Ecological regatta. 16—19, June 2000.

    It was my first going out on a large yacht - my first trips to Voloshskaya spit on my mini-tonnage centerboarder don't count. This time everything began in another way. The yacht was now real - «Azimuth» (251-th), a bit larger than the standard quarter, a quarter-ton boat. 8 metres long. There were five of us - captain Yury Nikolenko (with wife), proprietor of my centerboarder's brother - Evgeny Danilko (with wife) and your humble servant (alone).
    By tradition, the ecological regatta begins with a night race, starting at 20:00. As usual, we started later, almost at 21:00. Started lousily, immediately getting to the tail of the race. And the weather was lousy - strong wind, rain... While it was not dark, it was interesting. When it got dark we saw only faraway lights, heard the wind and waves. The wind grew harder.
    First casualties began. Mosquito from «Europa» lost his rudder again. And «Europa» is a sure leader in her class. «Assol» conned by another Vasilyev, got on a shoal, and so hard that the crew flew into the water.
     Happily we managed to finish on the beam of Ochakov. And we even managed to be the eighth among 37 yachts.
    Short rest - and the second stage begins. Ochakov, Kinburn spit, internal creek, wharf near mussel-oyster complex.
    Here we started rather successfully, plus we had stable stern wind blowing. We raised the spinnaker and for a long time just sailed along the edge of the spit. The sun came out and hid again. It wasn't hot. So, we were roughly in the end of the first ten. And when we went round the head of the spit and traverse began, we missed something. And finished in the end - only three yachts were behind us. But the evening ashore with friends-yachtsmen was ahead - football tournament, fish-soup, wide-known strong drinks.
    Alas, a year passed since and I just don't remember which crew won the football tournament. But I remember well that the fish-soup was delicious and vodka went well. We photographed against the background of the only one Kinburn tractor. Played the guitar and sang. And rested again. Tomorrow we were having another start...
     We didn't manage to lay down to sleep without adventures. The strong wind dragged us onto a shoal and we had to give SOS signals with a flash-light. «Favourite» helped us. They started the diesel and pulled us from the shoal.
    In the morning we started in the crowd again, but inconvenient wind and the need to manoeuvre constantly totally drained us. Somehow we went round the spit, and when we came to Ochakov and went through Dneprobug, the wind started becoming stronger.
    And it became. People said that it was blowing 7-8 points! The wave was more modest, 6-7, but even this wave was much taller than the boat!! We were completely drenched. Fortunately, our captain divined the coming of the greatest squall, so we took off the staysail and reefed the grot in time. But we still were carried by the wind. «Irbis» got his mast broken. The stage was declared unfinished due to hard weather and everyone who did not manage to get to the Voloshskaya spit, was pulled by the jury motor boat. Us too. We would have made it ourselves, but it was getting dark...
    At Voloshka, drenched and tired, we had supper, warmed with the help of alcohol and fell asleep.
    And on the next day, already not competing anymore, we just went home in a mark-four storm, with a cross-wind, by endless traverse. But we did it by the evening. We wanted to fall here, on the wharf, not minding the drenched clothes. Legs and arms ached for another two days.
    But, believe it or not - for almost a week I was happy, until the memories of this race did not begin to drow dim under the layer of everyday routines and worries.

    A good race...