Day 31 St Petersburg
As we entered Russian waters we were told to call the Russians and announce our arrival at Gogland. We called and called and received no reply. This made me anxious as you don't know what is going to happen at the next point if they are not expecting you.
As we approached Konstantin we called again and received no response so we just proceeded to the customs dock. Fortunately Vladimir was there with all our papers prepared. The procedure was that Linda gets off and takes her Passport and I stay on whilst inspection takes place. The customs man could not have been less interested (lucky us, as other boats were subject to more rigorous inspections with dogs). Soon I was taken into a room and asked for lots of papers many in triplicate. The lady seemed quite friendly so I asked what they were going go to do with them, would anyone even read them? " We are going to make sure you are not spies" was the reply! I am not sure if it was a joke or not.
The journey into Russia was tedious beyond belief as we had to stick to the shipping channels and had to also meet a three hour time slot. So we were required to motor for the last 100 miles.
Once through Konstantin things did not improve, the channel got much narrower and as Saturday was Navy day the Russian fleet was manoeuvring in the same channels. I told Linda not to take ANY photo's which was a shame as it was the first time we had seen subs and some amazing really small ships more like corvettes armed with cruise missiles.
As we left we noticed that Sapphire III was not coming and I was told it was because of the new bridge. Bridge what bridge! My two year old charts did not show a bridge… Navionics to the rescue, ah there it is 25m clearance. We draw 23.5m plus Southern Burgee. I called the WCC organiser Mark to ask about the bridge and if we could rely on the air clearance. I also asked about the air draft of the Oyster 575(Inflagranti) which was way ahead of us. He hung up on me… five minutes later. Inflagranti was passing us on its way back to Konstantin.
As we approached the bridge I sent Linda to the bow with a hand held, she had politely refused my suggestion that I should hoist her up in the bosuns chair. Fortunately the river always flows in one direction so we were able to approach the bridge at less than 1kt as a precaution. Just to add fun to the exercise high speed jet hydrofoils were creating wash and there were shallows and missing navigation marks. In the end after a heart stopping move we were through and we did not run aground, some others were not so lucky.
We arrived at St Petersburg three hours after leaving customs. The first thing I did was buy fuel, I bought 641l at 55p per litre I wish it always cost this amount. We then tied up and noticed a wedding taking place in the restaurant just fifty feet from our berth at the Central River Yacht Club.
As we approached Konstantin we called again and received no response so we just proceeded to the customs dock. Fortunately Vladimir was there with all our papers prepared. The procedure was that Linda gets off and takes her Passport and I stay on whilst inspection takes place. The customs man could not have been less interested (lucky us, as other boats were subject to more rigorous inspections with dogs). Soon I was taken into a room and asked for lots of papers many in triplicate. The lady seemed quite friendly so I asked what they were going go to do with them, would anyone even read them? " We are going to make sure you are not spies" was the reply! I am not sure if it was a joke or not.
The journey into Russia was tedious beyond belief as we had to stick to the shipping channels and had to also meet a three hour time slot. So we were required to motor for the last 100 miles.
Once through Konstantin things did not improve, the channel got much narrower and as Saturday was Navy day the Russian fleet was manoeuvring in the same channels. I told Linda not to take ANY photo's which was a shame as it was the first time we had seen subs and some amazing really small ships more like corvettes armed with cruise missiles.
As we left we noticed that Sapphire III was not coming and I was told it was because of the new bridge. Bridge what bridge! My two year old charts did not show a bridge… Navionics to the rescue, ah there it is 25m clearance. We draw 23.5m plus Southern Burgee. I called the WCC organiser Mark to ask about the bridge and if we could rely on the air clearance. I also asked about the air draft of the Oyster 575(Inflagranti) which was way ahead of us. He hung up on me… five minutes later. Inflagranti was passing us on its way back to Konstantin.
As we approached the bridge I sent Linda to the bow with a hand held, she had politely refused my suggestion that I should hoist her up in the bosuns chair. Fortunately the river always flows in one direction so we were able to approach the bridge at less than 1kt as a precaution. Just to add fun to the exercise high speed jet hydrofoils were creating wash and there were shallows and missing navigation marks. In the end after a heart stopping move we were through and we did not run aground, some others were not so lucky.
We arrived at St Petersburg three hours after leaving customs. The first thing I did was buy fuel, I bought 641l at 55p per litre I wish it always cost this amount. We then tied up and noticed a wedding taking place in the restaurant just fifty feet from our berth at the Central River Yacht Club.
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Europes largest building -
Arrived at St Petersburg