Azerbaijan: Crossing Caspian Sea by Ferry - Part Two

Read Part One Here

I'm still at the harbor waiting for the ferry to arrive.

The next day is super hot and full with expectations. My Spanish friends who I met yesterday already left with the previous ferry. I'm going to ask when is the next ferry expected to arrive. Unfortunately people in administration couldn't confirm any exact time. In a few hours we finally got confirmation and the ferry left Kazakhstan.

I spend the next 3 days expecting the ferry with Daisuke. Nobody is able to give us any information about the time of arrival. What we got looked like a probable time of arrival.

In the meantime more people arrive here - people on bikes, cars and motorcycles. There are passengers like me as well. I found a group of Estonians on a journey with trains, buses and ferries. They enjoy every single moment of their trip. I met with Estonians for the first time in my life and had wonderful impressions.

There are also cyclists from Germany, England and France. The man from France is called Jan and he's a bit more than 50 years old. He is in a great shape. His journey started from Paris a few months ago. He doesn't speak English and I take an advantage of the situation to practice my poor French. I invite him in the cabin which I'm currently sharing only with Daisuke.

В ранното утро на четвъртия ни ден тук най-накрая получаваме добрата новина, че корабът е акостирал и можем вече да се придвижим към граничния контрол за обработка на документите. Тези, които пътуват пеша или с велосипеди, са доста по-привилегировани от другите не само откъм по-малката такса, но и поради отсъствието на цялата бумащина, с която трябва да се декларират превозните средства. На единия пропускателен пункт преминавам с естонците, Жан-Мишел и Дайс, докато опашката на другата е дълга поне 50 метра. Проверката на паспорта и визата не трае дълго и имам привилегията да бъда едва вторият качил се на борда на „Професор Гюл“.

In the early morning of Day 4 we finally got the good news that the ferry has arrived and we can move to border control to have our documents processed. Those travelling by foot or by bicycle are privileged and do not need to declare any type of extra documents. I pass quickly through one of the checkpoints together with the Estoniance, Jan and Daisuke while at the same time the other checkpoint with cars and motorcycles is at least 50 meters long. The passport check is short and I have the honor to be the second passenger on the board of 'Professor Gul'

Source

While entering the ferry one of the sailors that checked my passport starts talking Russian.

• Do you speak Russian? - he asks.

• Just a little bit - I answered.

• How is that possible? - he's a bit unpleasantly surprised - Aren't you Bulgarian?

• That's right! - I confirm - I'm Bulgarian!

• Well, Saints Cyril and Methodius who invented Cyrillic alphabet, aren't they Bulgarians as well? Why don't you speak Russian then?

• They are Bulgarians as well - I smile, but I couldn't explain that the Russian and the Bulgarian language aren't that similar, no matter that the letters are almost the same.

The sailor helps me find the deck and somehow I manage to find a woman from the personal who helps me with the accommodation and I find myself in a cabin with 4 beds. I already had an agreement with Jan and Daisuke to share the cabin. A bit later I met the forth person - Migel from Spain who has traveled thousands of kilometers and visited a lot of exciting places around the world. For I moment I asked myself if I will ever be able to visit so many beautiful places, but the lack of enough funding at this moment quickly gives me the right answer.

Най-после потегляме, но пътуването ни не трае дълго, защото само след няколко часа спускаме котва в залив на няколко километра срещу Баку. Причината за това е силният вятър, който на моменти вдига толкова големи вълни, че кара плавателният съд да се клати заплашително. Затова и капитанът нарежда да изчакаме ден, докато морето се успокои и условията са достатъчно добри, за да се плава безопасно. Припомням си за нещастния случай, станал през далечната 2003 г., когато корабът Mercury II е потънал, след като се разразила буря, придружена с ураганен вятър и силен дъжд. По информация от медиите едва 5-ма от 51 човека на борда са били спасени.

We finally left the harbor, but just in about 3 hours we had to stop in a bay next to Baku, because of the strong winds.

There was an accident in Caspian Sea back in 2003. A ferry carrying 51 people and a shipment of oil sank in rough weather in the Caspian Sea Tuesday. Only 5 out of 51 people on board survived.

Признавам си, че това ми е първо плаване на кораб в открито море и като такова не се бях замислял върху последиците. Мнозина страдат от така наречената морска болест, която се предизвиква от клатушкането на плавателния съд и при това състояние човек получава силен световъртеж и гадене и не успява да се помръдне от мястото си. Това се дължи на невъзможността на вестибуларния апарат да отговаря за равновесието на човешкото тяло, което разбира се е строго индивидуално за всеки организъм. Като малък ми ставаше лошо от резки завои, но след това успях да превъзмогна този рефлекс, така че и тук не очаквах да имам проблеми. Въпреки това на моменти се чувствам доста некомфортно и се усамотявам на палубата, за да подишам малко чист въздух.

It's my first sailing trip and I felt a bit bad. I had to go outside, stay on the deck and get some fresh air.

I made a few images in the meantime:

I've noticed a lot of gas and oil platforms around.

When we finally see the coast of Kazakhstan we are more than excited. We felt we almost did it! The arrival in the harbor in Aktau is almost glorious. More than 10 border guards start checking our luggage, ask us a lot of questions for almost everything I have. Finally a dog trained to discover drugs arrives. The whole procedure is more than serious and well organized, but for me is clear that they will barely discover something illegal in my belongings. Finally I step on hard ground and I need some time to realize I'm not in the sea anymore.

CONCLUSION
I needed 5 days in total to cross Caspian Sea:

• One day and a half actual sailing
• The rest of the time I was waiting

On the board of the ship a meet a lot of friendly people, meet fellows from the other end of the worlds, I ask them for the way they live and I learn a lot.

As expected, when you spend more time with other people, you soon discover if you would be happy to meet them again or maybe you would prefer not to deal with them anymore.

For a moment I felt we are all walking in the same direction, but at the end we all had to say Goodbye and continue on our own.

Next stop: Kazakhstan