Harbour Traffic this week

I was lucky the last few weeks in that my daily commute on the ferry coincided with some harbour traffic over the course of several days. In all cases this week, the vessels in question were large container ships. 

Maersk Palermo.

Starting with a bit of an outlier on February 25th, I caught Maersk Palermo sneaking into the harbour behind Georges Island. The setting sun was illuminating the clouds of a passing snow squall, hence the nice warm background.

This week, I managed to catch not one, but two, of ACL's new con-ros - Atlantic Sail was arriving on March 5, and Atlantic Sun was departing on March 7.

Atlantic Sail arriving, sailing inside of Georges Island.

When I am lucky, ships sail inside (west of) Georges Island, which lets me get head-on images with either the McNab's Island lighthouse, or just unencumbered horizon, in the background.

Atlantic Sail.

ACL uses the Ceres container terminal in Fairview, and Atlantic Sail therefore sailed right on past Halterm, so I was able to get the latter's container cranes in the background.

Atlantic Sail with the Halifax skyline as a background.

On my walk to work two days later (March 7), I could see another ACL ship passing southbound through the harbour narrows as I came down over the hill to the ferry terminal. This meant I was only able to catch Atlantic Sun's retreating figure when I finally boarded the ferry.

Atlantic Sun and tug escort.

The large container ships usually have a tug escort in the harbour (and I believe it is mandatory within the harbour narrows), for reasons that will soon become apparent. In the case of Atlantic Sun, the ship is tall enough that striking the bridges with its short mast is a concern - and so her mast was struck down for the passage through the narrows. 

Atlantic Bear has cast off, and Atlantic Sun (no relation) heads out to sea east of Georges Island.

Throughout this series of photos, it appears that the mast is rising up, and by the last photo it appears to be fully in the vertical position.

The larger container ships are often big enough to completely obscure Georges Island, giving the impression that the ship is already at sea.

The cold air of winter causes some image distortion over the water, and Atlantic Sun is somewhat fuzzy in the last photo as a result. 

My commute home on March 7 was also well timed, with the container vessel Crete I headed up into the narrows. It was a windy day, and Crete I had two escort tugs, Atlantic Fir forward and Atlantic Bear trailing on a stern line.

Atlantic Fir escorting Crete I.

The low sun is making leaving Atlantic Fir's firmly delineated shadow on the side of the larger ship.

It was at about this point that the strong (and cold) afternoon wind made its presence apparent. Atlantic Bear started straining on the stern line to help Crete I make the turn under the old bridge and stay in the channel.

At one point, Atlantic Bear was sheering quite far to port to help Crete I make the turn.

Having a ship go aground in the narrows could block the shipping channel and presumably have fairly severe economic consequences for the Port of Halifax, so the need for tug escorts is fairly evident.