In The Harbour: August 22nd-28th
Deanna Dean
She was actually here last week, but i didn't have a chance to wrote about her. This fishing boat is actually from the Bay Verte area, and doesn't make trips into St. John's very often.
The Deanna Dean tied up in St. John's harbour, August 2014
Her fishing trips usually have her at sea for four or five days, returning to port to offload their catch of turbot, shrimp or crab, and then heading out again until the season ends. She's 14 years old, but has been so well cared for that you wouldn't know it to look at her.
So what brings her to the city? According to a crew member, they ran into some engine trouble and had to pull into port on Sunday the 10th. After running some diagnostics they still hadn't solved the problem and they weren't sure if they'd need to put her in dry dock. Hopefully they got it all sorted!
Happy Diamond
Happy Diamond moored in St. John's. August 2014
Nationality: Dutch
Length: 156.9 metres
Beam: 25.6 metres
Weight: 18,148 tonnes
Speed: 14.1 knots
Year: 2011
The Happy Diamond has been making trips in and out of the harbour all summer, and for a ship with such a cute name, you wouldn't expect to see the massive hull tied off along the harbour front. This ship is a heavy lift vessel, equipped with two massive cranes capable of lifting 400 metric tonnes, and one slightly smaller massive crane that can lift up to 120 metric tonnes. They're designed in such a way that even with the cranes reaching out at their full extension, the vessel doesn't need to be stabilized with pontoons to keep it from rolling. Additionally, her class of vessel (BigLift Happy D-Class), is certified to sail with open cargo hatches, which means that she can handle low sitting and high sitting cargos.
She has been going back and forth between the city and Conception Bay, though I'm not entirely sure why. If anyone has any info on that, I'd love to know!
Finally this week, we have...
Seven Falcon
Nationality: British
Length: 120 metres
Beam: 23.5 metres
Weight: 11,071 tonnes
Draught: 7.4 metres
Crew: 120
Speed: 13.2 knots
Year: 2011
After popping into St. John's on Thursday afternoon to fuel, the Seven Falcon headed to Bay Bulls, where she is currently anchored. She is a diving support vessel, similar to the Skandi Inspector, and is used primarily on oil and bass sites in the ocean. These types of ships stem from a time when oil platforms first became permanent, and companies did not want to sacrifice valuable deck space for diving modules. The ships provide all of the utility of a diving module without having to be attached to the platform.
What makes the Falcon unique is that she has a 24-man twin bell saturation diving system. Now, for those of you who don't know what that is (and up until ten minutes ago, I didn't either), this system is used to help prevent divers from getting "the bends" when working on dive sites deeper than 50m. Basically, the crew are put into a bell and lowered to the dive site. They can leave the bell, but are attached by an umbilical air tube which provides them with a mixture of helium and oxygen, helping prevent their nitrogen levels from climbing too high. The Falcon has larger bells than most ships, meaning they can transport more divers at once.
(If you want more info on this style of diving, this wiki article is really comprehensive).
That's it for this week! I'm getting excited because cruise ship time is coming! September and October are absolutely jam packed with ships coming to see our fair city! Can't wait!
Have an excellent long weekend everyone. Be safe!
Images used this week are my own, except for the Seven Falcon image, which I got from here. The site also has a link to a gorgeous video showing her in her sea trials.