To Odessa Sevastopol, Ukraine July 12, 2004 Hi Folks, Here is my next log already. Since we have not had access to internet cafes, I have a few logs already completed and will send them over the next few days, one at a time, as I have found a good internet café where I can do most operations. We are at the Russian Navy Yacht Club here in Sevastopol, a friendly, developing club with laid moorings and a barge, but we have electricity, water and showers. We have enjoyed meeting Sergey Gulko, the director, who speaks English quite well, and who is overlooking the development of this club to a full service marina with washing machines, showers, electricity, water, and finger docks. He has taken us in his car to the local large market and for fuel. Similarly a club member drove us over to the Frontier Police or Coast Guard to check in. We learned that Balaclava is part of the Sevastopol area with no extra check in required. For this reason we will go to Balaclava in Veleda, but will take the bus or train to Yalta to avoid the extra check in and out procedure.. We will return to Sevastopol and the Russian Navy Yacht Club in time for the Russian Black Sea Fleet review on July 25th and will then depart for Turkey on about the 27th. This is a lovely city with a fantastic history, and we will spend the next two weeks in this area. My birthday is July 19, my brother's July 11th, my nephew Pierre's on my birthday July 19th, and several other family and friends in July. To all those with July birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Enjoy this log which gets us into Odessa, an enjoyable Ukrainian city. All the best, Aubrey **************************************************************************** Log #32q To Odessa We were glad to be quit of Ismail, and motored down stream to anchor at km marker #65in a side river channel at 2000. It was a tranquil peaceful spot, but not as much bird life as in the Romanian Delta. River anchoring is usually quite stable as the current keeps you in position. Our sleep was disturbed at 0300 with some clanking around our anchor cable. It did not sound like a tree branch caught against it by the current, and when I checked, there were a couple of fishermen laying nets. OK, so I went back to bed, but then heard them along the hull. I feared they may be trying to board us, and so got up with a flashlight to see what was going on. They were manouevering their boat around our anchor, and then to our stern. I tried to ask them what was happening, but they continued working on their net. They had laid their net upstream of Veleda and it drifted down, catching first on our anchor cable, and then as they cleared it, it went under Veleda and caught on our rudder and propeller. I leaned over our stern with the flashlight to help them see to clear it. It was badly fouled in the prop and they finally had to cut it free, and they then just continued drifting down stream working their nets. At that point I was not sure if they were setting them or hauling them in. I wondered at first if the situation was my fault and that I had anchored over their nets. No, there had been no floats whatever when we anchored earlier. So it must have been that they were setting out their nets and they drifted down onto our anchor chain. Our first task in the morning before we left was to go in the water (Judy volunteered) to cut free the remains of their net still tangled in our prop. We were under way by 0730, motoring the 27 miles to Vilkovo to check in as requested. We used the genoa a few times when the wind was favourable, and had a wagtail as a passenger for a few minutes. It hopped around on our bow pulpit as if we were providing a ferry service. After several unsuccessful attempts to raise Vilkovo Port Control on VHF 16, 17 and 11, we anchored at 1100 just downstream from the town dock, as there were a hotel ship and a couple of ferries alongside. At anchor we established VHF contact, and were told to wait for them to call us in. We had lunch and waited and waited. (I am not very good at just waiting with no understanding as to why, or what is happening.) I was at the point of saying "Screw this, let's head for Turkey!" Instead I insisted that we take Sprite ashore and see whatever officials were necessary, directly It was, at least in the area by the passenger dock, a lazy small town, with dusty dirt streets, and a few people wandering on and off the large hotel ship still alongside. We saw an official looking post with a Ukrainian Flag on it, and went in to enquire what we needed to do to clear out to Odessa. The two uniformed individuals did not know of our presence, but informed us we did not need to check out there in Vilkovo, but further along just before exiting the delta at Ust Dunaysk. That was fine by me, as that was closer to leaving for Odessa, where we hoped to have a friendlier reception, so off we went. I still don't know why we were told to check in there by Ismail, or to wait by whoever was on the VHF. These bureaucrats do not have their act together. We did not know what to expect at Ust Dunaysk, but as it was on the outward end of the delta leading to open water, we were at least getting closer to heading for Odessa. The channels narrowed as we proceeded out these final branches towards open sea, and the ultimate one, Prorvinsky Channel, was a shallow, winding, narrow passage causing us much concern as we went from one bank to the other to find deeper water. There were few buoys or day marks, including some washed up on shore, to guide us. Thankfully we had a chartlet from friends (Brian and Susie from Riduna) who made the trip a couple of years ago with the course highlighted indicating which side of the channel we should hug. The buoys indicated on the chart were totally useless as they were absent, sunk, or in the reed beds. The channel when we were in it seemed to have at least 4 metres (13 feet), but outside it was muddy and we showed less than two metres at several points. We finally came to the end at Ust Dunaysk and had to swing around a few barges and dredges to approach the "yacht harbour". We were in contact with the port controller who guided us in and was waving to us from one of the barges in the small harbour. I didn't trust the depths and so we anchored (45 28.0N, 029 12.6E) on the upwind side of this barge and reed infested harbour in 8 feet of water. The port controller again hailed us on VHF and asked us to come in with our papers. Hey, no waiting! Wow! So, in we went with Sprite and our papers, and were taken up to their offices by friendly officials and an agent, called by Kirill (from Ismail), who spoke some English. There was some uncertainty as to what forms were needed, but it was all sorted out and within half an hour we were cleared for Odessa. It was understood we would stay at anchor and leave next day. We spent the evening watching all the activity at this entrance to the Delta; tugs pushing barges down the narrow channel we were worried about; dredges sucking up muck and pouring it into barges alongside; and gigantic claws picking up truck-size clumps of mud and dropping them into waiting lighters. We were impressed by the dexterity of the tow boats in jockeying these large barges into small spaces, and especially navigating that shallow narrow channel we were worried about with Veleda. I kept an eye on the ships and barges coming in from seaward or going out to sea, as there is a wide bay, but only a narrow channel, not properly marked until you are out on the line of the range markers indicating the channel to open water. Our depth sounder is not working reliably, and I did not want to stumble outside of the channel and go aground in this busy port. Next day we requested permission from the port controller to leave at 1100, and were asked to wait an hour as there was incoming traffic in the channel. We left at 1210, found our way into the outer channel, followed it out the 5 miles into open water, and headed the 82 miles for Odessa on an enjoyable overnight passage. For a change we had favourable winds! We sailed at hull speed for over 12 hours of the 18 hour trip. It was good to get back on the open sea again. En route we found we had water problems again in that our engine was not pumping out cooling water, and our roller furling was stuck with a full genoa out in force six winds approaching Odessa at 0600 next day. We got the water pumping and had to disassemble the roller furling to clear the stuck line before we could furl the genoa to enter harbour. We have had many problems with it and have to be very careful in letting it out or hauling it in, keeping tension on it all the time or it fouls on us. Cleared to enter by Port Control on channel 14, we entered Odessa at dawn, with a beautiful sunrise astern of us coming up behind the entrance lighthouse. Unable to raise anyone at the TCF Nautical Club on channel 73 (as indicated in our pilot), we had to make our way alongside an unused slip (46 29.6N, 030 44.9E) unassisted, being cautious as many of the open slips had long lines stretched across them from boats in adjacent slips. We also found out later that the yacht club monitors channel 84. Tired after the heavy night's sail, we wanted to get a couple of hours sleep before contacting the officials. However, within a half hour we had a knock on our hull, and here were two officials plus a Frontier Police guard and a yacht club representative. So up we got and after hurriedly dressing got out our papers for them. Again, confusion, but not as bad as Ismail. They had to leave to get other forms from the office, and the yacht club representative showed us how to hook up to electricity. I took our transformer (to change from European 220 volts to North American 110volts) onto the dock and hooked it up. Then when I went to get our power cord to attach to the transformer, the guard indicated I should not be on the dock until all the processing was complete. We were tired and cold, and I wanted to get hooked up so we could use our small electric heater. I indicated my exasperation at his petty restrictions, and that I just needed to plug in the cord, which I did, before re-boarding Veleda. At least we were warm. An hour later a lady official came down with another form to complete, and asked us in very halting English about an additional form we were supposed to have, but we could not understand what it was. We heard what we thought was ecology, and then realized it was an Ecological Declaration, which we had, but had not been asked for previously. This form indicates that we have no animals or rooted plants, and our holding tank and water tank capacities. This completed our entry formalities and we were told to check out with them before leaving port. After she left, the guard came over and was asking us something in Russian which I think was a payment of $10.00 US. We thought he was just trying to rip us off and so played ignorant and he left. We have not so far in Ukraine paid any port fees or other fees, other than our visa and health insurance which we arranged before our arrival. We also met Andrei Somotkin, the Deputy Director of the club. He was the one we had Kirill call from Ismail to persuade the officials there to waive any port charges. We thanked him for his assistance. The marina cost for our 10 metre (32 foot) boat was only $7.00 US per day. It is a good secure full service marina where, after touring Odessa, we planned to leave Veleda for a few days and take the train to Kiev. More about these two beautiful cities in my next log. Next log