Icebreaking tug Polar Circle departs Halifax

The icebreaking tug Polar Circle has been laid up in Halifax for some time this fall, and finally departed the harbour for Boston this afternoon - her departure was perfectly timed for the 4:45 ferry to Dartmouth.

To get these photos of a moving ship from another moving ship, I stopped down to f/4 (the widest aperture for my 70-200mm lens) and I normally leave the camera set to auto-ISO - so in this case, the camera jumped the ISO up to between 5000 and 10,000 depending on the image. While not ideal, even the older Sony camera body that I use managed just fine with fairly natural looking grain at those levels.

Dawn Shipping Photos

It is that time of year when my commute to work often coincides with sunrise or other early morning lighting, and I managed to make a few nice images as a result in October and November.

ACL's appropriately named Atlantic Sun was departing Halifax one morning while I chased photos of the USS Gerald R. Ford.

Dynamogracht entering the harbour at sunrise.

ONE Hangzhou Bay entering Halifax Harbour at sunrise.

Unfortunately, the morning I was chasing the USS Gerald R. Ford, I didn't manage to get a spectacular sunrise image - this was the angle I received the morning that Atlantic Sun was leaving. 

Atlantic Sun departing off to the right with the USS Gerald R. Ford at left.

I tried to convince my editor at Warships IFR that he should include the following photo inside the magazine, and feature wording to the following effect on the cover: "USS Gerald R. Ford off the rails! Photos inside."

For some reason, he didn't go for it, but I thought it was a great idea. 

USS Gerald R. Ford "off the rails" as it were, pictured from the Dartmouth side. 

That said, a few mornings later, I did manage to get a sunrise shot from the Halifax side that I was happy with.

USS Gerald R. Ford at sunrise from Halifax.

Voyage into the High North

Part 1 of my story and the photography of my voyage into Canada's north in HMCS Margaret Brooke for three weeks in August 2022 is featured in the December issue of Warships IFR magazine. In addition, I contributed content on the ship's commissioning at the end of October plus the visit to Halifax of the USS Gerald R. Ford at around the same time.

My Margaret Brooke story is being spread across four issues - December, January, February, and March.

Already on shelves in the UK, the December issue should appear in Canada in the coming weeks, and the cover looks like this:

HMCS Moncton departure

HMCS Moncton was at anchor on Friday morning when I took the ferry across, and shortly started up her engines and headed out on the Halifax side of George's Island. I suspect she was headed out to escort in a USN submarine that arrived later than morning. 

Moncton is painted in a commemorative Second World War camouflage pattern similar to that worn by various Flower-class corvettes during that war. 

The sun had just come up before the ship headed out, and so most of my photos are backlit. If you look carefully, you can see CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 in the background - she was underway from Irving's facilities at Woodside, and I suspect she swung her compass on the other side of George's Island from where I was standing.