The 200 mile passage from Azov to Kerch’ in Ukraine is divided into two equal parts.The first leg of our crossing was a gentle square run with everything poled out, warm sun, good food and wine. An endless parade of ships passed us to starboard.
With a splendid sunset we dropped the pole, rounded the corner and turned south to Kerch. Under starry skies and with a freshening breeze, Tainui danced through phosphorescent seas with a bone in her teeth. We were faithfully steered by by our Aries wind vane, which had not really done any useful work for a very long time. All night we rushed south with a steady beam breeze. Dawn brought relief from the constant vigilance required by huge volume of commercial traffic.
Finally we were granted permission to enter the port of Kerch’, where we anchored awaiting instructions about what to do next.
Pasha, our newly appointed shipping agent, worked wonders for us. We were told where to tie up and an army of smiling, uniformed officers of various kinds were waiting for us. Cheerful formalities were soon over and we fell into bed.
After last night’s ship-dodging and this morning’s radio shenanigans we are both buggered. To put it mildly.