A long-lost friend - Sherbatskiy

Among my all-time favourite ships are the three Spirit-class ferries, which were built for Townsend Thoresen in 1979/80. There is only one left now, the former Pride of Free Enterprise, which now operates on North African routes from the Spanish port of Almeria and rejoices in the Russian name Sherbatskiy, as she is now owned by a Russian shipping company. Before being sent to the Med, she was used on TransEuropa Ferries' Ramsgate-Ostend service between 2002 and 2010, but got sent on charter to the Med in 2010 and was sold to her current Russian owners in April this year when TEF went bust. Prior to that she has had several names - Pride of Bruges, P&OSL Picardy and Oleander.

The ship is now 33 years old, not in great condition, consumes fuel like it's going out of fashion and probably doesn't have long left, so I decided that I had to go to southern Spain and see her again, possibly for the last time. I had hoped to travel on her but Acciona Trasmediterranea switched her to a route to Algeria instead although she now spends most of her time alongside in Almeria. The trip I did, on Isabella 1, will be in a separate post. A ship-spotting friend of mine, Dave (a.k.a. Slinky-Dave - check out his SDS Ship Photographic page on Facebook), also came along on the trip as he is a great fan of the Spirits as well.

We arrived at Almeria just after 9.30 AM on Friday 13th September and made our way straight down to the waterfront. We were a bit concerned she wouldn't be there but - fittingly - she was the first ship we saw as we walked round a corner and the docks came into view.

I took a lot of pictures of the ship, including some night shots of her departure and again on Sunday morning, when we passed her on our way back into Almeria port. These photos are all taken on Friday 13th and Sunday 15th September 2013.

If you look very closely at the picture immediately below, you can just about see one of her old names, Pride of Bruges, underneath the white paint. Just after 'Sherbatskiy' you can see 'Bruges'.

Later on the night of the 13th, we went back to the port to watch her sail at midnight on an overnight crossing to Ghazaouet in Algeria, a place I certainly don't fancy visiting. She made a real din as she left, her bow thrusters making a very loud rattling.

She was back in Almeria when we returned on Sunday 15th. Unfortunately it was still dark because Spain, for some inexplicable and daft reason, is on Central European Time, which is GMT+2 and for a country immediately south west of the UK doesn't make sense.

It was great to see this ship again, especially as it is probably the last time unless they keep her for another year or two. Her being replaced on the Almeria-Nador route is probably a blessing in disguise - as far as we were concerned - because she is more than likely in poor condition, having been on these routes for a few years now, and considering Isabella 1, which has only been there three months, was beginning to show signs of wear and tear, she would have been no fun to travel on.