The rally/regatta, whatever
Minka of Southampton - Cruising Log
Edmund Wigan
Sun 17 Jul 2011 12:29
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We had a meeting with Lena yesterday afternoon and
she brought us a T shirt each and a regatta flag for Williwaw. They have also
supplied a Russian sim card and other goodies. We have a formal programme for
the next two days and it is now clearer what happens when.
The best news is that yesterday Putin finally
signed the permit for the Regatta to take place. It is called the AR80
International Sailing Regatta Adventure Race 80DG. We are not involved in the
race part which starts from Archangel and involves a circumnavigation of the
arctic ice cap. You need a serious arctic equipped boat for this. I have now
identified three of the other 8 boats involved but we will meet all the crews at
the official opening at lunch time today.
This is the lead boat
 which as you can see is a pretty serious bit of kit
as are the other two
This is a German boat which is built of
aluminium.  and finally the steel Finnish boat.
 The marina here is a real contrast to British
marinas in that everyone seems to do exactly what they want irrespective of the
effect on other people. On one planked pontoon there are not enough cleats so
the boat owners have loosened the planks so that they can tie up to the
supporting framework. This makes it very interesting as often the planks are
left out. There are a lot of jetskis here which think nothing of doing 40kts
plus through the gap between the two marinas and they also approach the shore
through the bathers flat out. The motor boats do the same. Jetskiers were still
at it last night until past midnight but this isn't a noise problem as you can't
hear them for the music from the outside disco which is 100mts from our
mooring and stops at around 5am. This is still not a problem as that is
drowned out by neighbouring motorboats playing competing music at full volume.
This has to be the noisiest marina in the world. There is also quite a lot of
wake most caused by high speed motorboats but also by jetskis doing donuts
inside the marina. I think this is a refreshing change but only as I know we
will be leaving on Sunday evening.
The facilities, toilets and showers are very good
but there is no hot water after about lunchtime. There is a large stop tap in
the gents showers which turns off the water to all the pontoons. If the shower
pressure is low then you just turn this off. It usually takes half an hour for
anyone to notice so it gives time for a good shower. The reason it improves the
pressure is because the hoses are just left running.
We have just been visited by our helpers to check
we are ready for the opening ceremony and are wearing our T
shirts...............the ceremony is in half an hour so I am just going to send
this.
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