Did you ever watch the movie After the Sunset? Salma Hayek and Pierce Brosnan? Woody Harrelson and Don Cheadle? (You don’t remember it? It, uh… didn’t do very well at the box office.)
The film revolves around a diamond thief (Brosnan, naturally) and an FBI agent determined to catch him (Harrelson). There’s a mega-expensive diamond aboard a cruise ship soon to be docking in The Bahamas. Hijinks ensue. The 2004 Los Angeles Lakers make a cameo. So does Ed Norton.
Here’s the best part: That cruise ship, the Seven Seas Navigator, arrives in Halifax on Friday—and the Sunset tie-in isn’t even the most outlandish (and true) story about the ship.
Here’s a look at what else is coming in and out of port in Halifax this week:
Monday, Sept. 18
Modern physics posits that time isn’t real—which is helpful in the case of the CMA CGM Mexico container ship, which managed to arrive both early and late into Halifax Harbour. The 366-metre-long ship came into port just before 5:30am on Monday, marking the first arrival of the week. It was also two days behind schedule from Tanger Med, Morocco. The ship left Halifax early Tuesday morning for New York City.
If time is a slippery matter, at least the sky is easier to grasp: We know it gets its colour from scattered sunlight, sifted and bounced around by the atmosphere. (A physicist would probably take issue with this oversimplification. Alas, we’re here to discuss very large boats, not tiny particulate matter.) The Atlantic Sky container ship arrived on cue around 6am from Liverpool, UK. It, too, left Halifax for New York. It’s due to reach the Big Apple around 7am on Wednesday.
Hope, joy or integrity—which would you choose, if you had to? Turns out integrity lost that three-way race on Monday. The Algoma Integrity bulk carrier came into Halifax Harbour around 6pm, long after both the Tropic Hope container ship and Norwegian Joy cruise ship arrived at the South End Container Terminal and Pier 22, respectively. The 3,800-passenger Norwegian Cruise Line vessel made its first of two Halifax visits this cruise season; it left Quebec City on Sept. 13 en route to—surprise, surprise—New York. The Tropic Hope, meanwhile, came from Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, and left Halifax early Tuesday morning for West Palm Beach, Florida.
Tuesday, Sept. 19
Three months after I turned 24, a childhood friend and I spent a month backpacking across New Zealand. Our plane touched down less than a day after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Kaikōura. I remember thinking, “Thank goodness I haven’t lived through a disaster like this in Canada.” (Evidently, no one had offered me a crystal ball with a view of 2023.) Quake aside, the island country was spectacular—and few parts were more scenic than the Tongariro Crossing, which offers distant glimpses of Lake Taupo. The Lake Taupo vehicle carrier isn’t quite as eye-catching, but it’s a whole lot closer than New Zealand this week—the ship arrived from Jacksonville, Florida, around 4pm.
Earlier in the day, both the Carnival Legend and 4,090-passenger Carnival Venezia cruise ships came into port on Tuesday morning, bringing upwards of 6,000 visitors to Halifax. (There’s more than a small amount of irony—or defiant confidence?—in a cruise ship naming itself for a city famously opposed to cruise ships, but that’s another matter.)
Finally, it took the MSC Shristi container ship nearly 11 days longer than anticipated, but the 294-metre-long ship came into port at the Fairview Cove Terminal around 3:40pm. The ship left Sines, Portugal, on Sept. 8 and will head onward to Boston after its Halifax visit.
Wednesday, Sept. 20
If the early bird gets the worm, then the ONE Blue Jay will have to make do with leftovers. The 364-metre-long ship arrived at the South End Container Terminal around 7:30am, three days after it left from Norfolk, Virginia. (The earliest on Wednesday’s arrivals list? That’d be the Harbour Progress oil tanker, which came into port around 1:45am from New York City.)
Three cruise ships pull into Halifax Harbour on Wednesday: The Silver Shadow, Silver Cloud and bizarrely-named Mein Schiff 6. (Leave it to the Germans to name a ship “My Ship,” then tack on a number and call it a day. Not a second wasted on frivolities.) The lattermost is the largest—or shall we say, das größte—of the three, with room for 2,500 passengers aboard. It left Bergen, Norway, on Sept. 6 and comes to Halifax by way of Hamburg, the Orkney Islands, Reykjavik and Cape Breton.
The Morning Claire vehicle carrier came into Halifax from Gothenburg, Sweden just after 10am. Elsewhere, the Oceanex Sanderling and Nolhan Ava ro-ro/cargo carriers make their weekly Halifax trips, en route from St. John’s, NL, and St. Pierre and Miquelon, respectively.
The Torm Cavatina oil tanker is likely to be the day’s last arrival; it’s inbound from Amsterdam, Netherlands, and set to reach Halifax around 6pm. It will then carry onward to Saint John, NB.
Thursday, Sept. 21
Two more cruise ship arrivals highlight a busy Thursday: Both the Zuiderdam and Emerald Princess are expected at the Halifax Seaport, inbound from Sydney, NS, and Saint John, NB. The former will carry onward to Boston, while the latter leaves next for New York.
Four container ships round out the day’s scheduled arrivals: The Selfoss, Atlantic Star, Eagle II and ONE Wren are all due to reach Halifax on Thursday. The occasion marks the first—and perhaps only—time that a wren outweighs an eagle: While the Eagle II’s summer deadweight is a modest 16,986 tonnes, the ONE Wren can carry up to 139,335 tonnes. The former is en route from Rotterdam, Netherlands, while the latter is sailing from Egypt’s Suez Canal.
Friday, Sept. 22
The MSC Pratiti container ship is due early Friday morning from Montreal. The 294-metre-long ship will head onward to Barcelona, Spain, after its stop at the Fairview Cove Terminal.
That same morning, Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s Don Carlos vehicle carrier is set to arrive at Eastern Passage’s Autoport around 8am. It left Southampton, UK, on Sept. 14.
Seven Seas Mariner aside, the Norwegian Escape cruise ship is also set to dock in Halifax on Friday. As of Wednesday afternoon, it’s berthed in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Finally, both the Contship Art and CMA CGM Cochin container ships are slated for Friday arrivals at the South End Container Terminal. The former is inbound from New York City—and nearly 17 days behind schedule—while the latter is en route from Suez, Egypt.
Saturday, Sept. 23
More weekend cruise ships. Both the 930-passenger Viking Star and 2,100-passenger Celebrity Summit are slated for Saturday morning arrivals. The former is stopping en route from Montreal to New York, while the latter saw 177 passengers and crew fall ill from a suspected norovirus outbreak during a May 2023 voyage from New Jersey to Bermuda.
Three container ships round out the day’s expected arrivals: The MSC Leigh, ZIM Atlantic and Vistula Maersk are all scheduled to reach Halifax before noon. Of those three, the ZIM-operated ship has the most enviable itinerary—it’s en route from Valencia, Spain, and will sail onward to New York City.
Sunday, Sept. 24
The last day of the week is also shaping up to be the quietest in Halifax Harbour. Only two inbound ships are currently expected in port: The 3,100-passenger Caribbean Princess cruise ship and 337-metre-long MSC Roma container ship. The former left New York on Tuesday, Sept. 19 bound for Quebec City; it will also stop in Saint John, Sydney and Charlottetown. The latter is on its way from Baltimore, Maryland and will then leave Halifax for Saudi Arabia.
