Sandra Mary and pair of veteran scows

Sandra Mary put in to Halifax today en route to a dredging job in southwest Nova Scotia., towing a pair of veteran mud scows.  Due to restrictions against double tows in Halifax harbour, Dominion Diving's tug Roseway went out and took over the tow of one of the scows.
All four vessels are veterans in fact. Sandra Mary was built by Russel Hipwell in Owen Sound in 1962 as Flo Cooper, a name she carried until 2000, through a variety of owners, starting with C.A.Pitts Construction, She is rated at 1360bhp on a single screw.
Roseway is a twin screw tug of 300 bhp, built originally for the Department of Public Works, but has been running for Dominion Diving since 1989.

Roseway took control of scow S.12, built in 1962 by Ocean Steel and Construction in Saint John, NB. as DPW No. 152. It measures 214.47 gross tons. It was renamed "s" for "scow" in 1995 when DPW disposed of its dredging fleet.

Sandra Mary kept towing S.11, which was built in 1977 by McNamara Corp in Whitby, ON as DPW No.77 - a name she still carries on her flanks thanks to welded letters. It was acquired by Beaver Marine, which was later taken over by McNally Construction.
Both scows are bottom dumping type (as opposed to the more modern split hopper type).

Sister tug to Sandra Mary, is Mister Joe which is being rebuilt over the winter in Belleville, ON.

Beverly M 1 - new McKeil name

McKeil Work Boats of Hamilton, ON has registered the first of its two newly acquired tugs in St. John's, NL. Beverly M 1  was registered February 20, and given official number 837218.
As usual documentation is incomplete, so we do not know which of the two recently purchased tugs this is, either the former Pacific Tempest or Pacific Typhoon.
Seehttp://tugfaxblogspotcom.blogspot.ca/2013/01/new-for-mckeil.html for the original posting.
Stay tuned.

Mega and Motti - en route

Groupe Océan's recently acquired articulated tug / barge combination Mega and Motti have reached Bermuda. They are hop-skipping across the Atlantic with stops so far in La Coruna, Spain and the Azores.
[reference Tugfax - December 17, 2012: http://tugfaxblogspotcom.blogspot.ca/2012/12/ocean-makes-move-into-atbs.html]
The pair were registered in Canada in December, but were soon chartered out under the flag of St.Vincent and the Grenadines for delivery by the Dutch company Redwise. Noted for making extreme delivery trips, Redwise seems to find no obstacles too severe for their experienced crews.
For more on Redwise, including their current deliveries see: http://www.redwise.nl/homepage.html
If you can read Dutch the Captain's progress reports probably make interesting reading:
http://www.redwise.com/page/mega-motti-weblog.html

Lyubov Orlova - one way to solve a problem

It appears from press and private reports that Maersk Challenger was hired to tow the derelict and drifting Lyubov Orlova out beyond the 200 mile limit and let it go.
The last report I had about mid-day today was that the ship was 90 km outside the zone, 460km SE of St.John's.
It gives the term "deportation" a new meaning!
No port in Atlantic Canada wanted to be saddled with this ship, and the government didn't want to deal with it, since no compensation was likely forthcoming from its owners, and so decided to remove it from Canada.
I would certainly question the acceptability of shoving something unwanted out into international waters, where it either becomes nobody's problem or every body's problem. Canada can no longer claim that it takes the high road on environmental or other issues when it continues to take actions such as this. A few years back a ship was ordered out of Halifax when its cargo was found to be contaminated. It went out to sea, dumped the cargo overside, and returned to Halifax few days later - problem solved! 
Then there is the hazard to navigation issue. A derelict ship, will show up as  a radar target, but it would be just as effective as an iceberg if someone collided with it. What if the ship becomes partially submerged? Lets hope that mariners remain alert and vigilant enough to avoid it.

Maersk Challenger - gets the hot potato

The Lyubov Orlova tow off Newfoundland is like a hot potato game now, as the Port of St. John's in company with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has refused entry to the ship should it reach the coast.
According to press reports it is the Minister of Transport that is paying tugs to tow the ship around endlessly on the North Atlantic until they can determine what to do with it.

1. Maersk Challenger in Halifax in 2004.

At some point this evening the AHTS Atlantic Hawk is going to pass the tow over to another AHTS, the Maersk Challenger. Operated by The Maersk Company of Canada Ltd, it was built in 1986 at Orskov shipyard in Frederikshavn, Denmark, as Challenger III, becoming OIL Challenger in 1986, until acquired and re-named by Maersk in 1991. It came under Canadian flag in 2002, and has worked out of Halifax and St.John's.It is also a well equipped anchor handling/supply tug of 14,348 bhp. It is powered by four V-12 MAN engines through twin controllable pitch screws.