The Russian Type 11540 Frigate Neustrashimy seen outside the port of Le Havre today 5th July. She took her pilot before us and headed up the Seine towards Rouen for the Armada 2008 There was a bit of confusion when she was giving her details to the Pilot station, for starters she gave a draft of 9.8 metres. Her details on the Russian website Aeronatics gives 4.8m. The pilot station asked him to confirm his draft but he kept saying 9.8m? There was about 15 sailors on the focsle when she was heaving anchor and about 10 on the poop to take the pilot. All looking equally busy. When our pilot boarded he hardly had time to take off his jacket when he observed the Warship turning to port on the bend where she should have been going to starboard, we had to take evasive manouvres to avoid a close quarters situation. Our pilot spoke to his colleague on the warship, and there was plenty of air sucking and shoulder lifting, and “bateau de guerre” he had instructed the vessel to go to starboard but she turned to port instead….strange, then later she turned the wrong way again….very strange. There was no radar on the bridge either, so it was pilotage by compass and the Mark one eyeball method. Anyway she managed to steam away up the river before us escorted by a French navy patrol boat. Plenty smoke too.
Last year when leaving the Elbe during Beaufort Force 6 to 7 wind conditions several of the type of tanker “Volgoneft” and other similar cargo ships were at anchor in a row, I asked the pilot about it he said that they have not got the power in their engines for this kind of weather. They didn’t have the stability either, so they had to wait it out for better weather. The ships in the Black Sea the other day had no chance. God rest the poor unfortunate sailors who died, and God help the families left behind.
These two Tarantul class ships looking fairly ready for action were sighted today on the way into Kaliningrad, I called them Pauks before but I have done a bit more research and I think I was wrong before.
Anyone who is extremely clever and can read cyrillic backwards will be able to know what these boats are named, please be my guest and leave a comment if you are such a person, respect in advance by the way!
The money in Russia is beginning to show it’s effect here in the Oblast, a bit more paint is evident and new coast guard patrol boats and tugs and the like. The coastal breakwater is being substantially repaired and there are more new and to the lay man functional warships. The big bear is obviously getting new fur.
Of course all things are not changing so fast, further on down the jetty a tug is moored and has been since I came here first more than 6 years ago, and was probably there before I ever knew about Kaliningrad, she is a floating power source and heating generator for a nearby factory, the pipelines that are attached to the tug look like they are of a fairly permanent nature.
UPDATE I have to go with Buck who so kindly left a comment earlier that the ships are Nanuchkas, not Tarantul or Molinya class also Russian Corvettes.
Baltic Cloud approaching her anchor position, so close to us that I could hear the engines whine when as we see below the old man put the engines astern to take the way off…….resulting in a nice cloud of soot that would have the German Wasserpolizei dancing a jig and slapping air pollution fines on you quicker than you can drop anchor.
Fortunately for Baltic Cloud, her cloud of soot landed on Russian water and she probably would never get within shouting distance of Germany, most likely as her name suggests plying the waters of the Baltic, more or less all the time.
When the smoke died down a dull din of anchor cable rattling out of the chain box was heard across the anchorage with a smaller cloud of rust and dust covering the boys on the fo’csle, but they were probably protecting themselves with Red Marlboro and thus avoided inhaling rust.
Back home again after another 4 week trip to sea, which dragged out in the end to 4½ weeks but I did manage to get to see the center of St. Petersburg and the Hermitage Museum which is really a whole days outing,(and will be in a post soon) I was there for about 3 hours and I was completely overloaded with culture and art. I went ashore with one of the students onboard a 19 year old engineers apprentice, I should have gone alone, it was like being with Beavis and Butthead at the same time, in the museum and on the metro and everywhere he was like a dog with two tails everytime he saw a bit of skirt he nearly twisted his head off, at first I found it mildly amusing but in the end I was close to flipping out. I expressed my irritation to which he replied “it’s only natural!”, and I added “for a complete twat, maybe”, I don’t remember ever being such a gobshite myself when I was 19, maybe I was.
Anyway besides having a 19 year old (he was born in the late 80’s, has no personal memory of the wall coming down or The Smiths, for example) who didn’t know what the capital city of Russia was with me, it was a fantastic experience being in St. Petersburg. The contrasts are amazing, old Ladas and brand new Merc’s, rich executives and war veterans begging on the side of the footpath. This guy below didn’t speak any English so I was unable to find out what happened, he got a few bob for the photo.
Fairly cheap as well, the Metro was 14 rubles( about 50 cents)for a one way ticket, no limits for changes or zones, we only had a few hours to explore and you need a week. It was worth all the shite at the security checkpoint to see such a beautiful city with wide boulevards and fantastic architecture buzzing with life, worth a return visit on civilian time.
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