Photos this week: October 1-7

I will start with the weekend, during which I managed to pop over to Lunenburg to see the sights there. This sailboat was sitting in her cradle next to the old Smith & Rhuland shed, which appears in the background.

I also caught up with the Blue Dream Project schooner, now named Mahayana, which was launched this summer and is being completed alongside a wharf in front of the old Smith & Rhuland shed where she was built.

Mahayana alongside a Lunenburg Wharf, with the Smith & Rhuland shed in the background.

The work week started out a bit rainy, and Monday was a bit of a loss for photos, however Tuesday was sunny again and made up for it with HMCS ST. JOHN'S getting her feet wet again after a maintenance period on the Syncrolift. The speed of the process took me by surprise a bit, in that I took too long getting my camera out to capture her with the keel blocks still showing.

HMCS ST. JOHN'S being lowered back into the water.

HMCS ST. JOHN'S being lowered back into the water.

By the end of the day when I returned to Dartmouth on the ferry, ST. JOHN'S was once again alongside one of the jetties.

Speaking of frigates on the Syncrolift, I should share a view of VILLE DE QUEBEC on the lift some years ago, from a slightly different (and more impressive) viewing angle.

VILLE DE QUEBEC on the Syncrolift. I don't remember how I got close enough to get this angle.

Wednesday brought with it a terrific fog that replicated the sea smoke that one normally expects in the dead of winter with temperatures of -17 Celsius or so. I turned around just at the right time to see HMCS VILLE DE QUEBEC sneaking out of the fog bank.

HMCS VILLE DE QUEBEC.

HMCS VILLE DE QUEBEC. Look carefully for the RHIB to the left of the photo.

Silhouetted against the rising sun and casting shadows in the fog, VILLE DE QUEBEC continued up the harbour and went to anchor.

VILLE DE QUEBEC at anchor.

Around the same time that morning, I captured an image I am calling "Last of the Old Guard": ATHABASKAN and PRESERVER are the only two HMC warships remaining to have been commissioned into the RCN before 1992 (I am being careful to specify warships here, because sail training vessel HMCS ORIOLE was commissioned in the 1950s), when the namesake ships of the HALIFAX class commissioned.

Last of the Old Guard: HMC Ships ATHABASKAN and PRESERVER. Despite the fog hiding the background, the sun is cutting through and illuminating both ships - a lucky catch!

Although a jetty queen and unable to go to sea due to corrosion issues in the hull, PRESERVER is nevertheless still in commission, but is due to be paid off on October 21, 2016. She has been used for alongside refueling in recent years. ATHABASKAN is scheduled to follow her in Spring 2017, the last of the IROQUOIS class destroyers to leave service.

From Cable Wharf I managed to get this shot of the Woodside Ferry heading to Dartmouth with the sun burning its way through the fog and cloud.

Sun, ferry, & fog. The sun is reminding me of the moon in this shot for some reason.

A day or two later, the sun cooperated for me and I caught it shining through the gun shield on HMCS SACKVILLE. 

HMCS SACKVILLE.

Cruise ship traffic continued unabated this week, with a total of five visiting on Friday, of which I only managed to photograph three.

Seven Seas Mariner appearing from behind George's Island.

Serenade of the Seas, Seven Seas Mariner, and Caribbean Princess.

Serenade of the Seas and Seven Seas Mariner.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend, everyone!

(Sea) Smoke on the Water

While I dread the cold temperatures every winter, I do look forward to the opportunity to photograph Halifax Harbour covered in sea smoke - all the better if ships are present. I got that opportunity this week, and lucked out in that it wasn't actually all that cold - we got sea smoke at a relatively balmy -12 degrees C when I expect to see it at -17 or below. On a side note, this probably means that the water in the harbour was warmer than normal for this time of year.

A photo that I have always been fond of is one of the old Foundation Maritime steam tug Banscot. Probably taken in the 1940s, Banscot is just appearing out of a fog of sea smoke on a cold day in Halifax. 

Banscot. Wetmore Photo, BFC Civil collection.

The sea smoke nicely isolates the tug from the Dartmouth shore in the background, and gives a ghostly feel to the image. I always want to capture some of this image's magic when I see appropriate conditions on the harbour.

As luck would have it, CCGS Cape Roger was on her way in during my trip to work this week, and I was able to get photos from the Halifax waterfront. It is one of my more successful series of sea smoke images.

CCGS Cape Roger passing the George's Island lighthouse in sea smoke.

CCGS Cape Roger.

CCGS Cape Roger.

The first two images were fairly monochromatic out of the camera, being shot into the sun, so I converted them to black & white. The last image showed enough red of the hull that I left it in colour.

HMCS FREDERICTON was departing that same day for deployment on Op Reassurance, but unfortunately not until 1300, so I wasn't able to combine a frigate and sea smoke - not this week, at least. I have managed it in years past, however, like with this shot last year of HMCS HALIFAX:

HMCS HALIFAX.

Ten years previous, I caught HMCS CHARLOTTETOWN as she returned to Halifax, caked in frozen sea spray.

HMCS CHARLOTTETOWN.

A month later in February 2005, I was similarly lucky to catch Eide Transporter as she delivered the fire-damaged HMCS CHICOUTIMI to Halifax. At the time, I lived in an apartment building and had a balcony that overlooked the harbour narrows. The sea smoke was particularly heavy (and high off the water) that morning, and Eide Transporter and her cargo appeared out of the mist north of the Macdonald Bridge and disappeared once again into a thick bank of sea smoke as she passed under the McKay Bridge on her way into Bedford Basin. I was lucky to have seen her at all.

Eide Transporter and HMCS CHICOUTIMI.

Many years previous to this, somewhere in the 1970s, my grandfather captured this image of a ST. LAURENT class destroyer heading out of the harbour.

ST. LAURENT class destroyer in sea smoke. Sandy Mowat photo.

The powerplant in the background is now, after many renovations, the new Nova Scotia Power headquarters on the Halifax waterfront.

Over the years, I have managed to catch a variety of ships in a variety of sea smoke conditions:

IT Intrepid in January 2008.

Georgia S.

Antwerpen.

Chebucto Pilot.

Sea smoke also enlivens conventional landscape (or seascape) photography as well.

George's Island.

Macdonald Bridge, January 2007.

A couple of ships did manage to sneak their way into the final above image. The former HMC Ships TERRA NOVA and GATINEAU appear at left at the old gun wharf. They, along with the hammerhead crane beside them, have since been cut up and dismantled. While again shot into the sun, this image was converted to black & white for a different reason than the images commented on above - in this case, shooting into the sun resulted in some lens flare in the top left of the image that I found distracting. It was going to be too difficult to edit out the flare, so I converted to black & white in order to be able to hide the colours of the flare. Overall, I think I like the image better in black & white anyway, so it all worked out in the end.