Captain’s Log: Finally Checked into Petropavlovsk Russia: Days 5-6

May 25-26

Hi All,

Well….the good news…we are checked into Russia and secured in a small marina…yea!!!!! The bad news is Russia now has the record for the worst, and I mean worst by a long shot country to deal with officials. Fourteen and half hours….YES 14.5 HOURS…..even 12 hours after the experience I’m still a bit peeved…..I’m writing this blog at 8am RST Saturday June 2…..arghhhhhhh!!!

So what happened…..we were accused of being terrorists…..really….I’m not sure that means terrorist as we would define the term….I think this one head Official….the Fleet Manager…..thought maybe we were spies, or criminals, and/or…..well, there maybe another explanation which I will not discuss publicly while in Russian. Alexei, our agent, and his friend Sergei, checked with the officials on Thursday, the day before we arrived and all was fine….the Fleet Manager said…oh, good, American tourists, let them spend their money in Petropavlovsk. Then when Alexei checked on Friday am the guy had changed to nope…..not going to allow them to enter Russia….ODG…if that had happened we had no options….we needed fuel…..the only reason we came to Petropavlovsk.

When we got to the pilot station, ~2nm from the inlet to Avacha Bay, the Vodhask (traffic control) told us to go to Waiting Zone 1…ok, we arrived at 7am and we had read in another boat’s log they were asked to do the same, thinking the officials did not open until 8am…..well, we waited 7.5 hours doing circles…..TG it was calm weather as this was out in open waters, ~200′ deep…..we were in email contact with Alexei who we found out spent the whole 7.5 hours with this Fleet Manager trying to convince him we were just tourists….ugh…but TG for Alexei and Sergei!!! At one point I said this circling is ridiculous and tedious so let’s go anchor while we wait….so via emails we determined a bay to anchor….we did try 3 times but it was all rock and our anchor never set…..in the meantime a CG cutter had gone out the Avacha Bay and reported we were anchoring in Bezymyanny Bay. We then get an email from Alexei saying we can not anchor in that Bay….this was after we supposedly were given permission……arghhhhh!!!!

We finally get permission to enter Avacha bay at 2:30pm and we proceed to the wharf (still 10nm away) were we are met by 9 officials from Border Control. First challenge is getting them onboard…it is a huge wall built for cargo ships with huge fenders….finally they produce a plank and we get them onboard. Then it was 2.5 hours of answering various questions, filling out various forms, getting every finger printed, making a copy of every page in all 3 passports, inspecting Mystic et al…..wow….all this was done with very nice, friendly, professional officials….one man spoke fairly decent English…he had gone to school in New York…..and by the end of the 2.5 hours we were all laughing and sharing stories about each country.

Then we were made to wait on the wharf an additional 2.5 hours before given permission to leave the dock and motor 5nm to the small marina…..really….even after all the Officials had vetted us, stamped our passports et al. We finally get to the marina where Alexei has freed a berth for us and get tied up by 9:30pm….what a day in officialdom….a record for us on Mystic!!!! We then spent an hour or so talking with Alexei and Sergei before they begged off for the night to get some sleep…..they were as worn out over the ordeal as we were.

Day 5: We had trawler weather pretty much on Thursday, Day 5….the winds were still 15-25kts and seas 6-8′, but all astern during the day….and then by Thursday night the winds calmed to 10-18kts and seas 3-5′ all astern….and by Friday am the winds were <10 kts and seas 1-3’…..as we turned more north to enter Petropavlovsk the winds and seas got beamy and a little forward of beam, so a little motion but not bad!! We also had a fair current most of the day…..go figure!!!! Oh, and we did have fog starting Wednesday night but by Thursday afternoon it had turned to overcast skies giving us some gorgeous views of Kamchatka peninsula.

And we saw WHALES….yes, a pair of Humpbacks….the were traveling in parallel with us and we saw them at the surface for a few minutes before they did a deep dive!!!

ANOTHER MILESTONE FOR MYSTIC: We passed 50,000nm on the mileage log….yep, think equivalent of circumnavigating Earth 2 times….wow….that’s a lot of sea miles at 7-8 kts!!!!

Final Stats:
Distance: 933nm; 35nm circling 7.5 hours in front of Avacha Bay waiting permission to enter
Avg speed: 7.3kts, includes 7.5 hours doing circles…..taking that out, avg passage speed was 7.5kts, maybe a 0.2-.3 average foul current; speed varied from 5.9 – 9.6 kts…wow!!!
Fuel used: 721 gals
Fuel mileage: 1.34nmpg; actually quite good considering the foul current
Sea Temp: ranged from 37-44*F; it’s 47*F in this small marina!!!
Air temp: 37*F low to 55*F high; some days in the low 40’s*F

I call this a 95% passage, Kathy calls it 90%….95% of the time we had trawler like conditions…..smooth ride…..we only had an 8-10 hour period on Tuesday with 6-8′ beam and astern seas so somewhat confused and the ride was a bit uncomfortable. We are all pinching ourselves for such a great weather window!!!!

AND IN SPITE OF THE OFFICIAL RECEPTION YESTERDAY, WE CAN’T BELIEVE WE ARE IN RUSSIA!!!!!

The Plan: First thing today Sergei is taking us to get a Sim card so we can have internet on the boat. We then will do a deep dive on weather and hopefully find a good weather window to leave Russia for Attu Alaska….550nm due East and a 3 night passage for us!! Here in Petropavlovsk we will do a few tourists things…..see the Orthodox church, tour the city, go to the market for provisions, eat at a local restaurant…..per Alexei not many restaurants here….people do not normally eat out much…..and, maybe a favorite event will be to visit a natural hot spring as they have many in the area. We also will take on fuel. Ideally we will only be here for 5-7 days. Alexei told us they need 3 days notice to allow enough time to check us out of Russia!!!

Oh….and today is Kathy’s Birthday!!!!

Hope all is well!!

John
Mystic Moon

PS: No pictures yet as we still do not have internet!!!

—