We left Yalta as instructed before sunrise on Tuesday morning and had a calm passage along
some of the most stunning coastline we have ever seen.Steep rocky cliffs stretched for 20 miles.Fancy resorts and famous sites, including the Swallow's Nest and the site
of the Yalta Conference at the end of WWII, could all be seen from the
three-mile distance we were required to keep in order to avoid a restricted
zone.A Ukrainian naval vessel
shadowed us along the shore near the President’s summer residence making sure
we did not enter the restricted area.We
arrived in the beautiful natural harbor in
Balaklava
and found a real marina with floating pontoons surrounded by the ruins of an
ancient Genoese castle and walls.Marina
staff were on-hand to help us tie-up and plug-in -- a rarity in the Black Sea.
Balaklava
is where the Crimean War was fought and where the Charge of the Light Brigade
took place, made famous by a poem which David began to recite from memory upon
entering the harbor.The sheltered
harbor is also where the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet was kept.Large tunnels built into the rocky hillside are now open to the public as
a museum.We docked across the
harbor from one which looks quite popular judging by the number of tour buses.
Balaklava was mobbed during the day with mostly Russian and Ukrainian tourists
who came to spend a day on the water aboard one of the many tour boats based in
the harbor.
We stayed a week in Balaklava and were joined for
a few days by Makani, the German-flagged yacht which we also saw in Poti,
Georgia with friendly owners Felix and Monika onboard.The same weather which caused the heatwave in Moscow brought hotter than
normal temperatures to the Crimea during our visit. Even the water
temperatures were hovering at 30ºC, so we tried to find shade and catch-up on
rest. We tackled a few boat maintenance and repair projects in the spirit
of the cruising sailor's motto, "It's all about fixing your boat in
beautiful and exotic places!" We did manage a day-trip into
Sevastapol -- a harbor we had been advised to visit by land rather than with our
own yacht. We also took the opportunity to stock-up on Ukrainian champagne
since the wine store was conveniently located across from the entrance to the
marina, and our supply was completely depleted after our ordeal with clearing
into this former Soviet republic.
