The Nikolay Chiker, strongest tug in the world (image sourced online)
The story behind this week’s blog starts in 2001, when I lived on the island of São Miguel in the Azores. Drinking coffee or a beer and writing in my favourite café, the Gelateria Iris in the SolMar building on the Avenida Infante Dom Henrique, I often looked out over the harbour and its wall to the bright orange Russian salvage tug in the roads, and wondered about it. And then, one day, I met the tug’s radio officer, Dimitry Sobolev, known by his friends as Dima. We became friends and I had occasion to go aboard the tug on occasion, where Dima and I and some of his colleagues enjoyed copious amounts of Grolsch!
I left the island towards the end of that year. Dima and I kept in contact, some times less frequently than others, until I received an email from him to advise me that his current ship will be docking in Sydney and asking if I wanted to visit. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to see my old friend again after 23 years! And the images below are the result of that visit to the Ambassador Lines ship the MV Ambience, on which Dima is now the IT Manager.
My first proper view of the Ambience as I made my way to the cruise terminal