Arriving late this afternoon is the the Bigroll Beaufort, loaded with 2 offshore wind turbines for the CVOR, or Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project. The ship will be tieing up at Woodside.
To get around the US Jones act, the Turbine equipment will be delivered to Halifax, where it will be loaded on the Installation vessel Vole au Vent, to then be taken to the installation site off the Virginia Coast. Vole au Vent is still in Rotterdam.
The Jones act is a piece of US legislation that requires any transport of goods between US ports to be done on US Built, Crewed and Flagged ships. Currently there are no US Offshore Wind installation vessels.
From the Project Release: “Dominion Energy and Ørsted announced today the turbine components and monopiles for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project have started their journey to North America.
The foundations, consisting of the turbines’ monopiles, transition pieces and anode cages fabricated by EEW SPC, have been loaded onto the Bigroll Beaufort cargo ship in Rostock, Germany. The components for the two, 6-megawatt Siemens Gamesa turbines were loaded in Esbjerg, Denmark, before the vessel embarked in mid-April on the approximately two-week transatlantic journey to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Installation of the two turbines, located 27 miles offshore, is expected to begin later this spring and they are expected to enter service by the end of the year.”
ONE Matrix spent yesterday at Fairview cove. The second magenta colored ONE vessel to Call in Halifax. Given her lightly loaded condition, you can see the Magenta and White funnel striping quite clearly.
the ship was repainted in and renamed in March, so its fresh, and on its first trip out of refit. Infact, when I last looked at the schedule, the ship was still MOL Matrix.
the light load is likely due to the pandemic, with container volumes finally dropping off.
the Zhen Hua 29 sailed from Shanghai today, with PSA Halifax’s new crane onboard. The ship is currently due to arrive June 22, baring any delays.
Like the other cranes at PSA Halifax, the crane was manufactured by ZPMC, but will be even larger then the two SPPX cranes added in 2013, spanning 24 bays across, vs 22 for the current cranes.
The addition of the new crane, and an option for a second were announced in February 2019, I’m told two tie down locations are being installed at pier41 suggesting the option for a second crane has been exercised.
CSL Tacoma spent a few days at anchor in the basin, before moving to pier 27 this morning, presumably to take on bunkers. The ship moved to National Gypsum this Afternoon.
HMCS Moncton in Dazzle paint scheme for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. The ship was Exercising in the basin today.
Sun, May 3rd marks the 75th anniversary. of the Battle of the Atlantic, to commemorate the longest continuous battle for sea-control of the North Atlantic, from 1939-45, between German and Allied navies
Markab returned to pier 9 this morning. it was last here Feb 8., before sailing to Bridgetown Barbados. Built in Norway in 1976, the ship now is operated by Furgo, and was likely conducting a subsea survey.
AS Laguna arrived at Pier 9 from Miami. It looked to be handling some cargo on deck located in the container stacks forward of the accommodation block. No idea what the cargo is however.
The brand New Anchor Handling Supply Tug Maersk Maker arrived this morning at pier 9, after spending yesterday with the crane ship Thialf. The Ship was Built in 2019, and is flagged in St. John Newfoundland.
From Maersk’s brochure on the ship:
Maersk Maker is a DP2 deep water anchor handling tug supply vessel (AHTS) of SALT design. This state-of-the-art vessel is built for deep water anchor handling and oilfield operations with reliability, safety and minimized environmental footprint as a top priority.Powered by five medium speed engines with total output of more than 23,000 horsepower, a fuel efficient and flexible hybrid propulsion system and fixed pitch on all side thrusters, the vessel provides good fuel economy, low emissions and excellent station keeping capabilities (ERN 4 x 99). Also designed for high safe deck operations, the vessel is equipped with a multi deck handler system, anchor recovery frame, gypsy handling system and other aid
This morning I received an email from a crew member on a cruise ship. name and locations have been removed, for reasons that will become obvious later on. Below is Edited, but entirely her words.
I am looking to share my ongoing story of being held captive on a ship during the COVID-19 outbreak. It is currently my Day 79 at sea, and Day 27 past the expiry of my contract as an expedition crew member onboard.
I have 11 years of experience … This year, I signed up to work onboard a cruise ship as a kayak guide and zodiac driver and quickly found a contract with <cruise company> onboard the <Cruise ship>. I embarked on January 28th in <city> with the intention of finishing my first contract onboard on March 20th in <end point>.
We were lucky; we never had the virus onboard. When we arrived early in <end point> on the 18th of March, borders were still open. We were told that the company policy was always to allow “passengers first” and we would be obligated to wait until the very last passenger had disembarked before we would be considered for disembarkation. After that last passenger had left, the <end point> Government closed its port for all crew changes and we were told we would be staying onboard indefinitely. On March 24th, we were told the company was intending to reposition its ship, and with the excess crew including myself still onboard and we set sail towards <Mediterranean Port>, despite many ports in Africa and South America remaining open for crew changes.
Somewhere south of the Equator the company changed their minds and ordered the Captain to change course towards the ______ Islands, where we were expected to arrive on April 15th. We were guaranteed flights home from there, as long as we singed new contracts that slashed our pay. We were threatened by our supervisors that if we did not sign the new contracts, we would be terminated and not repatriated back to our home countries. Those contracts expire today, with our pay now reduced to 0% of our original rates.
This morning, we were informed by the Captain that we would be arriving in the ______ Islands, but there would be no flights waiting for us from there; the company deemed the cost of chartering a flight to take us off the islands to be too high. Instead, we would be embarking 250 new crew members from the company’s sister ships (<ship 1 and <Ship 2>) and setting sail again for <Northern European Country>. The <ship 1> has had confirmed cases of COVID-19 onboard, and we are now to embark their crew onto our vessel and spend a further two weeks sailing towards the <Northern European Country> at full capacity. We were told the decision was made in the best financial interests of the company. As crew members, we are independent contractors and not employees of this company. We are also not being paid while onboard, though we are still expected to carry out our crew duties.
We have been told we have no choice in the matter, and we are not going willingly. We have been threatened that if details of this situation gets to the media, our internet onboard will be shut off. The situation onboard is becoming dire. We are terrified at the idea of having 450 individuals crammed onto a cruise ship for a minimum of two weeks. We are terrified of the idea of experiencing an outbreak, with only one doctor and one nurse and a small first aid room onboard. We are terrified of being turned away from all future ports, and we are terrified of not being able to be back home with our families during these trying times. We are all being held captive onboard as this company exercises every opportunity to practice financial austerity over the best interests of the human beings that are still onboard.
We have wanted nothing but to disembark this ship since the 18th of March. We were told the best we could expect is to be allowed to disembark by the 1st of May.
I am sharing my story in hopes that the company has a chance to comment on their actions and the decisions that they have made with our lives in the greater public sphere. I hope that Canadians become aware that there are still many citizens aboard that are still trying to make it back home, but are physically unable to do so.
I have refereed the situation to the ITF – the International Transport Workers federation. the actions of the Cruise company are in violation of the Maritime Labour Convention.
The Author of the email is a Canadian, and the Ship has called on Halifax in the past.
