Captain Albert: 31 May 2009, Sevastopol, Ukraine

Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

The exit of the harbour of Sevastopol is facing west and thus you sail east while going in. With the sun rising in the East it means that you have the sun in the face and that makes it difficult for scenic viewing. We had to wait until we were past the first land on the starboard side before we could view the surroundings by looking aft instead of forward. The pilot boarded right on time and we then continued at slow speed towards the entrance. There is a speed limit of 6 knots all the way in, so it takes time to get to the dock, whether we like it or not. But as it was a beautiful morning, we did not mind and binoculars were applied frequently by the deck officers while I kept conning the ship to the dock. The pilot came on board with a VHF and two cell phones and was fully occupied with receiving calls and talking to other people. I did not know that it was so complicated to get into the port, that the whole world had to be called, but he kept at it. In between he smoked bad quality cigarettes on the bridge wing.

Sevastopol is a navy port and I have seen lots of photos from the past, showing rows and rows of navy ships. But today it was not that busy. Many berths were empty and a lot of smaller ships looked like as if they had not sailed for a long long time. Same for a hospital ship that was docked behind us, lots of white paint peeling of. For those who are interested in navy stuff, I saw the following numbers of the big warships. Russian 810, 511 121, Ukraine U 500 and U 130. they all looked ready for deployment. Roll call was held at the sedate time of 09.00 in the morning, so it did not look as if they were gearing up for war exercises.

The port of Sebastopol is part owned (or leased, whatever the deal is) by the Russians and is now part of the Ukraine. That gave the peculiar situation that during docking we could only use Ukrainian bollards but not the Russian ones. For the size of the Prinsendam it was not a problem but for a longer cruise ship it would have been, resulting in an imperfect rope line up with not every bollard being available.

We docked portside alongside the dock, by swinging on arrival and then backing into the inlet on which shore the cruise terminal is located. They built one in the days that there was still Ocean liner traffic in the Black Sea and Trans Atlantic travel to the USA by the Black Sea Shipping Company. Now is it is used for the occasional calls of cruise ships, although the number of those calls are rapidly increasing. The area is beautiful; especially Balaklava and the tours go all the way to Yalta, of the Yalta conference fame.

Right in front of us, was a little harbour ferry dock with ferries leaving about every 10 minutes to various stops in the harbour. Again typical was the absence of navy personnel in uniforms. A few here and a few there, but not as many as you normally see in a navy port. If you walk around in Norfolk Virginia you see uniforms at every traffic light, but here nothing but the occasional a few. Although the cruise terminal is fenced off by a very nice wrought 19th century iron fence (at least that was the sort of design) all the area around it was open and the local kids had a great time playing with the long mooring ropes that were running over the dock to the non-Russian- bollards.

We left at 4 pm. which is slightly earlier than is normally the case but it is a tight stretch back to the Bosporus which we will pass during day light. Again the pilot on departure was mainly concerned with talking in his VHF and keeping the (compulsory) tugboat out of the way, so I could, without hindrance, sail the Prinsendam out of the port. With the sun in the west we now had a better view on southern shore and it was amazing to count the number of monuments erected. Russia suffered greatly of course during the Second World War and before that time if was not exactly quiet in the area either. They do love BIG monuments here and they are very proud of them.

http://www.sevastopol.info/monument/eindex.html

Tomorrow morning by 8 am. I will be approaching the North point of the Bosporus to pick up the pilot. With a sunny day expected, the sail through should be spectacular.

To access Captain Albert’s historical writings on Holland America Line as well as photos and additional information about Prinsendam and his sailing schedule, click here.