Polar Circle – long term guest in the Basin.

Polar circle is an Ice breaking tug. the ship was previously under contract to a Russian Oil and Gas Company, but with sanctions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the owners cancelled the charter.

The Polar Circle was built in 2006, and is registered in Cyprus.

The ship sailed through the Panama Canal, and was last in New York, sailing for Halifax September 21 to Halifax. Given the ship has no work, they took a leisurely sail, arriving Oct 7th. After spending a day alongside, the tug move to anchor in the basin, where it is presumably looking for employment.

M.V Confederation is grounded

M.V Confederation appears to be around out side the channel in Caribou NS. NFL has cancelled today’s sailings, citing a Technical Issue. It looks like Confederation left the channel after departing on the 8:30 am sailing to PEI, so presumably there are passengers aboard..

PEICanada.com has details from a passenger. the plan sounds like they will attempt to back off the sandbar at 5pm, the next high tide.

Photo from Oct 2022. Confederation Entering Caribou Ferry terminal. Its a tight channel.

UPDATE: the Confederation was floated off the sandbar on the high tide just before 5pm, and returned to Caribou. A Statement from NFL indicated the boat suffered a steering failure, that led to the grounding. the steering was able to be repaired while the ship was grounded.

Sailings on Monday were also cancelled, citing a technical issue

Carriers

HMS Prince of Wales, the UK’s second aircraft carrier sailed for a North American Deployment a couple of days ago. On the way out of Portsmouth, it appears the ship may have struck bottom, and suffered an issue with her Starboard shaft or propeller. She is now at anchor, undergoing inspections.

HMS Prince of Wales was reportedly due to visit Halifax this fall, and under go some exercises with a US Carrier Group.

This brings us to the C-2 greyhound, the US Navy’s carrier capable cargo plane, a variant of the E-2 Hawkeye, the plane features a bigger body, but same engines, tail and wings. This particular plane arrived at YHZ yesterday from Norfolk, and returned this afternoon. Flying as Rawhd75, the plane belongs to VRC-40 rawhides squadron.

Air Show Atlantic

After a 2 year hiatus, Air show Atlantic returned this past weekend to Debert CQQ3.
A full Photo gallery is posted to my Flickr page, containing 1400 images.

Missing from the show were the Snowbirds, who are operationally paused, and an Ukrainian L-29 Delfin was also unable to attend due to IMC conditions on its flight down.

The SkyHawks, the Forces Parachute demo team put on a show, leaping from a Short Skyvan (below), AKA the flying shoebox. CQQ3’s runways are 5000′ long, to short to safely operate a larger aircraft.

The North American Harvard MkII, was built as a trainer for air crews during the Second world war. The Yak-55m was a Soviet design built to dominate the World Acrobatic Championships. The yak-55 first flew in 1981, the M variant with shorter wings entered production in 1991.

Flying in formation, a Pitts Model 12, and a Nanchang CJ-6A

The RCAF provided a 3 pass flyby of the Aurora, and the CF-18 demo team performed.

The Static Display included a RCAF CH-148 Cyclone, CCGS Bell 412, NS DNR Airbus AS350, Forest Protection Ltd. Air Tractor and Gonzo – the DHC-8 with a long nose used by the RCAF for navigation training.

USCGC Tybee at Ectug

The Island class patrol boat USCGC Tybee arrived earlier this week for a port visit. the vessel is based in Woods Hole MA, and is due to sail at 1500 this afternoon.

the Island class are 110′ long, and based on a British design. They were constructed between 1985 and 1992, and 37 vessels of the class are still in active service. Powered by 2 diesel engines, they have a top speed of 29.5knots and a range of 4500km. the Island class carries a crew on 16 – 2 officers and 14 enlisted personnel.