Sinop is a small resort like town, with a promenade and little café’s tucked away behind a small peninsula. This Peninsula is basically a hill sticking out of the water and it provides shelter from Northerly winds. Those blow quite often in the summer hence the reason why the town is built on the south side and not on the north side of the hill although there is a nice bay as well. They must have built a two finger pier there in the recent past as it looked fairly new; with the North finger being reserved for larger ships, mainly ferries and the longer South finger for use by fishermen and other small craft. That pier also acts as a breakwater so at the inside a sort of Marina was created. Apart from a Harbor masters office there is no port infrastructure what so ever, so we just did our thing and kept approaching until somebody started squawking on the VHF.

That only happened when we were about a quarter of a mile from the dock. The agent starting to get alarmed, as he thought that we were going to dock at the wrong side of the pier. He was probably not realizing that when you steer wind drift with a passengership that the angle in which the ship comes towards you, we call that the aspect, is different than the real course made good. And an aspect the Prinsendam had this morning. As luck would have it, the wind started to pick up right before arrival and by the time we started to dock, it was climbing up to five/six beaufort and that is a bit much for the Prinsendam with it’s big funnel. So it was time to get some tricks out of the cupboard to keep the stern high until we reached the dock. By putting full twist power on the engines, I could bring in the stern close enough to get breast lines ashore and then I had to stop again. Each ship has more power ahead than astern and that means that when you twist the engines on full, to get the maximum effect, the ship eventually starts moving forward. But at Sinop you cannot do that. The pier ends at the ferry ramp and by the time the ship is in position there is only about 30 feet left. And we do not want bumps.

port-of-sinop-passenger-ship-1 The Pier in Sinop. With a ships length of 204 meters, there is not much space left at the bow if you do not want to let the stern overhang. Photo courtesy: Sinop Agent.

Thus the docking took awhile with the battle against the wind while the lines were being paid out. That wind got stronger and stronger during the day but luckily it remained on the starboard side of the ship and that would mean that on departure we could just let go the ropes and the wind would push the ship off the dock. It became so windy that it was not really possible for the guests to sit in the sun as towels, books and other items were just blowing away. For the rest it was a nice sunny day and with the little port just outside the dock gate it was very convenient for everybody who was not going on a tour. Especially handy for most of our crew who only have limited free time and rely on these sort of ports to get ashore as there is no travel distance involved. If you need transport like a taxi, you never know if the return transport will be there on time to get you back onboard on time. The rules for returning too late onboard are very strict. The severity of the penalty depends on how much too late the person is, especially if it results in missing the ship. That is already not advisable in Caribbean ports but here in Europe it is even more complicated as it is not so easy to get from a small Turkish port without an airport to a Russian port to catch up with the ship.

Tomorrow we are in a Russian port. The Navy port of Sebastopol or Sevastopol as it is written locally. When it was the USSR it was a closed off navy port but now it is part of the Ukraine the port is more and more open and cruise ships call on a regular basis without too much political issues or restrictions.

We left on time and I executed the “blow away maneuver”, with the wind pushing the Prinsendam off the dock and the only thing I had to do was to give full astern to get to open waters. The wind is supposed to die down during the night and also Sevastopol is a sheltered harbor so I am expecting a quiet arrival tomorrow morning. I am aiming for a 05.45 pilot station time, as the ship has to be docked by 07.00 hrs. for the tours to leave on time. Forecast indicates it is going to be a very nice and sunny day gain.