Yearly Archives: 2020

End of the Offshore – Deep Panuke sails out of Halifax

This morning the Deep Panuke Platform was towed from Halifax to sheet harbour, where it will be recycled. The platforms recycling marks the end of the offshore in Nova Scotia, with recent exploration bids coming up dry, and the Sable Gas field now dis-assembled and sent for recycling in the UK.

Nova Scotia has tremendous capability to do work offshore. A transition to offshore wind development would be a good play. many ofthe same skill sets need for offshore O&G work translate well to other projects.

O&G is gone and done. Its not coming back, and the time to move on is now, while we still have the Skills and expertise locally.

Container ship Size Records

When it was built in 2005, Hapag-Lloyds Colombo Express was the largest containership in the world. That record is now held by the 24,346TEU MSC Irina (2023). Until 2015, the Port of Halifax featured a regular slate of Panamax and Post Panamax ships in the 5-6000teu range.

Below is the list of Record Holders, sorted by teu.

CMA-CGM Marco Polo 16,022teu  May 17 2021 (Canadian Record)
CMA-CGM Brazil 15,072teu  Sept 10 2020

 (Canadian Record)

MSC Auriga 15,000teu  Sept 21,2021  (Prince Rupert BC Record)
did not call in Halifax
COSCO Himalayas 14,500teu  Nov 14,2017  (Prince Rupert BC – Canadian Record)
did not call in Halifax
CMA-CGM T. Jefferson 14,414teu  March 21, 2020  
Antwerpen Express 13,200teu May 8, 2017 (Deltaport BC – Canadian record)
Stands as Delta port record. Ship did not call in Halifax
CMA-CGM Libre 11,365teu  Jan 12, 2019  
APL Salalah  10,960teu  March 17, 2018  
ZIM Antwerp  10,064teu  June 29, 2017  
CMA-CGM Tage 9365teu  May 28, 2016  
USAC ZAMZAM  9036teu  Oct 19, 2015  
Budapest Express  8749teu  Aug 8 2015  
CMA-CGM Vivaldi  8478teu  Aug 3, 2015  
MSC Melissa  6730teu  July 22, 2021 Montreal – Port record holder. This ship has called in Halifax.

New Tugs for Dominion Diving

Dominion Diving has added a pair of new Damen Stan Tug 1205s to its fleet. The two tugs arrived on the barge Jacob Joseph C towed by the tug Amy Lynn D. The new tugs are named Dominion Rumbler and Dominion Enforcer. They are likely at Pier 25 to clear customs, and will then move to the Cherubini Dock to be offloaded by crane tonight.

The third tug, Saint Georges is bound for Montreal. Curiously, the new Dominion tugs are marked Pilot, Suggesting they may have picked up a pilotage contract somewhere.

CCGS Jean Goodwill Arrives

the first complete medium icebreaker conversion from Davie arrived in Halifax today where it will be based. the First Ship, the CCGS Captain Molly Kool, was rushed into service, and only received a paint job. It will get the full conversion later.

UPDATE – the ship docked at BIO, on the proper side of the jetty and facing in the correct direction. Below, CCGS Jean Goodwill entering Halifax for the first time, via Novascotiawebcams.com.

The Ship operated as Balder Viking between 2000 and 2018, the ship is named for Jean Goodwill (1928–1997), a Canadian Cree nurse who, in 1954, became Saskatchewan’s first Aboriginal woman to finish a nursing program

How to produce a Nautical Chart.

This post is going to describe a process to create a nautical chart. It will be done using Open Data, and QGIS 3.14 and is intended to be suitable for general interest audiences, as well as GIS Professionals.

Chart of Halifax Harbour by James Cook.

nautical chart production begins with a Survey. In times past, surveyors would go out in a small boat and take soundings with a lead line. those soundings would be located via triangulation to survey monuments located on land, themselves accurately positioned by use of a sextant. the problem with this method however is that lead lines can only tell you the depth of the single spot. multiple soundings will give you a good idea of the general depth, of an area, but can miss isolated rocks and other hazards. Modern Chart production begins with Multi-beam Sonar scan.

Bathemetry

Multibeam sonar results are then rendered into a GeoTiff. A geoTiff is basically an image file that is geographically referenced, and each pixel contains height (or in this case depth) data. in this case we will make use of the CHS Nonna-10 data set. This data set is “non-navigational”, in that it is not considered reliable enough to use for navigation, but is suitable for our exercise.

the ray greyscale NONNA-10 Data.

NONNA-10 data comes in individual tiles. once the tiles are loaded, we can perform a raster merge function to join them into a single file. Then change the render type to Singleband Pseudocolor, and apply a suitable color ramp. I chose a ramp that would give a blue highlight around the coast line, and white for waters 20m and deeper.

Next I Ran a Raster Extraction Contour, and set the Interval between contour lines to 5.00, to generate 5m contour lines.

to get spot depths, i created a new point shape file, creating a bunch of points. those points then get used in the Sample raster values tool, which pulled the depth value from the raster file and generated a new point layer. We set the transparency of the points on that layer to 0, making them invisible, and then applied a labels with the depth. Our Values came back with a – sign in front, so we used the equasion editor for the source set to replace(rvalue_1, ‘-‘,”)

Land Features

Terrestrial Features were derived from the StatsCan boundary files and the Marine facilities and inland lakes from the Nova Scotia Topographic Database – Water Features Shapefile. Halifax open data has a street centerline layers that can be used to populate terrestrial areas. the center lines were adjusted so only the major streets were symbolized, all with a dark grey symbology.

the open data portal also includes a building outline layer and buildings over 6 stories were symbolized. unfortunately a number of buildings lack floor data, so significant ones will need to be edited to add values so they display – theses are mostly features such as the grain elevator, Emera Building, and various transit sheds at the port.

the National Rail Network was also used to all railway tracks.

Nautical Features

Nautical features are generated from a number of sources.

The list of Lights Buoys and Fog signals was converted into a point shape file, and then each type of buoy symbolized used the appropriate symbol from chart #1. The table includes the features name, code, position, characteristics and type.

the symbols are literally svg files taken form chart#1, and and then the individual buoy expanded. The Symbols are assigned based on the values in Field 7, and the features labeled with the light characteristics (field_6) and code (Field_3)

The anchorage data was provided by an open data set of Canadian anchorages. The inner anchorages are symbolized as above, and the outer Anchorage area was defined as a hollow polygon with a dashed line. The warning data was contained in the data set.

Traffic separation scheme in the approaches.

The traffic separation Scheme came from open data Vessel Traffic Routes. The traffic lanes in the outer approaches were edited to conform with CHS Charting practice, and to improve Appearance. The scheme also included data for Ranges, and the ferry track which were cleaned up and simplified.

Ferry Track, and Harbour inner range.

VTS Call in points were generated by creating a csv file of all the points taken from VTS Zone Regulations which define the Call in Points, then running the Points to path tool to connect them.

building the callinpoint shapefile.

The Call in Points were then symbolized with a line, and the a label applied, using the SVG Callin point symbol as a background for the Label. Placement was arranged to centre the point number in the centre, and have the symbol span the line.

Call in points 7 (Ives Knoll) and 8 (Indian point)

Producing the Chart

With all the elements digitized, its time to produce the actual chart. In this case we will produce Chart 4202 – Halifax Harbour Point Pleasant to Bedford Basin.

CHS Chart 4202

to Produce the chart, we create a new print layout, i called mine Chart 4202. i edited the page size to be Arch E paper, which is 36×48. add the map box, and the chart will render. Nautical charts are typically 1:10000 scale, so i set the scale to 10000, then adjusted placement so that the inner harbour is covered.

Then we need to change the projection to Mercator. to do so we adjusted the CRS to NAD83 CSRSv6 MTM zone 6

to get the border we want, we add two grids. the first is the standard 1minute interval using a value of 0.016660. we offset by X =20 and y=3 to get the grid to line up to even numbers. The second grid is a frame only, with the X and Y interval set to 0.001666666667 to give us 10ths of a minute. Both grids were done with the Zebra Nautical style. both grids use the WGS84 CRS.

The inset Chart of the South end terminals is created much the same way – its simply a second map window sitting on the first.

from here we can add a couple of compass roses. these are svg images, with the inner getting rotated and set to the correct position.

then all that’s left is the title block, and any additional notes you want to add.

the finished chart

Please note that for the sake of time, not all details were rendered in the chart at this time (Some buoys are not symbolized, not all depths are present. title block is mostly blank, etc.)

Boreas Sails for Cuba

the general cargo ship Boreas sailed for Havana Cuba today after loading a cargo at the grain elevator at Pier 28.

the ship was built in 2008, and is a petite 116m in length. and has been in the Cuba trade as of late making trips to the Island from Dakar, Spain, Las Palmas, and Jamaica.

PSA Halifax Removes last Panamax Crane

PSA Halifax has begun to disassemble and remove the last of the original Halterm cranes from alongside pier 36. The crane has been out of service for the last year, after it suffered a mechanical failure.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...