Volga-Balt Waterway
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…
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…
Leaving March Fly Canal we saw our second sail since entering Russia’s inland waters. And how exciting it was! .
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
(….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…
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…
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…
We left Yaroslavl at about 8pm. The evening is warm, calm. The river is almost a mile wide and is a serious waterway. We have a steady 1 knot current with us. Pleasing because we…
The marina at Kostroma is small, jet ski infested but friendly. We were welcomed warmly by Andrey and Anna, who had brought ice creams and 2 bottles of splendid isabella and raspberry wine. We settled…
Just before Kineshma we passed Plyos, famed outdoor artists’ centre. We couldn’t find anywhere to stop, so that visit will have to wait for our next Volga transit. I had a lovely…
Today is a day of national celebration for all mariners on Russia’s inland waterways. Maxine tells me that VHF communication in Cyrillic between commercial shipping includes fraternal greetings and expressions of goodwill. Near Kineshma we…
Thunderheads loomed over us when, in fading light, we crept into a likely looking inlet for the night. Black night was upon us when we realised that the second set of channel markers was missing…
Having passed through the grand downhill locks at Gorodets we were met with a surprise – a 2-3 knot favourable current in the Volga. The 35 mile trip to Nizhniy took no time at all…
We passed through the open road bridge at 6 am. Old Gorky lay ahead, looking pretty wonderful, I must say. In the mist, at the junction of the Volga and Oka Rivers, a bold fortress…
…I mean Tainui, not Maxine. Without sentimentality I must say that Tainui has served us well indeed. As usual, she has never given me a moment’s anxiety, although she cannot say the same of me.…
Pasha’s dacha In Moscow we farewelled Dirk, who has fled to the emerald isle. He will be missed. Our Moscow sojourn gave us a wonderful opportunity to catch up with Pasha and to meet his…
Back from Moscow to ready the boat for the next bit, I needed to refuel. I asked Dima, working on an adjacent boat, if he could call me a taxi for the tedious jerrycan transfer…
5 am and an impossibly beautiful sunrise over glassy water. Alone in the cockpit with my first morning coffee I have been thinking about the enormity of this voyage. We are approaching Kazan, meeting place of Orthodox and…
Astute followers of our Yellowbrick track may have noticed some interesting movement of Tainui this morning. I have been stressing to Lieve and Maxine the importance of fastidious recording of our position as we pass…
The Volga follows a fairly narrow and serpiginous course from Nizhniy Novgorod with high forested shores. But today the scene has changed. We are now passing through a series of lakes and reservoirs with wide…
Yesterday was long and tiring, with rain and squalls. The first bleak weather we have had since Belomorsk Canal. This morning I got up at 5 to watch sunrise over the monastery. Tainui is anchored…
The domes of the monastery shone in the dawn sunlight with a full moon and mist on the water adding needless extra theatre. At 9 we moved alongside to meet our friends from Credo, a…
Kazan, largest port on the river system, sits at the confluence of the Volga and Kama Rivers, which ends its thousand mile journey from Siberia here. Protecting these vital trade routes, Kazan has always been…
This post is not about Russia, but I need to express my frustration with a crew issue. As we passed the diversion north to Bolgar, whose minarets were just visible through the rain, a fine…
Departure from Kazan was difficult. Partly because our dockside farewells were protracted, and partly because we had to wait an hour while a mafioso gin palace refueled before we could top up our tanks…
Last night’s anchorage was a deserted wooded bay at Staraya Mayna. Unlike yesterday’s squally passage, today we have weather which is warm and calm. Maxine is having another bad hair day. Her main problem this…
True, Lenin was born here, but today Tainui is the big news. Do not miss Ulyanov’sk Prime Time TV tonight. We have had film crews on board all morning and Tainui will be the talk of the…
I have inserted the Repin image at Lieve’s request. And the two pictures below I uplifted from Sasha’ s superb book of old Volga postcards. How times have changed since then. Today’s Volga boatmen drive huge double barges…
Non-sailors might like to know how we manage the physically exhausting business of Volga travel in Tainui. These pictures were taken in gale force conditions (not) on Kuybishevskiy Reservoir on approach to Tolyatti. …
Like every arrival, this one has come as a complete surprise to us. A power boat was waiting off the yacht club to guide us in, and many willing hands pulled eagerly but unpredictably on…
We tied up at a snug little marina in Samara late last night after a splendid trip down river to the Big Bend. The Volga is narrow here, with high green hills on both sides.…
…or so Samara was called in the 18th century. The first performance of Shostakovitch’s 7th symphony took place in Samara and Yuri Gargagarin recuperated here after he landed his space craft just up the road.…
We have been sailing in loose company with Tsetsarevitch, a little home-built yacht from Perm (spelled Perm’). Perm is in Siberia about 1,000 miles up the Kama River, northeast from Kazan. Konstantin Timoynin, Captain of…
Gerda and Dima have been with us since Nizhniy Novgorod and they are excellent companions. Maxine complains intermittently of what she calls Volga Fatigue (really, I think she is just missing her man) but is…
A warm, sunny and clean day. After coffee and a swim, a warm, clean and sunny skipper also. Now for an omlette with beans. At midnight last night…
This is not about the effects of old age on a bloke’s physiognomy but advice to readers about a wonderful opportunity to make money in Russia. I had not realised the devastating impact of perestrioka…
A couple of days ago we passed Marx and are now tucked into a little marina at Engels, opposite Saratov. Like many other places we have been, this is an old commercial ship basin, slowly…
One of the more testing jobs I have each day is choosing the title for the web post. In the Southern Ocean, where noteworthiness was at a premium, I was scraping the bottom of the…
Our anchorage at Galka was free of march flies and mosquitoes. When we got in at midnight last night we rejoiced. But this morning Tainui was besieged by buzzing bees. Utterly harmless of course, but…
At 10 am this morning, just outside the entrance, we were chased down by a GIMS runabout with flashing blue light and siren. GIMS is the Volga version of…
Our arrival in Volzshkiy is something of a milestone in Tainui’s journey. It is the end of a long trip down the 500 km long Volgogradskiy Reservoir and almost the end of our Volga journey.…
Tainui is not looking her best. There is no doubt about that. In Baltic ports like Christiansand and Kiel she would stand out a bit beside those rows upon rows of pristine Eurovision Song Contest…