Kherson to Crimea Eregli, Turkey July 30, 2004 Hi Folks, We had a heavy but good voyage across the Black Sea from Sevastopol in Ukraine over to Zonguldak, Turkey (40 hours for 214 nautical miles with over 2/3rds of it under sail only). It is good to be back in Turkey, our favourite country so far. I may not get this out until we reach Istanbul in a few days, as we don't plan to go ashore, but just anchor off each night en route. All is well, and we are relieved to be safely out of Ukraine. This log gets us into Crimea, a lovely historical peninsula where we visited such historic towns as Sevastopol, Balaclava, and Yalta. More about these in the relevant logs. All the best, Aubrey Log #32w Kherson to Crimea From the pleasant, but wide open anchorage at the mouth of the Bug River, we weighed to proceed into the estuary and eastwards into the Dnieper River, hailed by a friendly Ukrainian sailboat who asked us where we were from and wished us well. Going into the estuary we cut the corner of the T-shaped intersection, careful to avoid the fish traps which were strung widely out and marked by small low buoys or black flags. We did not want to go between any of the buoys or flags for fear their nets were too shallow and we would foul them. After having cut halfway across we gave up trying to avoid the spider web of nets and headed for the channel proper. Even there we found the strings of nets would come to within a few feet of the marked channel. We followed the buoyed channel into the Dnieper Delta and up the main marked channel, not unlike the Danube River Delta we wandered through in Romania. However this delta was narrower with more tributaries where large barges operated, and summer homes, albeit very modest ones, with attendant shore side fishing and outboard-motor boats, bombing up and down the channels. It reminded me of parts of the Trent River and the Kawartha Lakes in Ontario, cottage country, but more primitive (about late 1940's or early 50's) in terms of old boats (beat up fiberglass and aluminum, with a few more modern fishing skiffs) and motors (most with their cowlings removed ) and very small cinder block cottages with corrugated iron roofs, small vegetable gardens, surrounded by heavy foliage, with rickety docks sticking out from the heavy shoreside brush, uncertainly out into the channels. We saw no evidence of conservation efforts; the delta seemed to be primarily industrial at Kherson, one of the largest ports in the Ukraine and the first constructed in 1783 for Imperial Russia on the Black Sea (although it is 53 nautical miles from the estuary mouth to the town). Much of the delta across the river from Kherson and on down to the estuary is residential and recreational. We anchored (46° 37.3'N, 032° 37.6'E) in one of the basins, Zaton #3, a kilometre-wide inlet across the river from the main part of town. This sheltered lagoon was given over to waterside activities, with several yacht, sailing and rowing clubs, each with its recreational facilities of beaches, covered pavilions, sandy volleyball and soccer areas, old barges for main docks, boat sheds and work sheds, club houses, launch ramps, and old heavy cranes for lifting boats and masts (They haul their boats out of the water for the winter.). There is a University Swimming Club, a Marine School, and a marine police recreational center as well. The two or three other Zatons contained industrial operations for bulk cargoes such as sand, gravel, lime, and oil, as well as many de relict barges forlornly anchored long term, rusting away. In spite of the industrial and recreational and residential use of this delta, I saw several egrets and herons when I took Sprite and meandered through the maze of interconnecting channels and small lakes. Ancient battered one-lunger diesel steel lifeboat ferries sputtered back and forth from the Zaton to the main city dock across the river at the tall copper monument of a sailing ship under full sail, commemorating the shipbuilding industry. These small private ferries carried not only the club members and friends back and forth for about 10 cents a trip to Zaton #3, but also many "cottagers" who lived beyond the channel at the end of the Zaton, which opened into a large network of tributaries, channels, lakes and lagoons. Many of these people probably live in the flat foliage of the delta tributaries year round and used these life-boat ferries to commute to work in town. It wasn't until we were at anchor that we were able to raise the port controller, who instructed us to go alongside the monument dock to be checked in by the authorities. When we arrived, several people talked with us, and expressed an interest in our boat, and a security guard arrived to make sure we did not leave the boat until properly checked in. We found out that this weekend was a holiday for the Ukrainian Constitution Day, and so we dressed ship with over 100 flags and pennants flying. We were there for only 1½ hours, the three representatives reasonably efficient and friendly, before returning to the Zaton to anchor and have supper. A couple of days later when I went to the Metropol Yacht Club (which is the Centre for Visiting Yachts) to enquire about water, Alexandre, the skipper of an adjacent yacht, invited and encouraged us to Med moor beside him. He also hooked us up to his electrical extension so we had power, and assured us that the water coming from the old fashioned hand pump was even better than town water (which did not come over to the lagoon). So we stayed there for the next few days. There are no interesting museums in Kherson, but it had a large rinok (a market/bazaar) and an internet location. Maintenance rather than touring was our main activity while there. Alexandre was a marine engineer, just off a six month stint on board a Turkish ship, and working on his boat to get it ready for the summer season and his long holiday period. He was very helpful. We were working to repair our manual bilge pump and to get an anti-siphon device rigged up for our heads intake. The bilge pump we had taken apart and reassembled several times before, fruitlessly trying to repair it, but after our experience with the electrical storm a few days earlier I wanted to make another effort to get it operational, or if this could not be done to buy a new one. We had overhauled it several times but it still did not work. In trying to replace one of the flapper valves, we realized that the threads for one of the screws in the housing were stripped. Alexandre was able to take it into the club's machine shop and came back with it properly secured. We installed it, and it still didn't have any suction! There must be a break in the intake hose, causing the loss of suction. Removing 12 feet of cruddy hose from the bilge, under the engine and out to the lazarette, was not a fun job. We picked up replacement hose at the rinok in Kherson and installed it. Now the bilge pump works well. The new Jabsco heads which we bought in Istanbul last spring (2003) had developed a faulty valve which let water siphon continuously into our toilet, causing it to overflow if we did not shut off the through-hull valve after each use, a real pain. We won't be able to replace the valve until we get back to Istanbul for the necessary parts in a month or so (we have been looking for the part at every "chandlery" we have come across, with no success). However we wanted to install an anti-siphon vent on the intake line of the heads. To do so would involve a length of new hose to loop up well above the waterline with a vented loop at the top. We were not able to pick up the vented loop, but instead planned to insert the Earth Safe Inline Treatment unit, (a fitting for a chemical treatment system similar to those available for domestic toilets) at the top, with the cap not screwed on tight, permitting some air to enter, thus serving as a vented anti-siphon loop. Our last day there we wanted to install it while we had electricity to drill the necessary holes, but just as we had all the equipment ready, the power went off … the shoreside breaker box had fried itself, and we were unable to complete that project. So we will just have to continue opening and closing the through-hull valve each time we use the heads. We met Sasha, a friendly local who enjoyed drinking, who latched onto us. He had one of those old steel lifeboats and took me over to Kherson one night with some other friends to have some drinks in town, and another time took me on a tour through the back channels of the delta, with a few stops at some of his friends' "cottages" for drinks. Our last evening there he dropped by with his wife and another friend to get us diesel. He actually siphoned two jerry cans from his larger tank. This was of value as we didn't know where the nearest fuel station was, and now we were ready to head off next day after clearing out. Because of the bureaucracy, we cannot plan with any certainty our actual departure time, especially early morning departures. So we planned to leave early afternoon, across to Kherson to check out, hoping to get away before dark. As it was we left the club at 1400 to be at the dock across river in Kherson 10 minutes later waiting for the officials. I actually went over town to send my last lot of E-mails before they arrived. They were not too long, and we were able to depart by 1700, with definite instructions to check out again at Ocakov before proceeding down to Crimea. OK … but we just went ten miles downstream to anchor in a side channel for the night. None the less, our sleep was disturbed twice that night. At 0230 loud engine noises disturbed us and when I looked out, there was a barge and tow manouevering abeam of us to settle across the channel for the rest of the night. We did no seem to be in the way, and so back to sleep we went, only to be awoken at 0530 by more engine noises, a siren and what sounded like instructions over a ship's loudspeaker system. When I looked out, the barge and tow that was abeam of us was nowhere to be seen, but another large barge and larger tow boat was coming downstream, towards the main channel, hooting his siren and saying something on the loudspeaker. I then realized that he was probably trying to wake us and tell us we should not be anchored in that channel as it was obviously one used by the industrial barges. I of course did not understand a word he said as it was in Russian, but I assume it was something like, "You damn idiot, you should not anchor in the barge channel!" We thought it was a side channel, unmarked, and we were near the port hand bank, leaving plenty of room for the barge. However, I got Judy up and we were under way by 0545. Two hours later, after a quiet pleasant motor downstream, we were into the estuary and following the buoyed channel 30 miles across to Ocakov at the entrance. In the wide industrial harbour we were directed alongside the high walled pier, the far side from the harbour officials. A pleasant young woman walked us over to the office and after a few uncertainties and phone calls we had our crew list stamped for Chornomorskye, our first port in Crimea, and were on our way within the hour. We exited the estuary, around the sand spit where we anchored upon our entry, and had a good two hour sail without the engine, south, across to Mis Tendrov where we anchored just inside the end of that 70 mile long sandspit (46° 21.3'N, 031° 32.3'E). As we had an 80 mile passage next day, we slept in, did some boat maintenance, and I took Sprite for a run over to the sandspit to explore. The spit is about a mile wide at this outer end. There were few people around, a daymark and light on the end, some radar and radio towers, and a defunct army base occupied by a few squatters. We left at 1800 for the 17 hour passage to Chornomorskye, our first and very frustrating bureaucratic port in Crimea. Next log