NL, and occasionally to Montreal and Quebec City.

Arriving for its turn at the Irving Oil facility this morning was the tanker STI Hackney from Amsterdam.

Perhaps not surprisingly it is a product of the same prolific South Korean shipbuilder, Hyundai Mipo. Dating from 2014 it is a 24,230 gt, 38,734 dwt ship. Flying the Marshal Islands flag, it operates for Scorpio Tankers Inc.

Imperial Oil is also busy with the Algoberta in from Montreal with product and the Algoscotia waiting at Pier 27 25 to take its place to load for regional distribution.

Autoport is not be left out as another busy spot with imports arriving from two directions. The load of vans that arrived on April 15 on the Trica (see previous post) and were off loaded at PSA Fairview Cove are being transported to Autoport by truck (three or four at a time). My initial report of 200 vans has been revised to 350. That is a lot of truck trips!

Cars (and vans) arriving from overseas at Autoport are prepped including installation of some accessories and other equipment, and stored and shipped out by rail or truck on demand.

Today's arrival was a more conventional auto carrier, but with a twist. The ARC Honor is a United States flagged vessel reflagged and renamed February 2 in Incheon, Korea by American Roll On Roll Off Carriers (ARC).

Formerly the Tulane it was built in 2012 by Hyundai, Ulsan and is a 72,295 gt, 28,818 dwt LCTC (Large Car and Truck Carrier) with a capacity of 7,934 CEU. It was operated by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean, and has now been transferred to the United States subsidiary (but not yet re-painted in ARC colours). As a US flag ship it has preference for carrying government cargoes internationally. But as a non-Jones Act ship it cannot trade between US ports.

The ship has been in Halifax many times, and initially called wearing the old Wilhelmsen hull colour scheme.

 

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