Voyage onboard "Aila" Netherlands-Finland-Russia-England-Netherlands 06.06.2011-17.06.2011

Sep 29, 2013 22:26

Piece by piece I am planning to put my voyage reports online, so here comes the next one.

I've done it again, in June 2011, went by Finnish cargoship "Aila" from Rotterdam to Finland, Kronshtadt, to e, duration 10-11 days. Outgoing Rotterdam, via Kiel-Canal to Helsinki, from there to Kronshtadt near St. Petersburg in Russia, continuing to Klaipeda and further, via Skagen to Teesport and Rotterdam, where my voyage has ended, me taking the train back to Basel then. I'd like to share some impressions from the voyage with you, please enjoy !

Ship was the 2007 built "Aila" by Sietas in Germany, owned by Langh-Ships Finland, chartered by Containerships. Crew was solely Finnish, I was the only passenger. Out of 13 people, 4 women onboard including me, which was a nice experience. Excellent Finnish food, clean ship, and as it goes, including all you can expect from such a trip.

Here you can see my cabin onboard and a look to the ship just behind us. As well a friendly "provision" by the Finnish captain, which consisted of mineral water, some beer and a brochure of the company Langh-Ships









Going from Rotterdam to Kiel Canal, via River Elbe, to Kiel Canal, taking pilots and to Helsinki. A sunset on the water is always a great thing, no matter how many trips, each of them is different.















and here, locks of Kiel-Canal, passing through, to avoid going around Norway.




Time on the Baltic Sea, time to sleep, and finally arriving in Helsinki. But, no time to go to the city, there are not so many containers to discharge and not enough time. Once again, what a beautiful sunset and it is June, so it is only dark a very few hours. It was very warm and good to sit outside.











The next destination was Kronshtadt and I was in hope, that there was enough time to take a bus to St. Petersburg. Unfortunatelly there was no berth available in port so we had to go for anchor.

Finally after one afternoon anchored off Kronshtadt, a good possibility for me to climb up at the wavebreaker in front of the container and take photos of bypassing ships, we arrived at Kronshtadt. There were various types of ships seen, to my surprise, an old Hambourg harbour ferry "Reeperbahn", built in the 50ies, and named after the famous Red Light district of Hamburg. It is used as a sort of accommodation-thing I believe, unfortunatelly I could not find out more.

After arriving, a quick trip to the city had to be done, but not much time. I took a bus, to Lenin Prospekt (the main street) and walked around. I had to get back after a few hours because discharging cargo was finished soon. No bus went by, but someone was collecting people by car from bus station and I told him the name of the street, located near the port and that way I went back, together with two women. Bought some icecream in a supermarket nearby and walked back, just to hear that we are going to stay one full day longer because the only functioning crane in the port went broken ! Bad luck for the company, good luck for me, so next day one full day in Kronhstadt. I did not dare to take a bus to St. Petersburg, I only know a few words in Russian and getting not only lost in translation but getting lost alltogether was a too high risk for me !





















So, next day I was going to the bus station, to get to the city center.

As well I was going to the park, where some statues of national heroes were. There is also a statue of the famous Admiral Makarov, see more here: http://www.russojapanesewar.com/makaroff.html The Statue shows him, below icebreaker "Ermak" and a polarbear. Someone told me, please touch the nose of the polar bear, wish something - and it becomes true !





















The guy with the stone face on the photo below, I know him, I have seen him before. And, he is still there, I did wonder, for how long still ?











Finally, loading and discharging was continued and the trip continued Klaipeda.

The weather has been the same as before, very warm and incredibly calm. Took photos of some ships, including some of the newest Finnish "booze bombers", ugly colorful ferries, that bring Finnish peoople on their need for cheap alcohol to Tallinn and back (if they manage it to the port).











Approaching Klaipeda Harbour.
There was no time to get onshore but what was going on in port, was interesting as well. Various ships, including many of famous German Sietas shipyard, one coaster which I found out, was built in Austria, far from the sea and many other older ships, plus a victim of a real disaster, the LISCO Gloria.



















Departing in the afternoon again, we had a longer way ahead, this time not via Kiel Canal but around Norway to Teesport in England.

Near Copenhage, we passed a small, old German built coaster and I took many photos of this. Later on, I saw that the captain was watching me with his binoculars - taking photos of his ship.

Teesport, a harbour with only small capacity for containers, but alot for chemical tankers. Actually, in the darkness the harbour looked much nicer than during daytime.











The journey of 14 days duratin slowly came to an end, after Teesport, we arrived Rotterdam again and I took the train home.




russia kaliningrad kronshtadt st. peters

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