Tag: shipping

Amerigo Vespucchi

As mentioned earlier, I got a chance to see a beautiful ship Amerigo Vespucci docked in Limassol port last weekend.  I’ve taken a few pictures, which, unfortunately, don’t do the ship any justice.  The real thing is quite something.

Update: I’ve also uploaded these pictures to Flickr.

Amerigo Vespucci to dock in Limassol

Cyprus Mail reports that a beautiful Italian ship “Amerigo Vespucci” will dock in Limassol for four days, starting this Friday.

THE ITALIAN navy training ship “Amerigo Vespucci” will dock in Limassol on Friday for four days during which it will be open to the public Friday, Saturday and Sunday .

[…]

The Amerigo Vespucci has 26 sails and can reach a speed of 12 knots and often takes part in Tall Ship races.  The vessel usually carries around 450 people during training voyages.

 

Guest of the year: CVN-69

CVN-69

Cyprus has become a nuclear nation for the last few days. But don’t get too worried just yet. There aren no known nuclear terrorists around here, no nuclear weapons, and we aren’t building any nuclear power stations.

We have a guest. The Guest, I better say. Here are a few quotes from the Wikipedia page to get you introduced:

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVAN-69/CVN-69), nicknamed “Ike”, is the second of 10 Nimitz-class supercarriers in the United States Navy.

She was laid down as hull number 599 on 15 August 1970 at Newport News shipyard at a cost of $679 million, launched 11 October 1975 after christening by Mamie Doud-Eisenhower, and commissioned 18 October 1977

stayed on station off the coast of Iran for over 8 months, and was at sea for a total of 254 days

At one point, she spent 152 days (or 5 ½ months) at sea without a port call, a new record.

The ship is not that far from the coast. She is best viewed from Molos promenade. If you want to make pictures, make sure to check time (sun) and weather (mist, sun). I’ve made two attempts today, but both not very successful. I’ll try to make some more pictures tomorrow. All images will be posted to this Flickr set.

For the last couple of days I wasn reading a lot about this beauty. It is one piece of technology, I’ll tell you that. If I were to describe it in one word – “magnificent” is my choice. Truly. Any characteristic I checked about it – from the number of carried aircfats and the crew size to nuclear reactors and strategic potential – makes me go WOW! If you’re not amazed by the technology, try the money side of the story. Building costs, maintenance costs, repairs – you’ll have to count all zeros carefully.

Beautiful, beautiful gadget.

P.S.: This post is a part of a group blogging effort.

The presents are here!

Leonid

Finally I got myself on the package! It came pretty fast, compared to other orders that I did from the states. Bravo B&H!

128 MByte Memory Stick Duo was tossed to the side for a bit. My primary interest was the Tamron lens. I took it out of the package and gave it a good look. A bit larger than I expected. A bit heavier. Much wider. The 67mm diameter make it look like a freaking bazuka. I wonder how people would react to it. On one hand they might get scared by it. On the other they might consider me a professional, which I am, of course, not. We’ll see.

One thing I liked about this thing from the first sight was the hood. It had this nice form that usually appears on the pro-lenses, not a full body amateur ring. But the best thing about it, is that there are two ways to attach the hood to the lens. One is the normal way. And another one – is the reverse attachment. This is extremely convenient for carrying the hood around without using it and without putting it into the bag or pocket. Hard to lose too.

Since noone was at home, I started shooting random things like fan and my own face. Pictures came out pretty good. Not as good as from my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens, but good enough. I’m happy. For the next few days, all pictures that you’ll see posted here will be taken with this lens. I have to teach myself how to use it properly.

Album location: /photos/2005/2005-11-30_POTD/