grk
Chief Steward
Posts: 227
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Post by grk on Jan 27, 2014 15:03:41 GMT -8
Over the years we have had cruise ships and ferries positioned to our coast to act as hotel ships for both tourists and workers. This is about to happen again. The large Baltic ferry SILJA FESTIVAL has been chartered to act as an accommodation vessel for workers in Kitimat. She will sail very soon for our coast and after inspections should be up and running by May. I am not sure of her size, but she is a big one!!
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Neil
Voyager 
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Post by Neil on Jan 27, 2014 18:00:26 GMT -8
Over the years we have had cruise ships and ferries positioned to our coast to act as hotel ships for both tourists and workers. This is about to happen again. The large Baltic ferry SILJA FESTIVAL has been chartered to act as an accommodation vessel for workers in Kitimat. She will sail very soon for our coast and after inspections should be up and running by May. I am not sure of her size, but she is a big one!! She is big indeed- 551 feet. Laid up since last May. Quite the addition to Kitimat's waterfront, if she's actually going to be based in town.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Silja_Festival
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Post by WettCoast on Jan 27, 2014 22:46:41 GMT -8
Over the years we have had cruise ships and ferries positioned to our coast to act as hotel ships for both tourists and workers. This is about to happen again. The large Baltic ferry SILJA FESTIVAL has been chartered to act as an accommodation vessel for workers in Kitimat. She will sail very soon for our coast and after inspections should be up and running by May. I am not sure of her size, but she is a big one!! She is big indeed- 551 feet. Laid up since last May. Quite the addition to Kitimat's waterfront, if she's actually going to be based in town.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Silja_Festival
I heard rumours a few weeks ago about an accommodation vessel coming to Kitimat and I thought Inlet Explorer (aka Queen of Tsawwassen). But then I thought, no, too small. So now we know what is apparently coming. I will be sure to get photos... This is not the first time that a boat has been used to house workers here during a major mega construction project. In the 1950's the former California river boat Delta King was here to accommodate single men working on the Alcan Project. It was beached on dry land however, for the duration of its stay. The Delta King is now on display in Sacramento, California. www.dropbox.com/s/kbwt7eaorxi2lq2/41%2070.30.2.jpgWe all recall the cruise ship Mona Lisa in the harbour at Squamish during the 2010 Olympics. It was there to house officials working at Whistler during the Olympics & Paralympics. |
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mrdot
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Mr. DOT
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Post by mrdot on Jan 27, 2014 22:58:48 GMT -8
:)this mega sized baltic ferry will be much more substantual than the Delta King, so big work schedule ahead? or is crusty blowing gas? :-Xmrdot.
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Neil
Voyager
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Post by Neil on Jan 27, 2014 23:09:51 GMT -8
:)this mega sized baltic ferry will be much more substantual than the Delta King, so big work schedule ahead? or is crusty blowing gas? :-Xmrdot. We all know that soon we're going to be tax free and 135% employed thanks to the trillion dollars that LNG is going to inject into our economy. Christy told us so, so let's not be cynical. There will soon be flotillas of re-purposed European ferries housing workers building LNG ports... just you wait and see.
Couple of days ago, I couldn't resist picking up a Zimbabwean 100 Trillion Dollar note from a Parksville coin dealer. Paid ten dollars for it, but the real circulating value was probably a tenth of that. Don't know why I thought of that just now. 
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SolDuc
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West Coast Cyclist
SolDuc and SOBC - Photo by Scott
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Post by SolDuc on Jan 27, 2014 23:12:43 GMT -8
Or maybe that Silja Festival is going to take over the NorAd while she serves as an hotel for workers in Kitimat. I'd think that would be a much better utilization of resources... |
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Post by WettCoast on Jan 28, 2014 8:38:42 GMT -8
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timo
Deckhand
Posts: 57
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Post by timo on Jan 29, 2014 13:26:33 GMT -8
Sorry - posted the thing below in another thread as I had missed this one.
I have travelled with the Silja Festival a number of times when she was a Turku-Stockholm ferry for Silja Line. She has after that been turned over to current owner of Silja Line, the Estonian Tallink, but they kept the name, and she traded between Stockholm and Riga.
She is a little bit worn by now, after all, she is approaching 30 years of age. The cabins are a little bit on the small side, but the ship has a good layout, good restaurants and bars, and the view from the forward night club is stunning when sailing in an archipelago. Somehow I feel she will be a bit wasted as a hotel ship, but on the other hand it is good that she finds use at least for a while.
Kitimat smelter operator to house temporary workers on cruise ship
MARK HUME
VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jan. 28 2014, 8:24 PM EST
Last updated Tuesday, Jan. 28 2014, 8:31 PM EST
A luxurious cruise ferry that boasts a sailor’s pub, casino and dance floor is on its way from the Baltic Sea to Kitimat, on B.C.’s north coast, where it will help relieve a growing housing crisis.
Joanne Monaghan, mayor of the booming resource town, said she’s looking forward to seeing the gleaming, 11-deck ship tied up in a working port that is more commonly used by bulk freighters and barges.
“It’s desperate,” she said of the housing situation in the town. Kitimat may soon see its population of about 9,000 residents double if several proposed liquefied natural gas projects go ahead.
“We’ll probably have anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 workers in the long run,” she said.
“The vacancy rate right now is .04 per cent,” said Ms. Monaghan, who was busy Tuesday trying to find a new home for a woman who was being forced out of her apartment by soaring rents. “With the ship coming in, it will probably alleviate things a little bit because some of the [workers] are staying in the apartments and some of them are renting houses. They will probably go to the cruise ship now.”
Ms. Monaghan said the inflow of well-paid workers has jacked up rents in Kitimat, and many locals can’t find, or can’t afford, accommodations.
“These apartments that are being rented out now to these workers are really very [expensive]. They are $1,200 to $1,400 a month because the workers have it. … None of these elderly people on a pension can afford that,” she said. “I don’t know what to do. I’d put them all up at my house if I could, but I don’t have room.”
Rio Tinto Alcan is bringing in the cruise ferry, Silja Festival, for a nine-month stay to provide accommodations for temporary workers involved in a $3.3-billion modernization and expansion of its smelter.
The ship will house 500 workers, said Colleen Nyce, manager of communications for Rio Tinto Alcan, and there will be an on-board staff of about 100. Most of those positions – ship cooks, cleaning staff – will be filled in B.C., but the ship will come with an outside crew of about 20 people.
Rio Tinto Alcan already has a work camp in Kitimat with 1,700 beds, but Ms. Nyce said that is at capacity and workers have been renting places in town, where vacancies are getting increasingly hard to find.
“Over this past year and a bit, we’ve seen an increase in activity with other projects and realized as we ramp up that we are not going to have enough room in the town,” she said. “The town folk are already feeling the pain a bit, and we’ve heard that. This is something we just pulled out of our back pocket and started working on really quickly.”
The 170-metre ship, run by Tallink Group as a cruise ferry in the Baltic Sea, is being called the Delta Spirit Lodge for its Canadian assignment.
Ms. Monaghan said that name reflects the history of Kitimat because 60 years ago, workers brought in to help build the original Alcan smelter were housed on a ship called the Delta King.
“It was an old paddle wheeler and that’s where a lot of the accommodations were. That ship is now in California as a restaurant,” she said.
Ms. Monaghan said there are already a lot of workers in the community and many more will come if the LNG projects go ahead.
Kitimat LNG, LNG Canada and Douglas Channel Energy Project all have proposed building new projects in Kitimat.
The plans, which have not yet been completed, would see pipelines built to Kitimat from the gas fields in northeast B.C. Gas would be processed at plants on the waterfront and loaded on LNG bulk carriers for shipment to markets largely in Asia.
THE SILJA FESTIVAL
Owner: The Tallinn-based Tallink Grupp, operator of 18 ferries on several routes in the northern Baltic Sea under the Tallink and Silja Line brands.
Previous service: Stockholm-Riga; Stockholm-Turku, Finland
Commissioned: 1986
Refit: 1992
Length: 171 metres
Decks: 11
Passenger cabins: 588
Restaurants and cafés: 4
Shops: 3
Other amenities: Children’s playroom, sauna, 12-room conference centre on the 8th deck
Source: Company website
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 13, 2014 21:23:58 GMT -8
The Silja Festival is currently in the mid-Atlantic between the Canary Islands & Panama. Its ETA at the canal is February 17th. I have heard that it is expected to arrive in Kitimat at about the end of February. I don't know if there are any stops planned elsewhere in BC before she arrives in Kitimat.
I had heard that the vessel is being towed. I was checking on MarineTraffic.com and it indicates an average speed of ~15 knots. That seems a bit fast for this to be a tow job.
I am back home in Kitimat, now, & I hope, of course, to get photos when this ship arrives here.
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 17, 2014 20:27:55 GMT -8
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 17, 2014 21:59:00 GMT -8
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 18, 2014 22:35:25 GMT -8
Marine Traffic now shows the Silja Festival's destination as 'Nanaimo, Canada' - ETA 1 March 2014 @ 2000 UTC. If this is true she may tie up where the V-class retirees were stored. Looks like you southerners (Mr Horn, BCFS) will get a chance for photos before I do. She is currently at the Panama Canal Pacific side anchorage.
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grk
Chief Steward
Posts: 227
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Post by grk on Feb 19, 2014 15:41:57 GMT -8
Those bringing her here are looking for a short term berth on the coast, where necessary alterations will be done prior to positioning to Kitimat. They have looked at berths in Vancouver Harbour, New West.,Ogden Pt, and Nanaimo. From the paper work I have seen the information that they were seeking was about the Nanaimo Assembly Wharf and Duke Pt availability rather than Departure Bay; although that would be ideal should she fit into the slip. Right now they are just costing things out, including docking fees and charges, wharfage, pilotage, and shipyard costs. They will have to firm up their plans soon!
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 23, 2014 20:46:51 GMT -8
The Silja Festival is now just south of the southern tip of Baja California (Mexico). Its destination is now listed as Vancouver, with an ETA of March 1st at 18:00 UTC.
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Koastal Karl
Voyager
Been on every BC Ferry now!!!!!
Posts: 7,747
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Post by Koastal Karl on Feb 23, 2014 20:56:27 GMT -8
That ship does not look very attractive from the front. It looks kind a ugly, lol! I wonder where in Vancouver she is going and is that 6:00pm???
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 24, 2014 18:13:31 GMT -8
That ship does not look very attractive from the front. It looks kind a ugly, lol! I wonder where in Vancouver she is going and is that 6:00pm??? Yes, Karl, this is another European not particularly good looking cruise-ferry. Is it as 'ugly' as our Greek boat, the lovely Sonia - NorAd? BTW, 18:00 UTC means 6 PM coordinated universal time (UTC). Subtract 8 hours to get the time in PST (Pacific Standard). |
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Koastal Karl
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Been on every BC Ferry now!!!!!
Posts: 7,747
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Post by Koastal Karl on Feb 24, 2014 18:20:05 GMT -8
yeah I thought that was 6pm local time. I honestly think the Nor Ad is better looking from the front than this ship, But that's just my opinion!
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grk
Chief Steward
Posts: 227
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Post by grk on Feb 24, 2014 20:49:01 GMT -8
Pilot call for Victoria is 12:00 Saturday March 01. Very tentative and could change several times before arrival. There are very heavy swells off the coast just now, and many ships are taking delays while heading north up the coast. She does not have a berth assigned yet, and is slated for one of the English Bay anchorages, until her agent secures a berth.
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Post by Scott (Former Account) on Feb 25, 2014 13:11:37 GMT -8
 Pier 94 is to the east of Vancouver Shipyards. Note that this may change. As we near her arrival, information will become more trustworthy. |
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grk
Chief Steward
Posts: 227
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Post by grk on Feb 25, 2014 17:14:08 GMT -8
This is probably the final arrangements as they all now show as confirmed. The docking arrangements, line handler orders, and a docking tug on standby all listed as confirmed, subject to an enroute delay should the weather not cooperate. I am off work for a few days, but will check on Friday to see if changes have been ordered and post them if that is the case.
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 27, 2014 11:01:20 GMT -8
The Silja Festival is now in the Pacific west of & well off shore from San Francisco.
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Post by Mike C on Feb 28, 2014 17:05:50 GMT -8
The Festival is listed as having an ETA of 0100 local time on March 2nd (tonight) in Vancouver, according to Marine Traffic data.
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Post by Scott (Former Account) on Feb 28, 2014 18:54:07 GMT -8
Pilot order shows an ETA off Victoria at noon tomorrow. If that holds, I would assume she'll be arriving in Burrard Inlet sometime around 1630 - 1700'ish.
She's currently sailing northbound off Astoria, Oregon at 14.1 knots at the time of this posting.
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Koastal Karl
Voyager
Been on every BC Ferry now!!!!!
Posts: 7,747
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Post by Koastal Karl on Feb 28, 2014 20:58:44 GMT -8
If I have a chance I might try and get down to Ogden Point tomorrow around that time to take a look as she sails by. Anyone know what time she would be passing Tsawwassen roughly???
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 28, 2014 21:11:30 GMT -8
The Festival is listed as having an ETA of 0100 local time on March 2nd (tonight) in Vancouver, according to Marine Traffic data. Marine Traffic times are expressed in UTC, not local time. 0100 March 2nd UTC translates to a 5 PM March 1st ETA at Vancouver. |
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