Exit Bulgaria Enter Romania June 7, 2004 Written at AIzmail, Romania June 8, 2004 Hi Folks, We are waiting for the second day to clear out of Izmail. The harbour master is of the old Russian mentality who has no regulations to guide him regarding yachts, and wants to regard Veleda as a ship, and to pay industrial port fees in the amount of over $250.00 US. We do not like the bureaucracy here and have a sour taste of the Ukraine so far. We have a nice agent who is trying to get the harbourmaster to waive port fees for us, and have met many other Ukrainians and school children who are curious about us. A strong recommendation for individual yachts entering the Ukraine; DO NOT DO SO AT IZMAIL, GO TO ODESSA INSTEAD IF COMING FROM ROMANIA. There is a chance that we may skip the rest of the country if we are going to have these hassles like this at every port, and if ever we can be cleared out of here. However, it gives me a chance to get caught up on my logs. The internet café over town was very efficient and if we are not cleared out today, I may send this this afternoon. I’ll provide more details in the relevant log later. All the best, Aubrey Log #32j Exit Bulgaria Enter Romania Izmail, Ukraine June 7, 2004 May 18th, in mid afternoon, we left Varna for Balchik, 18 miles up the coast, motoring or motor sailing with the usual minimal or contrary winds to arrive at their customs dock (45? 24.3’N, 028? 09.7’E) at 1800. The friendly officials arrived within a half hour and after 15 minutes we were directed over to the “Yacht Club”, where we were invited to use a vacant stern mooring to secure bows on to the quay. The harbour master, Stoyan, was most helpful, and hooked us up to electricity, and informed us about the SHOWER and the WASHING MACHINE in the small marina building at the end of the dock. We could have hugged him – Happiness is…! The yachts on either side of us had owners who spoke some English and who were pleasant and helpful. We also met a British couple who were in the process of buying a summer home just outside of town. It appears this area is popular with the Brits as we met several others strolling down the dock. Next day we hiked up the hillside to the middle town to send some mail, and visit the local City Historical Museum, a small but well organized museum. One of the more interesting displays was of the metal remains and ornaments of a Thracian chariot, next to it a full scale replica indicating where the metal objects would be fitted. After washing three loads of laundry we festooned Veleda with sheets, shirts, towels, socks and underwear on every line on board, and put out our V-berth and main cabin cushions and a couple of heavy blankets to air in the fresh warm breeze. Our second evening there we were invited by Vasil, the skipper next to us who was in the 1984 OSTAR, and who is also a dentist, to come to his home. It provided us an opportunity to see the good farming area of the countryside, his small town of Kavarna (not included in the list of permissible ports*), and his modest home with his dental office, and driven around in his 15year old Lada. We also spent our remaining Bulgarian Leva on a half dozen bottles of Mavrut ( a full bodied red as good as or better than Merlot), our favourite red wine (less than $2.50 Cdn per bottle). The Customs officials allowed us to check out of the country the afternoon before we were to leave next morning, but we had to go over to the border police for immigration clearance at 0900 next morning to clear out. It was a frustrating one hour wait until we were finally cleared out of Bulgaria as we had wanted to get going as early as possible for the 45 mile trip to Mangalia in Romania, but were not able to cast off until 1000. That was the longest wait we had in Bulgaria, which was really not too bad. In summary, we found the Bulgarian officials friendly and helpful and the Temporary Navigation Certificate was most useful as we did not have to check in and out at each port*. In some places officials came down to look at our papers, but we did not have to wait for exit clearance except here in Balchik as we were checking out of the country. *After we had used the certificate for our one month in Bulgaria, we were given a list of regulations to accompany the Temporary Navigation Certificate by the friendly officials in Balchik. These regulations were not given to us in Bourgas, and we felt there were no restrictions other than navigational common sense and military restricted areas. This list indicated we were limited to only Balchik, Bourgas, Sozopol, Pomorie, Tzarevo, and Ahtopol (although these were also the main ports which our draft permitted). We suspect that even this list is out of date and superceded as it indicated incoming and outgoing control of yachts from Varna Port only. We did not have to check in or out at Varna. Bulgaria is doing a good job of making their bureaucracy more cruising yacht friendly. The trip from Balchik in Bulgaria to Mangalia in Romania was actually one of our best sailing days this year. We were motor sailing a couple of hours but managed several hours of wonderful wing on wing (main on one side, and genoa held out the opposite side with our whisker pole) running in fresh force 3 and 4 winds. Arriving at 1830 at the customs dock (43? 24.3’N, 028? 09.7’E) at the industrial outer port, with the sheds and the outer section covered with heaps of scrap metal lying like slag from a volcano, we waited an hour before officials showed up to check us in to Romania. After half an hour all formalities were completed with the usual documentation of our passports, ship’s papers and two copies of our crew list, signed and dated by me, and stamped with Veleda’s own stamp. We have found that all the officials love the stamp on top of any signature, or pieces of paper for documentation. It has been one of our better small investments, and one we would strongly recommend to other cruisers. There was no cost for checking in to Romania or for mooring alongside. The officials were friendly and welcomed us to Romania. We did not get any open cruising permit as we had in Bulgaria, but were asked to check in and out at each port. As it was near dark when the formalities were finished, we stayed alongside the industrial dock for the night, to be awakened at 0700 by the clanging of the gigantic cranes, their claws unloading scrap metal from train cars and dumping it alongside the one remaining building not inundated by mounds of old steel pipes, rebar, culverts, wire netting, old boilers, chassis of abandoned vehicles, steel plates, rusty barrels, and corrugated siding. After breakfast we motored into the inner harbour and went alongside a rickety pontoon of the Navala Romana. A half hour later Adrian, an official from the harbour master’s office welcomed us and suggested we might be more secure outboard of a barge down the way, and would check it out for us. He returned shortly with agreement of the barge staff to have us go outboard of it. He and the staff helped us alongside. Adrian then provided us with much local knowledge and actually accompanied us over town to show us the layout. He took us first to a new hotel which when under construction uncovered some Roman remains, and left the site inside the hotel as an archeological attraction. Adrian then took us along a harbour side walk with pictures of Romanian singers, and artists until turning uptown to the archeological museum. He actually accompanied us through the museum, interpreting and explaining the displays. He then took us back down the main street showing us the internet café (from which we subsequently sent E-mail) before taking us to the town market and helping us to identify the different products and prices. The Canadian dollar was worth about 24,000 Lei, another complicated conversion for us to assess what we are actually paying. He recommended a few wines, one of our favourites turned out to be Galbena D’Olbesi a semi sweet white wine costing 66,000 Lei (about $2.75 Cdn). After going through the fish market where we bought a nice tuna for sachimi, he extended his best wishes and returned to his office. Thanks Adrian! It was a lovely day and so for the afternoon we went the 500 meres to the local beach for a couple of hours, the scenery enhanced by many topless women. It was the first topless beach since the Greek Aegean. Next day we called the harbour master’s office and Adrian came over shortly and cleared us out instructing us to also clear out with the immigration and customs people at the industrial dock. This we did and were off, in less than half an hour with no dockage or entrance fees to be paid, for the 26 miles to Constanta. We were most impressed with Mangalia. It was a pleasant colourful city, surprisingly nicer than we anticipated for Romania. Next log