Trip Report #7-2002:  Romania and the Danube

Filed from Eregli, Turkey

41  16.9  N    31  24.1  E

August 20, 2002

Photo:  Typical house on the shores of the Danube River, Romania

    We are on our way to Romania.  Since leaving Istanbul, we have used 42 gallons of diesel fuel, with a burn rate of 0.7 gallons per hour.  We are still encountering the strong winds and current on the nose and are running the engine a little harder (and longer) than we like to do.  It has occurred to us that, considering the prevailing winds and current, the better way to cruise the Black Sea might be to go counterclockwise around, instead of clockwise as we are doing.  We console ourselves by thinking about how much better conditions should be on the way back.

    We arrived in Mangalia, Romania, at 4:30 pm and motored to the Customs quay.  The pier was built large enough for ships the size of aircraft carriers to dock easily, with oily black tires, larger than we've ever seen, lining the concrete quay.  There was no one to catch our lines and no one responded to our radio call.  We were finally able to tie up and Tom scaled the tires and the wall and made his way to the Customs office. He returned with 3 officers who came aboard and completed our paperwork. They were extremely pleasant.  We showed them our documentation and passports and we provided them with 2 crew lists and a general declaration, which we stamped with our boat stamp and signed. 

    After they left, we contacted the harbormaster and moved to the town quay to speak with him.  He also took information from our passports and documentation and told us we should anchor in the bay rather than tie onto the quay, since, unfortunately, there were "gypsies" in the area who might be tempted by some enticing bit of equipment on our boat. We were happy to oblige.  The whole process had taken 3 hours, but by sunset we were safely anchored in the middle of the harbor.  Hell's Belles was also there and we shared some hors d'Ourves and a bottle of good Bulgarian wine in the cockpit with Jay and Linda.  There's nothing like relaxing in the cockpit with great people after a day of sailing! All the little irritations of the day just seem to fade and nothing is left but the good stuff.

Photo:  Hell's Belles in Mangalia, Romania

    Mangalia has a huge beach and the town caters to tourists.  Away from the beach, there are many shops, a market, post office, ATM, copy center and a large internet center with other activities and programs for youth. We even found a copy of the International Herald Tribune in the lobby of a 5-star hotel. One thing we could not find, however, was mosquito repellent to replenish our dwindling supply.  We had noticed the appearance of mosquitoes at dusk and the folks on Gladlee of Guernsey, Ron & Julie, had warned that they were definitely making their presence felt in the Danube Delta.  We checked every possible store in town and the only thing we could find was an area fogger.  We even found that the Romanian word for mosquito repellent is Crema Off - but it was nowhere to be found. We would have to use our supply sparingly.

Photo:  The street and the market in Mangalia, Romania

Photo:  Internet Center in Mangalia

    In Mangalia, we knew that we were probably one day ahead of our friends, Sandy & Jim on Erin O'Lyrr, and we were watching for them.  We awoke one morning to find them tied to the town quay and we were delighted to see them.  Their arrival in Mangalia, however, had not been so delightful.  They were sailing along the coast at night, near the border between Bulgaria and Romania and making their approach to the harbor, when they were alarmed by tracer fire and bullets in the water around the boat.  They made radio contact with the people who were shooting and were told to go out 12 miles from shore.  They explained that they were trying to get into the harbor at Mangalia, but they did motor away from shore.  Twice more they tried to approach and were repelled by bullets around the boat.  They finally called a mayday and the Romanian Border Patrol escorted them safely into harbor.  It's possible that they had wandered into a military practice zone, but there was nothing on the charts or on the Navtex to warn of this and military practice zones are not usually located near borders.  Needless, to say, they were shaken by the experience. Not only because of this, but because of time constraints and social commitments as well, they decided to go back to Istanbul. They reported that they had a wonderful sail back, with a favorable wind and current.

    We had our first dinner ashore with Jim and Sandy in Mangalia.  In our opinion, the Romanian food that we have had is just passable. Even the bread is dense, dry and tasteless.  It was, however, very inexpensive. The most expensive meal we had cost $12.00 for the two of us, including wine.  We found that it was best to shop in the market and cook aboard.  The market had good vegetables, fruit, cheese and meat - and going to the market is a fun experience.  The Romanian women in the market were good-natured and fun-loving and encouraged us to taste before making choices.  We came out of the market in a very good mood and with bags full of good food.

    We left Mangalia and sailed overnight to the mouth of the Danube River.  For most of the night, we had 22-25 knots of wind on the nose, an intermittent adverse current of 1 knot, and waves of 1 1/2 to 2 meters - slow going.  We passed through a field of oil rig platforms, some of which were burning off gases, presenting an impressive sight.  We could see them from very far off.

    The best part of our trip to Romania was the time we spent in the Danube river delta. The entrance into the river is approached through a long, narrow, dredged and bouyed channel from the sea.  Waves here were 2 1/2 meters, at least, and the wind was still in the 20-25 kt range.  We slowed down as we approached, because we could see a pilot tug leading a large freighter through the channel.  After he passed safely, we entered the channel and concentrated on not being swept into the shallow water on the downwind side of the channel. 

    We entered the river and put out a radio call to the Port Control at Selina.  They told us to tie to a quay and they would be at the boat shortly.  Selina looks like a town with a very depressed economy, with deteriorating poorly built tenement housing along one shore of the river, and the rusting hulks of all kinds of large shipping vessels on the other shore.  

Photo:  The old lighthouse at Selina at the entrance to the Danube in Romania

Photos:  Rusting shipping in Selina, Romania    

    As we approached the dock, the 2 kt. current was against us and the 20 kt. wind was on our starboard quarter.  Tom edged the boat in front of another boat and I jumped off with the mid-ship spring lines, tying off fore and aft.  It was then an easy matter to quickly tie bow and stern lines.  Three officials showed up and the check-in was completed within a half hour - the most efficient check-in to date.  We then motored a short distance up river, tied to a fuel barge and filled our diesel tank. Fuel here cost $2.05 per gallon, less expensive than in Istanbul, but still fairly expensive.

    Eight miles down the river, we went into an old unused branch of the Danube and anchored for 2 days in an idyllic spot that reminded us of the Carolina lowlands. The water here was fresh and clean.  We did laundry and washed the salt off the boat and took cockpit showers.

    The river is teeming with birdlife - Julie on Gladlee of Guernsey identified 58 different species.  Some of the birds were familiar to us:  egrets, herons, sandpipers, eagles, white pelicans.  But many were not: storks (with their huge nests) and rollers (beautiful blue birds with rust on their wings and breast, the size of a green heron) among them.

Photo:  From anchor site in the Danube

    There was a great deal of shipping on the river, but there were also farms and families living, fishing, and camping along the banks.

Photo:  Romanian family going fishing in typical watercraft

Photo:  Transporting hay and logs on the Danube

Photo:  Livestock along the banks of the Danube

Photo:  Farming on the Danube

    The flotilla had anticipated stopping at Izmail, but the fee for each boat to do that would be $136.  This included charges for ship handling, sanitation, health and items clearly more applicable to large cargo ships.  They could not get officials to modify this fee and so elected to go back out of the Danube and continue on to Odessa.  We decided, of course, to continue, but to check out at Tulcea. After checking out, the officials there told us that there was an international anchorage 5 miles away.  We got there at sunset and anchored in an area that was protected by a spoil bank.  Half a mile away from us was a freighter from Istanbul, also anchored for the night, our anchor lights winking at each other.

Photo:  Lighthouse east of Tulcea, anchorage beyond

Photo:  Sunset from the International Anchorage east of Tulcea, Romania

Photo:  Tom, ready for a day on the Danube

    Once checked out, we decided to stop at Izmail, let them know that we were enroute to Odessa and ask their permission to proceed through the delta, but not stop in the city.  All the officials, about 5, met us at the dock in Izmail with an interpreter from the nearby boatyard, and told us that we could proceed and anchor in the river wherever we liked.  There was no charge and they were extremely polite and helpful, pointing out places to anchor along the way.

    We had a wonderful time heading southeast through the delta, setting the yankee and ghosting along with a favorable current. We were in international waters here, as the east shore of the river is in the Ukraine and the west shore is in Romania.  As we passed small towns along the river, we called on the radio to port control officials to let them know who we were and to ask permission to pass through their area.  We were definitely observed - there were observation posts on both shores all along the way, with soldiers looking at us with binoculars - but no one ever answered our call, perhaps because of the language barrier.

Photo:  Onion-domed church along the Danube at Vilkovka, Ukraine

    We spent our last night at anchor near Provinskye, near the exit from the delta, in the old exit, now mainly silted over, but with depths deep enough for us if not for freighters.  We were absolutely alone in the anchorage and at dusk, a Ukrainian canoe came alongside us with what appeared to be 3 fishermen in it.  One spoke English a little and announced that he was the "inspector".  We told him that we had already been "inspected" at Izmail and had permission to be here.  He talked with his friends, asked us how long we would stay, said good-night and continued on his way down the river.  It seemed strange to us and we locked the dinghy to the boat and brought the motor on board.  However, our paranoia was just that.  There was no further incident that night and it was quiet and peaceful.  We had a very good night's sleep, knowing we would have an overnight passage to Odessa the following day.

Photo:  Peg raises the Ukrainian courtesy flag

Photo:  Starboard Home at anchor near Provinskye, Ukraine

Photo:  Stowaway enroute to Odessa

    The next morning we made our way out of the Danube delta - no small feat, as the channel was not clearly marked and less than 2 meters in some places.  We are sure that the flotilla has left Odessa and at this point, we despair of ever catching up with them.  We've decided to take our time and enjoy Odessa.

                       73's, 88's, love and hugs

                       Peg & Tom

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