A source

August 2, 8:30 am. We have the last throw, a little less than 60 km.

I swam to untie the moorings and found almost under our side an inflatable with two lurking fishermen. Probably, they are fed here, otherwise, how to explain the desire to stand so close when there is no one around?) The fishermen, upon closer examination, turned out to be fishermen, in general, miracles!))

We weigh anchor and leave the Volozhka Elshanka, where we spent the night

Probably the last Volga kite of this season is seeing us off. Nothing, the Tula people are already waiting for me)))

Saratov is only 40 km away. I called the sailboat club "Edelweiss", with whom we agreed by phone about a place for the winter, just a week ago, while staying in Togliatti . Do you think the adventure is over? No matter how! The same person (I will not point a finger) with whom I agreed,oino declares that yes, he will put us in winter but .... not earlier than the beginning of October. Well, you understand why the photo with cormorants is here, right?))

Of course, we got angry, but there is nothing to do, we must look for another place. It's good that Valeria Rozova from Druzhba gave us Aleksey Chirkin's phone number, and we can find out a little about the sailboat clubs of Saratov first hand. Aleksey was immediately imbued with our situation, promised to find out where we could stand, and advised us to go to the Sokol sailboat club for the time being, and when we get there, call him again.

Let's go and make plans - if we can't get up in Saratov, we'll go straight to Rostov! Moreover, Katya expressed this idea with an injured arm, my heroic first officer!)))

We are approaching Zelyony Island, on which the Sokol is located, Alexey gave us a contact, and they are waiting for us there, although they do not promise to put us in for a long time, but we should at least hit the emergency room! Entry into the sailboat club is cunning, we have to make a big detour, and it’s still dumb, when the depth on the echo sounder jumps sharply from fifteen meters to a miserable three, as if we were passing over the flooded wall of some kind of castle. There are no moorings in the sailboat club, sailboats stand on barrels (dead bodies), as in Samara. And there are no free barrels. We come right up to the shore and gently rest our noses on the sandy beach. We canput on a half-flooded barge, or on a barrel, if free, but only for a couple of days. I floated to the barge on the boat of the sailboat club, and I didn’t like it there, although unusually pleasant music was heard from it (tonight, for example, drunk fishermen woke us up several times, singing couplets out of tune to the accompaniment of an old outboard motor))) Then I ran to another sailboat club, located on the other side of the island, but did not find anyone except for the "angry dog" sign on the closed gate. I looked at the winding between the grass and the shoalsod and wandered back to the boat. Upon returning to the Sokol, I was advised to call the port, located just opposite the treacherous Edelweiss, and they gave me a telephone. Katya was already waiting for me on the boat, and we set off without even dialing the number. I, apparently, was rather tired and nervous, because at first I turned on the move forward and for half a minute tried to push all our 9 tons onto the beach of the sailboat club, and only then I came to my senses and got off the beach with some difficulty)) We called Alexander from the port and he explained where we come up and stand up. Is that all?)) We crossed the Volga and went into thecurrent, this is no longer Saratov, but Engels - a town on the opposite bank from Saratov. At the entrance to the canal we got into heavy rain with a squall. We are looking for a floating cottage on a barge, behind a yellow crane - this is our landmark.

And, there it is, it turns white on a rusty barge)) We moor to the barge and I try to get ashore, but the barge is moored to a high wall and only thanks to the guard who suddenly appeared I get out onto land.

And there is a pier with a couple of sailboats very close by, and there is also a place for us there. I call up the port authorities, and they give me the go-ahead to move to the sailboats. And good for the winter! And the place is comfortable! Happiness!))

We got up. Phew, we call up Katya's friend, Natasha, and soon she will pick us up and take us to the emergency room, where all the doctors take turns begging Katya to tell the story of her injury again and again)) Well, they did an x-ray at the same time, there are no fractures, no dislocations, cheers !) So, you can relax and celebrate the end of our trip this year))

Natasha and I aboard the Valhalla

Well, then my brother Kolya arrived, brought supports for the boat, and we built a platform for them. Kolya left, leaving us the car, I completed the site, and we went up to the dry land.

Leveling the boat. The wooden structure under it is our work))

Our beauty is standing, propped up and washed, we will bring the tent closer to winter)).

And Katya and I are waiting for the road home along the endless fields of sunflowers ...

In the end, I want to thank all the yahstmen and just sympathizers of completely unfamiliar people whom we met during this trip, and who treated us with unexpected warmth and desire to help and solve our minor problems: our Cherepovets Ilya Popov and Ira Simonova, who have already become family ; hello to the hospitable guys from the I / k "Burkovo" (Rybinsk), big hello to Alexanderg: pixelated width: 16px !important; height: auto; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px !important; vertical-align: middle !important; max-width: 100%;" /> lev_leshii and his family, I'm glad we got to know each other in person; Sergey from I/C "Sail" (Yaroslavl); Valentin and Viktor Alekseevich (Wagavik on the "Boats and Yachts" forum) with their daughter Anya from Yolnati; Sergei, captain of the Tilda from Gorodets; Vladimir and Tatiana Mironov from Nizhny Novgorod and Anatoly Volodin from the y/k "Seagull" (N. Novgorod); Slava Stankevich, captain of the Glory"(Moscow); Sergey and Dmitry from the y/k "Simbirsk-marine" (Ulyanovsk); Vladimir Podgornykh and Valery Rozov from the y/k Druzhba (Tolyatti); Grigory from Samara; Alexei Chirkin, Alexander Tsypin and our Natasha from Saratov.

We can absolutely say that the main pleasant memory and bright impression of the summer will remain for us these meetings, acquaintances and gratuitous help)

Thank you for reading, I know it was not easy) I promise, at least until May, I won’t torment you with the ship’s log anymore))