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Discovery and Inspiration on the Black Sea Story and photos by Lisa Borre
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t the first hint of a possible cruise around the Black Sea, I grabbed the most readily available piece of information I could find aboard Gyatso and was quite alarmed by my husband David’s suggestion. The last chapter in the Turkish Waters and Cypress Pilot gives an overview about the Black Sea. Not only does its name conjure up images of dark and unfriendly waters, but I couldn’t get past references to pack ice, violent storms, or the sea being “biologically dead” to get very excited about the idea. This was not the first time we contemplated visiting an off-thebeaten path cruising ground with a somewhat notorious sailing reputation. In 2005, we sailed the entire length of Lake Superior, despite surprised looks along the way and questions like, “Why would Annapolis sailors want to visit such a place?” David became intrigued by the places at the outer reaches of the ancient Greek world while we were wintering over in Italy in 2008-2009. He came across a sailing guide to the Black Sea written in about 136 A.D. by Arrian, a governor under the Roman Emperor Hadrian and downloaded an English translation from the Internet. The ancient periplus detailed all of the known ports
50 July 2012 SpinSheet
on the Black Sea and included sailing instructions. David wanted to follow in Arrian’s wake and see if we could identify the ancient ports mentioned in his guide. An idea for the 2010 cruising was hatched, but I still had visions of jellyfish swarming in my head.
Off the Well-Worn Path
Like our previous cruise to the Upper Great Lakes, we both wanted to get off the well-worn cruising routes. Even though the surface area of the Black Sea is five times larger than Lake Superior, it somehow felt as if it would be a similar experience from the standpoint of navigation and needing to be self-sufficient. I slowly came around to the idea of sailing Gyatso to Istanbul and the Black Sea. I’m glad I did. In 2009, we sailed to Marmaris, a large yachting center on the southwest coast of Turkey, hauled-out Gyatso, and returned to the states for the holidays. We spent the winter months researching a cruise to the Black Sea but found most of the information outof-date or extremely difficult to obtain. We gathered up all of the known guides and returned to Gyatso in February to make final preparations for the voyage. Finding more recent but unpublished cruisers’ accounts back in Marmaris, we contacted the Royal Cruising Club’s affiliate RCC Pilotage Foundation to inquire whether they would be interested in having us gather updated information during our voyage. The managing director said they would be very interested in publishing an e-pilot or perhaps a print-on-demand cruising guide. The reality of what we found on the Black Sea couldn’t have been further from my initial impressions. Yes, there are violent storms and tales of shipwrecks rivaling that of the Edmund Fitzgerald, but normally these occur only in the winter. The first and last gales of the season arrive like clockwork every year and have done so since ancient times. During the summer, we found the conditions similar to the Western Med. We put more hours on our engine than we would have liked but did enjoy favorable sailing conditions along the north coast with the rim current pushing us along and prevailing northerly winds.
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