Year: 2020
There are 14 buoys* and markers along the bank of Venta, which have now been given a second life – to tell those interested about seafaring. Information plate is placed next to each buoy, which explains the purpose of the particular type of buoy.
Ventspils Freeport Authority’s enthusiasts – former Oviši lighthouse supervisor Pēteris Pazņikovs, who has passed away, and the current Shipping Support Service engineer Aivars Beitāns – have collected a valuable collection of washed-out navigation signs from the sea. Part of the collection, which will be exhibited on the Promenade of Ostas Street, has already served its time. Individual specimens are 30-40 years old and even older. Some buoys have been washed out of the sea – one has arrived from Denmark, another – from Finland, Germany. The closest analogous collection of navigation signs to this is located in the Estonian Maritime Museum.
Nowadays the same buoys are used throughout the year to ensure safe navigation, but there were once winter and summer buoys. Modern buoys are equipped with GPS (global positioning system), with LED lamps, they report immediately if they are not at their location or other damage to the monitoring computer system and the mobile phone of the employee responsible for the Port Shipping Service.
*Buoy – a floating navigation sign of a specific design and colour, which marks the shipping route, shows the sides of the sea or port channel, anchorages, shoals, obstacles to navigation and other dangerous navigation places.