The Volga hereabouts is lined with onion-domed churches. To me, three things stand out about them – they are striking and very beautiful structures, they suit their setting perfectly and they display unexpectedly strong Islamic…

Tainui’s berth in Yaroslavl could hardly be more central. The golden domes of the Cathedral of the Annunciation loom over her and their sonorous carillon rings loud every morning and evening. Unfortunately though, there are…

(….or is it the other way round?) After dark we groped our way through a maze of navigation lights into the city. Ever resourceful, Maxine called up a passing fishing boat, turned on her usual…

The Rybinsk waterfront is mixed commercial and high rise residential. As the city recedes behind us we begin to realise that we are really here. In Russia, on the Volga River, and only the third…

We have just had a thoroughly miserable night. We left Cherepovets with forecast 5 knot headwinds. The afternoon started well and fiveses were lengthy and voluble. But the weather predictions were wrong. The worryingly shallow…

Last night Sasha turned up with a vast array of beers, home brew spirits, wines for Maxine and a sumptuous feast for 10. He brought with him a Russian orthodox priest with a long white…

Believe it or not, work days do exist! Maxine and Dirk have cloistered themselves in a hotel for a couple of days. Tainui is suddenly quite a lot larger, not that Max takes up more…

We’re tied up at the tiny yacht club and all is peaceful. I don’t think a foreign yacht has ever been here. The yard manager, a genial old bloke, took our lines and chatted amiably…

I will mention this tedious business once, for completeness. All refuelling in Russia is by drum. Our 7 or 8 five gallon jerrycans are loaded into a rusty Lada taxi and we clamber in on top…

Further south we entered a region of broad sounds and lakes. Depths plummeted from their usual 5 metres to more than 12. We stopped Tainui at sunset on a vast glassy lake, to swim and try…

It has been difficult. There is too much salt in the bloody mary, the march flies are too aggressive, the toilet paper is too sandpapery, in Belozyorsk they don’t sell the right cheese, the music’s…

A short, well-marked passage through marshes and floating islands leads from March Fly Channel to White Lake. Suddenly the pesky flies and mosquitoes are gone, although in only 15 feet of water we are hardly…

Leaving March Fly Canal we saw our second sail since entering Russia’s inland waters. And how exciting it was! .

It is a long climb from Vytegra. The locks here are industrial in size and purpose. The feeling of private privilege we felt in the Belomorsk Canal has gone,  replaced by a realisation that we…

Sipping coffee in the cockpit this morning I feel like a drugged patient in a hospital bed, the morning after having had a leg amputated. I keep looking in disbelief for the missing limb. Our…

At the southern end of Lake Onega we join the Volga-Balt canal system. To the west lie St Petersburg and the Baltic Sea, while on the eastern shore the Vytegra River leads to locks through White…

We anchored last night behind an island in a gorgeous calm spot, on the eastern shore of Lake Onega. Cuckoos called from the forest and the breeze was warm. My battle with gravity and general…

After a genuinely sad farewell to Konstantin and Medvezhegorsk we set out into Lake Onega. With a warm, gently lit afternoon, flat seas and a steady beam breeze we wove through the cardinal marks sipping…

We are an object of curiosity and entertain often. This group of senior officials from Medvezhegorsk demanded our careful attention and respect.

Today Konstantin took us to visit the site of one of the region’s blackest moments. In 1938 Stalin slaughtered more than 11,000 enemies of the state here – political prisoners who had been incarcerated on…

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We came out of lock number 19 at 8 pm and cracked a bottle of chardonnic. Tired but happy. The trip across Lake Onega to Vytegra is about 130 miles and this bit of water…

We are completely alone. Our route alternates between broad, shallow sounds and narrow passages among forested islands, all of it well-buoyed. Occasionally we see a factory belching smoke in the distance, but generally the shores…

Tainui has been a very happy ship. My crew are cheerful, uncomplaining, funny, intelligent and resourceful. A bloke couldn’t ask for more.

The approach channel into Belomorsk is well marked. We called port control at the fairway buoy and were astonished to be told that the sea lock was open and that we should enter directly, port…

After moving Tainui 4 times at the behest of the port authorities we seem finally to have found a permanent spot, rafted alongside a working tug in the outer harbour. After an acceptable omlette with…

I will not forget this place. We arrived at 2 am after a very uncomfortable reach in 25-30kt northerly winds. Alex Galitsky had warned us about the seas off the northern coast of the island…

What a morning. Pasha threw himself into our engine problem with quiet confidence. He took out the one section of copper pipe in the external coolant circuit which I have not yet examined closely (but…

We have arrived. As we entered the town harbour at 8 pm, little yachts sailed over to welcome us and guide us to the tiny, ramshackle yacht club. Our new Muscovite crew Pavel and Max…

We have just tied up at Archangel’sk customs wharf after a long trip upstream against a 4 knot current. Low wooded shores, tea-coloured water, sand flats and only an occasional commercial ship. Clearly we are…

We have 18 hours to go until Archangel’sk, gods willing, and should take our pilot on board for the final approach tomorrow at 2pm. The pilot is one of the many bureaucratic burdens we are…

It has been a slow, uncomfortable passage along the Kola Peninsula from Vardo. Persistent 20 knot headwinds and cold rain, with no room to tack as we are so close to Russia’s 12 mile territorial…

We are at sea – finally. We slipped out of the glassy harbour this morning, out from under the imposing bum of the Hurtigruten Finnmark, past the splendid graffiti on the waterfront storehouses and into…

Russia has to thank Holland for teaching Peter the Great about ships and the sea. My gratitude is directed to Maxine for all that she has done to make this trip possible, and to Dirk,…

One of the great delights of cruising is the occurrence of unexpected, intense friendships. While we were refuelling Tainui this morning a young Vardø couple introduced themselves and we fell into conversation. Per has been…

In response to my comments in the last post, Maxine has asked me to clarify. She says she is just very tired after a long and restless 24 hours on watch from Honningsvag to Vardo.…

A languid 18 hour motor sail in bright midnight sunshine and here we are. In Vardo harbour Tainui has the only tall mast in a veritable forest of workmanlike varnished fishing boats. Cod, king crab…

For those doubters (especially Dirk, but to a lesser extent Rosie) I can confirm that our little yellow transmitter is once again recording Tainui’s movement across the sea. See for yourself on http://my.yb.tl/tainui. We left…

In Tromsø we saw Sami people in national dress for the Norway Day parade. But here in Finnmark it is a privilege and a delight to meet Sami like this woman, who have dressed up…

The weather is gorgeous! The long fjords are serene. Steep mountains etch sharply against skies of deepest blue. We have made a 7 hour trip down to Central Troms to get the engine head pressure…

Here we are in Honningsvag. Maxine, with her curious Flemish sense of humour, pronounces this “honey fuck”. This morning there was no coolant in the header tank. We have stripped off the head and the…

“Near as dammit” because here at Honningsvåg the Hurtigruten ferry stops to allow tourists to travel by road 35km north to North Cape, the northernmost tip of mainland Europe. We removed the exhaust manifold in Hammerfest…

After a lazy start from Sjervøy we motorsailed into a freshening headwind, past spectacular snow-clad peaks and glacial valleys and into the big sound south of Suroey Island. This is a grand amphitheatre of sharply…

We crept into Skjervøy at 11 last night. A pretty, snug little harbour with rows of drowsy fishing boats, neat cottages and snowy mountain slopes. Today it was cold, and when the fitful northerly freshened…

In 40 years of sailing Tainui has been blessed by regular crew, family and friends, who all seem to want to come back for more. Crew requirements for the Russia journey were stringent however –…

Some injudicious yard work with the travel lift led to a bent ProFurl yesterday afternoon. We cancelled the launch so we could dismantle the foil and straighten the bent section Mercifully, the bend was round…

It is snowing and there is a good layer of the cold stuff on the decks. The gale force winds have abated but it is grey and very cold. At least, for an Australian! I…

I am running in treacle. Silly, boat-in-foreign-country things like getting a SIM card that works, downloading AIS and Iridium software drivers for the new Windows 7 computer, living on the hard without water and 10…