I have posted Harbour Cartography in the past, notably, my 1 month of traffic maps (2012, 2016, and 2020). recently i acquired a laser cutter, so it was time to make a bathemetric map.

I Originally tried this project using cardstock and a Cricut. The cardstock cut decently well, and the project assembled nicely, but the margin limitations made it difficult to print any street networks, and have it line up with the cuts.

The contours are 15m, and were extracted from my nautical chart file (see post, how to make a Nautical Chart) each contour as its own layer.

Each layer was created as a print layout in QGIS and exported as an SVG, then imported directly into LightBurn, and cut on 3mm Birch Ply from the local big box store. The map is 6 layers in total. I lightly sanded and Stained the top layer to give it a Nautical chart like colouring, then each layer is painted in Behr Flat Paint and primer (221ml sample size) Colours are (top to bottom) Sydney Harbour, Yacht Blue, Treasure Map, Shipyard, and Superior blue.

these are available for sale, $75 each. Contact me for details.

The French Research vessel l’Atalante Arrived at BIO on April 22nd, and spent today (April 26th) at anchor in the basin.

The ship is owned by a french research institute, and operated by the French navy’s oceanographic office. it may be here to complete annual science that would have been accomplished by the Hudson, and will be taken over by the new oceanographic research vessel under construction at Seaspan in Vancouver.

The ship features a manned submersible and several science labs.

SailGP just announced the first 6 race locations for 2026, and Halifax is back in June! From the Release:

In 2026, the Rolex SailGP Championship will set sail in Perth, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Bermuda, New York, Halifax, Portsmouth, Saint-Tropez and Dubai, followed by the winner-takes-all Grand Final in Abu Dhabi….

The full calendar – including remaining host cities and dates – will be confirmed in due course…
This 2025 Season, SailGP welcomed a record fleet of 12 national teams, including two new additions to the start line: the Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team and Red Bull Italy SailGP Team. The championship has confirmed plans to add two new expansion teams to its roster in 2026.

As far as the 2025 season goes, the Next race is Rio was cancelled after Australia suffered a wing failure in San Francisco. SailGP has identified a defect in the wings. New Zealand had also suffered a similar failure in a previous season. Both teams boats were built and sailed in the 2017 Americas Cup. The Next event will be in June in New York.

Enercon’s E-ship 1 made its first call to Halifax this week, delivering components for a windfarm currently under construction in Lunenburg county. The Components are being stored on Pier 9 untill they are needed then trucked to the site.

E-ship 1 is propelled by 4 Fletner rotors, which make use of the magnus effect to propel the ship. Essentially the spinning rotors create a low pressure area, which then pulls the ship forward.

E-ship 1 has called on sheet harbour in the past, but this is the ships first call in Halifax.

The Tuffs Cove power station is able to produce power using with natural gas or Bunker C Oil, and maintains a supply of Oil. the power plant is visited by a tanker usually around once a year to top up the tanks.

Larvik sailed from Houston, and arrived March 2. the ship was built in 2006 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries Marine & Engineering in Yokosuka Japan. its commercial operations are run out of Norway, but the ship is manged from Singapore.

On Feb 15, the container ship MSC Baltic III, Montreal for Cornerbrook, was sailing off the coast of Newfoundland when it lost power and drifted onto the shore. The 20 crew were rescued by an RCAF Cormorant out of Gander.

T&T marine salvage have been hired by MSC, and the coast guard is standing by, however work is being hampered by weather

View our Initial report:

And Latest update.

Crews are currently evaluating the situation. No pollution has been detected, however several containers have been damaged. and the hull is showing signs of stress.