The Neoline Origin made her first call to Halifax. The French RO-RO Ship is powered by 2 large sails, and can cross the ocean while burning minimal fuel. The Ship began construction in 2021 this is its second voyage. the ships maiden crossing had stops in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Baltimore. Problems with the sail system sent the ship back to France.
A fully enclosed RO-RO vessel, the ship carries container internally, and has contracts with Michelin, so it should be a regular caller going forward.
With fuel cost rising, shippers are looking at other options. E-Ship One uses Fletner Rotors to supplement propulsion, and called at Pier 9 last year. Beluga Shipping also tried a skysail, basically a large Kite. I covered some of the advances in a return to sail video on Youtube.
I originally covered the Neoliner for the Herald in 2021.
SailGP returned to Halifax, and once again the weather made things interesting. On Saturday, after strong gusts all day, by race time the wind died off. This led to a much shortened course, and for the first time a split fleet, where each race was run twice, with an A and B fleets. the Grand final featured 4 boats for the first time, the top two from the A and B fleets.
the A and B Fleets were arranged based on season point standings. Evidently this worked so well that sail GP Announced the rest of the season will be run this way.
the final Results were Spain with the Win, followed by Sweden and Switzerland. Perennial front runner Australia came in 4th. the Black Foils and GBR did not make the final, so the new format certainly mixes things up.
SailGP is back for 2027, this time May 15 and 16. This early event should also bring more questionable weather, and will take place a earlier then the inaugural 2024 event.
The NorthStar Canada boat spent much of the weekend tied up off Queens Marque.
Halifax does well hosting SailGP. it has one of the best venues, and runs with top international destinations. The City looks great, and if we are wanting to promote ourselves as a ocean technology hub, this is the exact sort of event we should be hosting. the Province would do well to put a sponsorship on the Canadian team.
The Province of Nova Scotia contracted four Air Tractor AT-802 water bombers and one Cessna Caravan Bird Dog from Forest Protection Limited to supplement the provinces wildfire crews. Based in Debert, these aircraft can manage drops and place retardant to control the forward spread of flames. I found myself with an hour to kill in this area, so drive by to take a look.
The $6.5million contract for these planes was announced on May 13. It will run until September 30 but can be extended if needed.
the Air Tractors primarily drop retardant, and need to be reloaded on the ground with pumps. The Debert airport has a refilling setup established with a water supply and tanks for mixing retardant.
The Yacht Sherpa is owned by Sir James Arthur Ratcliffe is a British billionaire, chemical engineer, and businessman. Ratcliffe is the chairman and chief executive officer of the INEOS chemicals group, which he founded in 1998. In May 2018, Ratcliffe was the richest person in the UK, with a net worth of £21.05 billion. INEOS is a sponsor of the Americas Cup, and the yacht remained in town for Sail GP.
The 73.6m/241’6″ expedition yacht ‘Sherpa’ was built by Feadship in the Netherlands at their Kaag shipyard. Her interior is styled by British design house RWD and she was delivered to her owner in July 2018.
The Yacht Features 6 cabins for the owner and 12 guests. The yacht operates with a Crew of 22. Sherpa is built with a steel hull and aluminum superstructure, with teak decks. Powered by twin diesel 16-cylinder 2,038hp engines running at 1600rpm, she comfortably cruises at 13 knots, reaches a maximum speed of 15 knots with a range of up to 5,200 nautical miles at 13 knots.
The CCGS Naalak Nappaaluk officially joined the Coast Guard fleet today. The Offshore Ocenagraphic Science vessel is the long awaited replacement for the CCGS Hudson, and was built by Seaspan in Vancouver. the ships keel laying cerimony took place in November 2022, and the completed ship was delivered to the Coast Guard in November 2025 and arrived in Halifax via the Panama Canal earlier in the year.
the ship can accommodate up to 34 crew and 26 scientists and will be stationed at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography.
The ship is is named after Nunavik elder Naalak Nappaaluk (1928-2010) who was known for his vast knowledge of animals, weather patterns, the sea and even the night sky. Nappaaluk was a skilled and respected community builder and harvester devoted to ensuring Inuit language, culture and knowledge of the natural world was preserved and passed on to future generations
Rockpiper tied up at pier 9. the ship is a fall pipe vessel which is used to distribue gravel on the seabed by directing it through a fall pipe, allowing it to be placed with precision for offshore construction projects.
Owned by Dutch firm Boskalis, they have become experts in moving and installing offshore structures.
INDUSTRIAL COURAGE is a General cargo vessel built in 2018. Currently sailing under the flag of Portugal the ship features two 150ton cranes. When operating as a container ship, she has a 425 TEU Capacity.
Today VIA Rail hosted in open house to celebrate the 120th year of operation of the Ocean, Making it the Oldest named train in Canada. The train first appeared on Intercolonial railway schedules connecting Halifax to Montreal on July 03 1904.
The event also marked the completion of restoration work on Halifax Station. Of note is the return of the clock to the sculpture above the main entrance.
The Ocean Limited began as a summer only train, and its operation was taken over by CN when the ICR was folded into Canadian National in 1918. It Remained, when CN spun off its passenger operations to VIA Rail in 1978.
The Ocean in 1948
The Ocean once ran as a daily train, going down to 3 days a week from 1990-94, it regained a 6 day/week schedule until 2012. it now runs three times per week with a mix of 2000’s Renaissance equipment, and 1950’s Budd stainless steel cars.
The Renaissance equipment was originally built for the the NightStar – a proposed nighttime sleeper train to complement the Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel – the train was cancelled before the equipment was finished, and VIA bought it all. Despite being the newest equipment in the fleet, prior to the entry of the Siemens Venture/Charger sets, The Ren equipment with their European heritage have proven problematic, and they are primed for replacement.
The Ocean, 1958
The much older Budd equipment is finally reaching the end of its service life. The fleet was purchased by Canadian Pacific for launch of The Canadian in 1955. VIA bought additional Budd cars second hand from other railways and converted them for service.
Prior to the Ren equipment, CN/VIA ran the ocean with a mix of Pullman smooth side cars.
In 1958 the Ocean departed Halifax at 11:45am, and arrived in Montreal at 7:30am the next day. The train currently departs Halifax at 11:30, and arrives at 9:53. and runs 2 hours and 20 minutes slower. the Departure from Halifax was moved up in June 2024, from 13:00 to better accommodate slow orders on route.
Screenshot
A 2016 employee timetable showed maximum speeds of 30 mph for passenger trains on a 59.2-mile section of the Newcastle Subdivision from milepost 48.4, near Rogersville, N.B., to MP 107.6, near Nepisguit, N.B requiring 1:58 to cover that distance. at 90mph, that distance takes 40 minutes, of course, since 2016, track conditions have worsened,
I have taken the ocean several times in both directions. the most recent was in May 2024, when it served as the first leg on my trip across the country by train.
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.
