Telltales 64: With MAJOR  contributions from Maynard.

Black Sea: Ukraine

Saturday July 9th

We wake up in Balaclava with the sound of the gravel pit at the head of the bay. It is time to leave this place again. They have given us a very warm welcome, but we want to explore the rest of the Crimea and want to start all the way at the beginning: Feodosia, the place where we got refused the first time upon entering in Ukrainian waters. Now that we are cleared in and all our paperwork is complete, we want to sail back up and start all over. Sergey takes care of more paperwork and the crew list is now stamped with Feodosia as our destination. As there is no wind, so we motor along the coast, passing the presidential palace and the Swallow’s Nest again. It is 5 in the afternoon when we pass Yalta and continue northeast. We decide to stop in Artek for the night and make the last 50 miles to Feodosia the next day.

We call Artek on the VHF, but there is no answer. We call the Coast Guard and there is no answer. After half an hour of calling, the captain of a passing motorboat offers to help. He speaks good English and relays our request to the Coast Guard. After some twenty minutes we are given clearance to go to Artek. However, just when we are entering the port, the VHF calls us again to say that we have NO clearance to go into the port and on the shore people start making gestures of NO ENTRY. We turn Sylphe around and again call the Coast Guard to ask if we can drop anchor outside the harbour. There are several boats at anchor and it is reasonably well sheltered. We are then told that we can't do that either. It is getting frustrating to hear “NO” all the time. We slowly sail northward while we wait for the Coast Guard to come with new directions. Two other boats get involved with us on the VHF, one of them being Tripp, the American captain of a local mega yacht who has been listening in on the VHF. He offers to intervene as well, but he also gets NO as an answer. He suspects our paperwork not to be correct. The Coast Guard comes back online and tells us that we have to return to Yalta. NOOOOOO, not again. But we have no choice as we are clearly not allowed to sail into other ports. It is dark when we tie up on the main quay of Yalta’s main port, right in the city center, next to Tripp and his mega yacht. He welcomes us and we share some experiences. His owner is a Russian oil tsar who is here every summer and as he is always based in Yalta, he hasn't encountered our problems. We are beginning to realize that the whole concept of cruising along the coast, hopping from one port to the next is unknown here. The blasting disco on the 3^rd floor of the building right behind Sylphe keeps us awake till the early morning hours (even with ear-plugs).

SUNDAY, July 10^th

We wake up to another beautiful sunny Yalta day and decide that today we want to fight the bureaucracy and settle this once and for all. (and on a Sunday????) Our agent Andrei, who did all our paperwork a week ago unexpectedly shows up on the quai and is quite surprised to see us. We explain our problems. Although the paperwork clearly states that Feodosia is our destination (and was approved in Balaclava), we wonder why we are not allowed to go there. Andrei starts making calls and disappears (we can clearly see the despair on his face as well). An hour later it becomes clear that we are NOT allowed to sail any further northeast. The rest of the north east coast is off limits for foreign yachts and there seems no way around it. And of course there is no real explanation given for it. In a country like this you do not question officials….that is tradition and deeply rooted ……

So what about sailing in the other direction to Odessa, the river delta, Sevastopol, etc?? Are we going to experience the same trouble and limitations??. After a long intervention from Andrei we indeed get our papers, which now state a list of ports, and the time limit of one month to make this trip. We can even go back and forth as we want. It seems that this is already quite an exception….but will it work…?? No idea, but we will just have to give it a try.

A German sail yacht has just sailed in as well and we have a chat with them. They are the first foreign yacht we have seen. They have sailed the same route as us: the whole Turkish north coast, having skipped Georgia,and instead going to Russia. They were only in one port (Sochi) and made day excursions from there and then sailed straight to Yalta. The skipper as it turns out is fluent in Russian having studied at University of Odessa.They are chartering with 6 people on a 40 foot boat will go on to Odessa, stopping only in Balaclava. We tell them of our experiences in Balaclava and will meet them there again later.

We stock up the boat, taking advantage of the great Grand Bazaar of Yalta. It is a colourful market-place with all fresh produce. The meat section is especially amazing with a huge variety in meat, sausages, hams, etc. Every where you are allowed to taste before you buy and we end up with some great sausages, home made and delicious. Maynard buys Caviar for only 10$, and he assures me that the same amount would cost 100 Euro in Europe. After this cheap success we get ripped off by an old lady who wants to charge us 15$ for a handful of olives. We tell her to bugger off.

A caviar lunch is produced on the boat. As it seems unlikely that we will be back in Yalta, we explore the town one last time and have another good dinner in our favourite restaurant, where after three visits, the waitresses are starting to recognize us. It takes a little time for these people to warm up, and our guess is that it's because they are ashamed of their limited English. Contact with the local population is hampered by this reserved approach. In the street people don't automatically smile as they do in Turkey, for example. People that pass by the boat and throw a curious glance into the cockpit and immediately turn away when we say “Hello”. Is it the old fashioned communistic suppression, fear of foreigners, lack of English, or simply afraid of tourists??? It remains a mystery.

Monday, July 11th

We set sail from Yalta and will not be back. Andrei is left behind with the suggestion to get organized with the two or three other ports in Ukraine. Together they should approach the ministries to make clear that visiting foreign yachts need a different set of rules and paperwork. We will assist him with that, if necessary and if possible. He realizes that they will not attract tourist yachts unless things change.

Again the wind dies so we motor for 40 miles, arriving once again in Laspi. There is no swell and no wind so we decide drop anchor outside the harbor. The harbourmaster is not happy with this as in this way he misses out on his 5$ fee, so he calls the coastguard, who show up with two people on-shore. Roland goes over and makes clear that we have indeed all the paperwork and they disappear after ten minutes of radioconference calls. Apparently there are indeed now people who know about us and what we are allowed to do. We have a feeling that after another month here, every official in the country is going to know us pretty well.

We spend a beautiful afternoon and evening on Sylphe. This is the first time that we are not tied to a dock and free at anchor and that feels good. Peace and quiet all around. The children’s disco and fashion contest organized around the camp swimming pool give us something to follow through the binoculars. The camp’s lifeguards who we lunched with the previous week say hello, and although invited to come onboard, do not show up. We guess that they have been forbidden to.

Tuesday, July 12th

There seems to be a nice breeze around midday, so we get underway and hoist the main and the yankee. Not even 20 minutes into our sail, the wind picks up around the cliffs and soon we have 25 knots. We race along at 9 knots, and main-sail has to come down, as this is getting too much. Instead of reefing we drop it all together, as it is only another 7 miles to Balaclava. Still doing 7 knots with only the yankee we reach downwind towards Balaclava. Around the cliff the wind drops dramatically and shifts 180 degrees. It would be interesting to race in these waters as the winds are very variable with local knowledge required. It is only then that we realize that the small Duch flag on Lady Sylphe (our dingy) is missing. A late-night swimmer from the camp now has a souvenir of our visit.

The welcome in Balaclava is warm and great. Sergey, our new friend David, and the staff are all waiting for us. We try three different mooring places on the quay, but everywhere the mooring lines turn out to be too short or not connected, so finally we drop our own anchor and are stern-to to the main quay, in between big tupperware motor yachts. David takes us out for a late dinner and a few Green Peace tents are given a shake on the way back home.

Wednesday July 13th 

The day in Balaclava is spent cleaning Sylphe, organizing laundry and having a good lunch on the terrace just ten feet behind the boat. Later in the afternoon we are invited on the motor yacht next door. The crew of 4 have been working on the boat all day and it turns out they have only been onboard 7 days. The boat is a 4 year old 65 foot Azimuth, a former charter boat now owned by the minister of Transport: the name of the boat being “ORANGE WINGS”, signaling the change that came with the Orange Revolution. The crew is entirely Russian and speak limited English, but this doesn't stop them warmly welcoming us onboard. Drinks and canapes are produced from the galley by skipper Valentin's wife. We have to admit that a few toasts with vodka were involved. After all we couldn't appear to be rude, could we? Their boat is extremely luxurious and even Roland has to admit that it is quite nice. They still have a lot of work to do if they want to get the boat back in shape (mainly electrical problems, and we see them working fanatically over the next few days. The minister is expected to arrive around the 24^th and Maynard and Roland look forward to talking with him. After all, he is probably the minister who could facilitate the cruising for visiting yachts in Ukraine. We will see if we are still around on the 24^th.

We meet a Russian blues band, Big Blues Revival, who are hanging around the marina complex where they will perform later in the week. Maynard immediately makes friends with Vitali and Olga, (the leader and manager, respectively) and we soon find ourselves with two of their CD’s in exchange for Sylphe tee-shirts. We invite them onboard and give them the tour of the boat.

Sasha shows up, who turns out to be the only real local sailor and is delighted with Sylphe. He is a captain of two other boats, one of the gullet-type sailboat. As always there are presents for us in return when we hand out the t-shirts. They are very warm and friendly people, once the ice is broken. We now have been in Balaclava for several days and we are rapidly becoming part of the in-crowd. People seem less “afraid” of us now.

Thursday July 14th

Maynard decides to go diving. As there is a PADI diving school in town. Early morning he shows up and together with two Germans disappears for his first dive in 4 years. He returns 5 hours later happy to have brushed-up on his scuba skills but generally disapointed by the two dives. It turns out that the visibility is not very good and there is not much to see in terms of plant and fishlife. No further expeditions will be made unless there is a wreck involved.

Roland uses David’s computer expertise to get the computer fixed. A virus has misteriously appeared and has destroyed a part of the windows setup and the computer works only intermittently. David actually sends over two of his young computer technicians and they decide to install Windows XP and clean the computer. They will take 2 days to get this process done, of course with pirated software, but all the latest versions. The most difficult task was to find the English versions, but now Sylphe has a new computer with all the latest software installed and of course the Kaspersky Antivirus, which I can recommend to everyone. After all; it found viruses that were not detected by the Norton programme, and the fact that the company has just been bought by Microsoft indicates that they have a good product. The GPRS connection via the mobile to the internet works and is relatively cheap and fast in this country, basically the same experience as we had in Turkey.

Friday July 15th

Jochem and Josja (friends of Roland), who live and work in Kiev are coming over for the weekend. Maynard and Strat had both used them to get private visas for Ukraine, with an official invitation letter from Jochem, so it is nice that they meet as well. They arrive late in the afternoon and we have a warm reunion. Jochem has not seen Sylphe, since he last sailed her 6 years ago, and that was before the restoration. And since Roland is partially to blame for them being together (has to do with a charter trip in Greece where they met), we are all delighted with this opportunity to meet again.

The activity in the marina is feverish. They have been building a huge stage and podium in one corner of the marina and a TV crew shows up. Extra pontoons are being put in the water in front of the stage to be used as seating area later. They are preparing for something big, so much is obvious. A live band is to play later and tickets are expensive. But Maynard quickly arranges 4 tickets and we will have no problem getting in. The rock band (not the same as the blues band, which we met earlier) is playing at 9 and is loud, very loud. The crowd is watching in awe and admiration, but it's not really our thing. We disappear into town to have a waterfront diner of fish and a late night of talking about memories of the past and their experiences of living and working in Ukraine.

Ahoy

Roland

S/y SYLPHE

www.sail-in-style.com