Day 1

The wind was great. Not weak but not too strong, and the weather is warm and sunny - for a relaxed swim

On the banks of the Dnieper

We go south from Zaporozhye to the entrance to the Kakhovka reservoir, we also call it the Kakhovka Sea. The photo shows Zaporozhye in the distance

We approach the village of Belenky, where we plan to moor and buy more food

Our boat in Belenky

I stayed in the boat while the others went out to get food. I talked with a local slave, who in his youth went on a ship across the oceans - it was interesting to listen to him)

The expanses of the Kakhovka reservoir

Some kind of tug passed next to us. In general, there is movement along the fairway, but not dense

I gave the flag and it was raised on the backstay)

Energodar nuclear power plant is ahead, we reached it in 6 hours. Pipes, offhand, 140-160 meters high

Watching the shallows to approach the bay of the Energodar Yacht Club

We landed quickly and without problems. In the photo there is a place next to the sailboat club, here we cooked dinner on the fire

Our boat

There was a very small sailboat on the pier, but it had already been in the Black Sea. Built according to the Assol project - 5.5 meters in length. For 2-meter Black Sea waves, not so big) There is a story about her sailing in the Black Sea, I will publish it later.

Yacht project LES-22, on the same pier. I used to want such a boat for myself - spacious inside and at the same time it is a dinghy, i.e. may approach shallow shore. But everything turned out a little differently, I will also tell you about this in another article :)

Berth of Energodar Yacht Club

In the sailboat club we met Stas Romanyuk and the captain of the sailboat Chung-Chang, invited them to dinner and had fun talking about sailing. Andrei went to bed in a tent on the shore, and the rest of the team - in the boat. We slept well, and tomorrow morning we need to reach Nikopol and the bay a little further from it - there is the grave of Ataman Sirk, which we want to see

Day 2

I had a good night's sleep) I decided to take a walk along the pier, before leaving Energodar Yacht Club. It looks like parking is free here.

Anchors in the sailboat club

morning jetty

Stas Romanyuk with his girlfriend

Morning coffee and the same morning soup)

Anton climbed the mast to unravel the halyard (click on the photo to see the uncut version)

Yacht Gladiator. Its owner built it for 10 years on his own from steel. Already managed to visit it in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic with his son. We talked with him about sails and agreed to try a large staysail, which he does not need, but we just didn’t have enough - our staysail is somewhat smaller than it can be placed on the forestay.

We went out to the Kakhovka reservoir: we, Gladiator and Stas. The boat at Stas, it should be noted, is fast.

The wave that our sailboat creates)

power line across the reservoir

Conveniently, Stas fixed the inflatable boat at the stern

beautifully painted)

Foam traces in Kakhovskoye

I look at the GPS on the phone where we are and our speed)

When we reached the bay where the tomb of Ataman Sirk is located, we did not pay attention to the high-voltage line above the bay. In the center, it sagged up to 10 meters above the water, and we have a mast 10.5 meters from the water ... The beer and the heat were to blame, because of which everyone was exhausted. At that time I went down to the cabin to put the phone there. Heard a loud crack overhead, saw sparks on the masthead. The boat, which has a mass of 3.5 tons and inertia of movement, continued to carry forward and began to heel due to the fact that the wires caught on the mast. Then he dragged the boatabout the same under power lines and she straightened up on an even keel. We walked to the power line under the engine and for some reason it stalled immediately after the incident. It all happened in 10-15 seconds. We made sure that everyone was alive and unharmed, dropped anchor and began to figure out what was wrong with the engine. We dug for half an hour, but we couldn’t start it, and without an engine we couldn’t get out of the bay. Moreover, it is necessary to somehow pass the power line in the opposite direction.

The location of Sirk's grave and the power line we hooked on

We were lucky that such a sailboat passed nearby and the guys agreed to tow us.

And to make the height of the mast less from the water, we banked the sailboat by hanging a 40-liter tank of water from the end of the boom. Passed normally under the wires and stopped to continue the repair. They waited for Stas, who fell behind because he landed in Nikopol. He helped to deal with the engine - it turned out that the problem was not that something could burn out there, but simply a sediment of low-quality gasoline got into the carburetor due to the roll of the boat.

Photo of Sirk's grave, which we never got to

We leave the bay. After sunset, we came to the Nikopol Yacht Club, moored there and stayed for the night.

Stas invited me to dinner

))

Day 3 and 4

At night, we were torn off the mooring line, we had to re-tie (the mooring lines were frayed on a sharp piece of iron on the pier). In the morning we examined the mast - a block melted on the top, through which the halyard from the staysail goes and the shrouds melted a little. On the map Nikopol Yacht Club. One night stay is free

Birds also live in the Nikopol Yacht Club

Nikopol Bay Yacht Club. I walked along the pier and saw several boats that were sold on the Internet.

A few hours later we were near Energodar. In the photo - nuclear power plant cooling towers

Energodar away

Passed under power lines again. These wires have a height of at least 20 meters above the water. We already looked in advance) In the Kakhovka reservoir it is quite shallow - usually no more than 10 meters. Power lines stand on a concrete base at the bottom

Sunset, in order to be in time for work in the morning, you have to walk all night.

At night, we stopped in Belenky for an hour, one member of Stas's team came on board, because he also had to go to work in the morning, and Stas and his boat stayed to sleep in Belenky. The photo is already the morning of the 4th day, I pokemarized in the cabin. Before going to bed, I sat in the stern with the captain and worked on the sheets on tack changes, and during breaks I looked at the GPS on the phone where we were. Well, one day some kind of garbage happened and I had to quickly unleash the sheet, and I put the phone on the jar (seat) next to me ... This was the last moment when I saw him) People, don't take it on the water with youexpensive phones, when you drown it is only a matter of time :)

We arrived at the Zaporizhzhya pier at 8 o'clock in the morning, a little sleepy but with new impressions and quite satisfied with the resulting voyage.