Russian Black Sea Fleet Review, & Leaving Ukraine Bademli Limani, Tukey Aug. 12, 2004 Hi Folks, We are in the most idyllic anchorage since Panormitis on Astypalea in the Greek Aegean or since the Bahamas several years ago. This anchorage (39° 00.31' N, 026° 47,29' E) is between two islands off the northern part of the Turkish Aegean coast in 14 feet of crystal clear water, well sheltered and isolated, but near some natural hot springs on the mainland. We will probably spend a couple of days here just lounging around, snorkeling, exploring by land and water, and sampling the hot springs nearby. Today and yesterday were great sailing days with the Meltemi blowing us in the right direction (SW) for a change. We have spent several hours each day sailing along wing on wing at hull speed on clear sunny days here in the Aegean. We have done more sailing this year in the Black Sea and down the Aegean than we have in the past four years put together. I may be able to send this log from the boat here in this glorious location, and go for a skinny dip after before going to bed. It is nice to have some of these high experiences rather than exhausting adventures and emergencies. There were a few bomb blasts in Istanbul shortly after we left, but we were not involved in them. We are quite safe. The blasts are reported to be the work of Kurdish separatists. As we left Istanbul we were aware we have completed a major part of our odyssey in the Black Sea and this part of the world (including the north coast of Turkey, the Bosphorus, Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles). We liked Istanbul and made several friends there, especially Murat Api and his family as well as several of the workers at Kalamis and Fenerbahce Marinas, especially Tuncay the marina manager. Thank you all for your friendship and assistance. We transited the Sea of Marmara in two days, the Dardanelles in one, and are now in our second day down the Aegean Coast of Turkey. Again we received Turkish hospitality when we were anchored in Gelibolu at the entrance to the Dardanelles, where a friendly local fisherman gave us a ride over to get a canister of diesel, and would not accept any payment for his efforts. Such consideration is common in Turkey. More about this journey after leaving Ukraine in my next series of logs # 33 about Turkey and Greece over to Italy. Since leaving Istanbul on April 14 to circumnavigate the western end of the Black Sea including Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine, we have traveled 1560 nautical miles, arriving back in Istanbul August 2. We are off down the Aegean to Ephesus, Crete, then over to Sicily and up to Rome for the winter some time in October or November. My next series #33 will cover this voyage. Life is GREAT! All the best, Aubrey Log #32z Russian Black Sea Fleet Review, & Leaving Ukraine We spent over two weeks in Sevastopol, touring, sailing down to Balaclava for a couple of days, taking a bus trip to Yalta and waiting for the Russian Black Sea Fleet Review to take place on the last Sunday of July, the 25th. We decided not to sail to Yalta as we have heard their bureaucracy is bad and the harbour is subject to surges. In fact Pittulie, the Brit boat we met in Balaclava, had his wind vane self steering housing broken in a storm there. This was the same storm in which we had to shift mooring from the Russian Navy Yacht Club into Southern Bay. By dark the surge from the storm had increased so much, we had to leave or risk damage on the dock. This risky operation was done with help from club members who pulled our bow around from the dock, as we had (or thought we had) no reverse, as whenever we put the engine into reverse there was a horrible clanging as if the prop shaft was tearing itself apart. We got out of the yacht harbour and headed down Sevastopol Bay, following Saratoga, the power boat moored beside us, who was also seeking a quieter location. In the main harbour, the surge waves from the storm were 3 metres in height, but were eliminated completely as we motored down Southern Bay, where several navy ships were at moorings. Saratoga went alongside an open wall, and signaled us to raft off. There was no surge, but still a heavy wind, no lights on the dock, and I had to make the approach thinking I had no reverse. Isn't life interesting? It worked out OK, and we returned to the Russian Yacht Club late next day. On checking the prop shaft a couple of days later, I found that two bolts on our shaft zinc anode were loose and it rattled when in reverse. Judy replaced the bolts later. Our day trip to Yalta was interesting as the road runs alongside the mountain range on the south coast of Crimea. Yalta is a holiday tourist spot with a summer population of about 500,000, but only 50,000 inhabitants in the winter. Our main interest was going to the Livadia Palace where the Yalta Conference was held in January 1945, with Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. The palace is a tourist mecca, but in good condition. It reminded me a bit of Queen Victoria's palace, Osbourne House, on the Isle of Wight. The post WW II European world was determined by that historic conference. The only other interest we had was of course to see the harbour, and visit Tripp, an acquaintance we met in Istanbul last year. He is the skipper of Galactica Plus, a large private yacht; a bit different than Veleda! He gave us some of insight into the bureaucracy of the port, which has very little shipping and only a few yachts, even at this height of the tourist season. We estimated the total workforce for the harbour would be about 150, but he indicated that there were more than 650 employed, a fantastic inefficient waste of employment, causing even more bureaucracy to justify its existence. We had no other interest in Yalta, and so took an early bus back to Sevastopol. Yalta is situated in a valley below towering mountains, reminiscent of beautiful Vancouver on Canada's west coast. I had taken Sprite over town a few times and down the entire bay and a few of the smaller bays. However one day when Judy was waiting for me at the town docks in Sprite, she was approached by some officials who asked for her passport (which she didn't have on her) and indicated the dinghy should not be used. Apparently they contacted the Yacht Club and reminded them that only registered Ukrainian vessels with hull numbers were permitted to ply the waters of Sevastopol. That meant we had to walk over a couple of hills along the shoreline to get into the main part of town, a scenic but heavy walk, especially when carrying bags of groceries. There were three rehearsals prior to the actual Fleet Review, during which we saw more of the action than we did on the crowded day of the Review itself. From Veleda we had a superb view down the harbour, and across from us were moored three major Russian cruiser class warships and an amphibian landing assault ship. The day of the Review several other boats plus a flotilla of sailboats cluttered up our view of the harbour; however we had seen all the activities quite well during the rehearsals. I took dozens of pictures of the proceedings, which lasted 3 hours, from 0900 to 1200. It started with a low level flypast of an anti-submarine search plane similar to the Nimrod. Then there was a long period of no activity as the launch with the reviewing party, including the Admiral of the Black Sea Fleet and President Putin (the President of Russia) slowly passed the four capital ships moored in the harbour, then went to a reviewing barge off Crystal Cape over town. We couldn't see the activities on the barge, but for one of the rehearsals I went over to find out what was happening there -- nothing much of a spectacular nature. On the barge were a navy band and a saluting base. There was a broadcaster announcing the events in a heroic Russian voice with suitable martial music from the band. After a few decorated launches came in with actors dressed up as Triton and sea nymphs to welcome the Admiral and President, there were a few more low flypasts of MIG fighter jets, maritime patrol planes, and helicopters. Past the saluting base some coast guard vessels at speed dropped off a dozen marine attack divers (like the US navy SEALS), and then the fireworks started as shore emplacements opened up with machine guns to defend from the assault, and a variety of small warships dashed up the harbour with their main armaments blazing away as supposed attackers, chased by other ships firing at them. There was considerable noise and flashes from the blank armaments. Then far louder blasts were heard as the cruisers moored in the harbour opened up with their main armament, alternating from vessel to vessel the equivalent of a 21 gun salute. The amphibian assault ship on its mooring rotated towards the town and was joined by a second such ship (Ukrainian), opening their bow doors to disgorge a dozen amphibian troop carriers each, launched from their forward ramps into the sea, machine guns and 40 calibre cannons blazing away. These 24 amphibians plied across the harbour right up to the Russian Navy Yacht Club where we were, circled around, still blazing away with their guns and then came up the yacht club's launch ramp on their eight armoured tires, to marshal in the parking lot, then motor back to base. They did not disembark any troops, but were just a display of seaborne capability. One detachment flew Russian flags, the other Ukrainian. We had a superb view as they crossed right in front of us, and waved to the skippers of each as they approached the landing ramp. Meanwhile the mock battle was still going on as ships chasing each other surged out of the harbour past the yacht club causing great surges that caused us concern. Then more loud cracks of cannon. I went up the hill to the old gun emplacements above the yacht club to see that three tanks had motored out onto the large breakwater and were firing their cannon as well. Across the opposite side of the breakwater there was more firing and red smoke from an attack on the outer fortress. Then a couple of large attack catamarans rushed out the harbour. These unusual twin hulled craft were camouflaged in mottled black and gray paint, and appeared heavily armed for their size (about 200 feet long and 50 feet wide). I think they were close-in marine support craft of some type. Some of the ships steaming at speed out of the harbour deployed smoke screens. Some large troop carrying aircraft dropped a dozen or so parachutists who glided down with flags and smoke flares beneath them to land in the harbour and picked up by small rescue boats. There were a couple of blasts in the sea just inside the breakwater entrance at one point. I don't know what they were (depth charges, shells?) but they gave a loud whoosh and a gigantic cascade of seawater from the explosion. After the fun and games of this mock battle more ships paraded in line out of the naval base into the harbour and out past us at the yacht club. Again I was able to get good pictures of these vessels, including a black hulled nuclear submarine that partially submerged after passing the reviewing stand and resurfaced just off the yacht club before going out the breakwater. The ships parading past included missile cruisers, more amphibian assault ships, destroyers, frigates, the assault catamarans, minesweepers, missile patrol boats, a few supply ships, a research vessel, buoy tender, and a few coast guard vessels. Then the sailpast of sailing yachts from the Russian Navy Yacht Club, and about 24 dinghies sortied out of the yacht club and towards the reviewing stand. A wheels-down slow flypast of some fighters, bombers, and helicopters preceded the final sailpast of firefighting ships with all hoses spraying so much that little of the ships could be seen. In addition some other vessels were churning out gray, red and orange smoke, as well as brilliant flares and fireworks for a colourful finale. In town there were several other festivities and activities that we did not wish to get crowded into, such as the Black Sea Fleet bands and concerts. In the afternoon, all the other boats were cruising up and down the harbour. I checked with Sergey to ask if there would be any problems if we took Veleda for a cruise up the harbour. No, of course not, it is a holiday and all the boats are enjoying the harbour. So, off we went, all flags flying (we had dressed ship for the day) in and out Artillery Bay, by the town docks, and nosed into South Bay towards where we went for cover that night of the storm. However, Judy's anxiety at being near the naval dockyards short circuited the trip, and I, frustrated, reluctantly headed back to the yacht club. There was a dramatic set of fireworks that evening and more smoke illuminated fireboats charging around the harbour. It was a good show! For those with access to Jane's Fighting Ships you might want to look up the characteristics of some of the hull numbers I identified as follows: two of the cruisers were the Moscow #620, and the Kursk #713, a missile cruiser #121, another large cruiser #801, an amphibian assault landing ship #158, a missile patrol boat #617, a support ship #148, a Ukrainian assault ship #U402, two Ukrainian cruisers #U120 and #U310 and other vessels with hull numbers 952, 962, 510, 909, 142, and a rusting out hull of an incomplete cruiser #707. All the vessels were on public display. Next day was our departure, most of it being spent with or waiting for the bureaucrats. In the morning we went to the passenger terminal to set a time for us to present ourselves with Veleda at the Customs and Immigration dock. That took two and a half hours of walking into town, being passed from one office to another, and finally calling Sergey who sent another club member to help us out. That was just to inform the officials (Immigration, Customs, Passport Control, and Harbour Control) that we wanted to depart Ukraine and that we would arrive at their dock at their requested time, which was set for 1600 that afternoon. That gave us a couple of hours to get back to Veleda after a bit of last minute provisioning and fill our water tanks. We arrived at the customs dock at 1600 and shortly after three men, not in uniform, arrived and one, an agent who spoke some English, determined that we wanted to clear out of Ukraine and took our crew lists, passports, customs declarations (made out at our entry in Ismail), and said he would be back shortly, after which when we paid our port fees we could leave. Hold on, Port Fees? How much might they be? We had earlier been informed they would be minimal, about $7.00 US as we were a foreign flagged vessel. However he indicated it might be a standard ship's fee of about $250.00. NO WAY! I told him that if such a fee was to be asked to cancel our departure request. He said he would see what he could do. If that was to be charged, I would not pay it and would have changed our minds and returned to Odessa hoping to leave that more co-operative port, or to just simply leave the country with no notification whatever. He returned 45 minutes later with our passports and documents saying there would be no port fees, and we just had to wait for Immigration to come down to stamp our passports. Whew! That was about 1700. We waited, then had supper, and waited. By 1900 I was fuming, as we would be looking at a night departure and possibly a night entrance to Zonguldak in Turkey. I was again at the point of saying "Screw it; we are leaving without our passports stamped out." Judy went over to the gate to find out we were not allowed out the gates as it was a secure customs dock. She asked about the Immigration people, and fortunately they finally arrived at 1935. They were friendly, and competent enough filling out their forms and stamping our passports that we were finally on our way by 1955. I showed fantastic restraint in not asking them why, when we made arrangements that morning to be here at 1600 that they did not show up until 1935!!! Oh well, we were on our way, finally, for a 215 mile sail across the Black Sea to Zonguldak, Turkey. It turned out to be a heavy but fast sail across on a broad reach in 2 metre wallowing seas. Our circumnavigation of the western end of the Black Sea was complete. Next log (coming soon!)