S.Peterburg roads

"Nordic Chantal" has dropped the anchor at s.Peterburg roads. We are waiting for next voyage. Probably to Spain.
My last pictures:

Acrylic

And watercolors

My T-shirts

First

 Second

Third

England - Watercolors

Yesterday we completed discharging in English port Sharpness and are going to stay here till Monday. Agent gave password of his wi-fi, and I use this opportunity.

Photos from the last voyage

This voyage is not over yet. I am now in Sharpness (U.K.), expecting to return to Riga in September.

"I am sailing..."

I am flying to Germany tomorrow to my ship. Will be back in April.  Thinking about next travel - either to Central America or to Russia all the way to Vladivostok.
Good luck to everybody!

My working place:

Riga. Home

My two months at sea are over and I am back home. Doing some routine things, as usually first days ashore. Nothing important - visiting dentist, arranging installation of new windows in my rented apartment, overhauling bicycle ans so on...

Pictures of the sea and shore:

Riga - Morocco

I am back in Riga. It is quiet here, everybody complain on unemployment and  rising fuel prices - but number of cars in the street just increasing. Paradox... In any case I have only bicycle and enough fuel for its main engine )))
And I am going to Morocco on 29 of February and will be back on 27 of March. With Lonely Planet assistance my route so far looks as follows:
From Riga to Madrid by airplane, then by bus to Algeciras and ferry to Tangier.
In Morocco:
Tangier - Chefchaouen/Talassemtane National Park - Fes - Merzouga/Erg Chebbi - Todra Gorge - Agadir(or Taroudant) - Mirleft/Legzira - Tarfaoute - Essaouira - Marrakesh/Cascades D'Ouzoud - Meknes/Volubilis - Tangier.
Then again ferry, bus and plane to Riga.
If you have any suggestions or advice - you are welcome.

And couple of picture from the last voyage:

Norway, Kvinesdal

   Tonight I have Internet connection first time for the last month. My vessel arrived Norwegian port Kvinesdal with cargo of iron ore and I found live wi-fi here.
   Everything is routine and usual, so there are three pictures.

Sound straits:

Nykobing, Denmark:

Le Legue, France:

m/v Nordic Chantal - Baltic and North Seas

I am on my ship again since 1st of May. Everything is as usual - day and night watches, mooring-unmooring, loading-discharging and so on. Yesterday we arrived Danish port Aalborg and I got open wi-fi circuit here. So there are just few pictures:

At Sea Again

It passed a long time since the last updating of my blog. I am on the same ship Nordic Chantal, joined her at Sankt Peterburg (Russia), then we sailed to Southampton (U.K.) with cargo of fertilizers. After that loaded potatoes in Greenore (Ireland) to S.Peterburg. It looks that last year was very bad for Russian agriculture. But what year was good for it? In Soviet era we carried grain, now - potatoes. The biggest country in the world cannot provide its not so big population with elementary food.
In Sankt Peterburg we discharged potatoes and loaded fertilizers for Netherlands. Due to the west and south-west winds approaches to S.Peterburg were covered with ice and we could navigate in Eastern part of Gulf of Finland with ice-breaker assistance only.
So now we are in port of Terneuzen waiting for discharging which is delaying by rain.


Gulf of Finland in winter:






S.Peterburg:






Northwest coast of Scotland:

Back Home

It is more than one month since my last post. Unfortunately I did not have internet access all that time.
So we stayed at Ashdod roads two weeks and after that just about 12 hours in port. And they were night hours, nobody could go ashore and all our plans to visit Jerusalem, Nazareth and other holy and interesting places failed.
After discharging grain in Ashdod we proceeded to Black Sea for loading aluminium in Georgian port Poti. As you know there are plenty places with very rich history and nature in Georgia, but Poti is industrial city with mostly post-soviet looking landscape. There is one church of Byzantium style:



After sailing from Georgia we went for discharging to Norway. Winds were favourable in Black Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic. Even Bay of Biscay, famous of storms, met us with good weather. English Channel was like a lake. All our luck finished at the entrance to the North Sea. Because of west and north-west winds force 7-8 and high seas we crossed it in four days instead of expected two.



But everything has its end and on arrival to Norwegian port Bergen I signed-off and now have two month vacation.

Israeli. Ashdod Roads.

I joined my ship Nordic Chantal in Norway on 18 of August. Since then we carried stones to Denmark, Sonderborg.




Then we loaded wheat in Vierov, Germany, and after two week of sea passage through North Sea, English Channel, Biscay and Mediterranean arrived to Ashdod, Israel. There are some holidays in Israel, one follows another, and we are staying at anchor already eight days.



With help of such improvised directional wi-fi antenna I have access to internet.