Regular caller Fusion arrived and went to anchor this morning. Her birth at pier 36 was occupied by Oceanex Sanderling. While Sanderling offers regualr service to St Johns NF, Fusion offers regular service the the French Islands of St Pierre and Miquleon, just south of the Avalon Peninsula.
Fusion has holds, and can carry container and RO-RO cargo.
The second to last hero class vessel was rolled out on the weekend, after the delayed launch of CCGS A. Leblanc occured last weekend.
She was rolled out for painting way back at the Beginning of October. Much work that is normally completed in the yard appears to have been done indoors, inducing installation of the crane on the rear deck, and some antennas and other equipment. Once the mast is installed, launching should occur fairly quickly.
The Bulk carrier Irma arrived this morning for a load of grain. This year was apparently a good year for grain, and ice was causing problems on the seaway before it closed for the winter, potentially requiring changes to shipping arrangements. Draft restrictions usually cause larger bulkers to top up in Halifax, However given how high Irma is out of the water, she is empty.Grain Pellets were flowing from one of the spouts when I was by this morning. For a View of the process, this post shows the loading of Patron last year.
Addtional Update: The wood pelets in question are from the Scotia Atlantic Biomass Company, which was formed when Viridis Energy acquired a pellet plant that was dormant in 2012. It was renamed Scotia Atlantic Biomass Company Limited and refurbished before opening in September of 2013. The plant is based in Middle Musquoboit, Nova Scotia with storage and port loading facilities in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
In 2013 Viridis signed a contract with Ekman & Co., based in Sweden to distribute our pellets throughout Europe for power generation, district to heating and residential heating. Halifax is just over 3,000 km to Rotterdam, the hub import for Europe. The tremendous location enables the company to take advantage of the rapidly growing demand for pellets in Europe.
Irma is currently loading 25,000 tonnes of wood pellets that are bound for Ghent, Belgium. The value of the shipment is 3-4 million dollars. She is due to Sail on the 5th. (Below our some loading shots, Courtesy of a friendly Longshoreman (thanks!))
With Oceanex Connaigra back in service after some propeller work in Boston, Cabot can once again go into layup. Cabot normally operated the Montreal – St. Johns route, and is being replaced by the Connaigra. When displaced by Connaigra’s arrival, she laid up in Montreal. it appears she will now spend some time at Pier 9a in Halifax.
The Navy recently cut service on firebird to normal Business hours, monday to friday. It was also Announced by the CBC that CFAV Quest had the remainder of her sailing days cut for this fiscal year.
The cancelation of the FireBird evenings and weekends is really not a major issue. Atlantic Oak, and Atlantic Willow, are both equipped for firefighting – in fact – Firebirds days were numbered anyway, and the large tug replacement project specified the new tugs to replace the Glen class had to include fire capability. I am also only aware of her being used once in recent memory – back in 2008.
Quest Supports the work of the Defence Research Establishment. It is likely that Quest will continue to be funded, though out of research budgets of DRDC and not operational budgets of the Navy. DRDC is getting a new building at the French cable Wharf in Dartmouth, and their research activities have expanded in recent years, so it seems unlikely they would be left without a vessel. Given there are only 2 months left in the fiscal year, the number of sailing days cut is probably minimal.
The stream of product tankers to the Imperial Oil terminal continues.
(Above) Yesterday brought the arrival of Sichem Defiance, which anchored before moving to Imperial Oil. (Below) the much larger Products Tanker Piltene, Took Anchor in Anchorage 1. Both vessels appear to be only partially loaded.
Noon hour brought the Departure of Fisheries Research vessel CCGS Teleost. A rare caller in Halifax, She is based in the Newfoundland Region. She was built in 1988 in Norway as a fishing trawler, before being acquired by the coast guard and modified for her new role in 1994.
The Following Photos were provided By HRM, and show the construction of the new Harbour Ferry Christopher Stannix at the A.F. Theriault & Son Shipyard in Meteghan.HRM Assembled a Flickr site with Additional progress photos here.
(Above) Engine room (Below) ER and Passenger Access
(Below) Wheelhouse fitting out.
The Digby Courier had Article with an update from mid December. The Photos below By John DeMings who wrote the article. and were taken from the article.
