Year: 2020
There are 14 buoys* and mooring posts along the Venta coast, which have now been given a second life – to tell stories about seafaring. An information plaque is placed next to each buoy, explaining the purpose of the specific type of buoy.
Ventspils Freeport Authority enthusiasts – former Oviši lighthouse keeper Pēteris Pazņikovs, who is now in the afterlife, and current Navigation Support Service engineer Aivars Beitāns – have collected a valuable collection of navigational signs washed away by the sea. Part of the collection, which will be exhibited on the promenade of Ostas Street, has already served its working life. Some specimens are 30–40 and even more years old. Some buoys have been washed away by the sea – one has floated back from Denmark, another – from Finland, Germany. The closest analogous collection of navigational signs to us is in the Tallinn Maritime Museum.
Nowadays, to ensure safe navigation, the same buoys are used all year round, but there used to be winter and summer buoys. Modern buoys are equipped with a GPS global positioning system, with LED lamps, they immediately report if they are not in their mooring place or about other damage to the monitoring computer system and to the mobile phone of the responsible employee of the Port Shipping Service.
* Color – it is a floating navigational mark of a specific design and color that marks the shipping lane, shows the sides of the sea or port channel, anchorages, shoals, obstacles to navigation and other dangerous navigational places.