We would like to share the cruising experience we had last summer in Far East Russia. With our Swiss sailing boat CHAMADE, an OVNI 365 in aluminium, we sailed from Japan to Vladivostok and then to Sakhalin, Kuriles and Kamchatka, before sailing towards the Aleutians islands and Alaska.

Together with another Swiss boat “Anthea” (cruising Kouriles northbound) and the French boat “Maewan” (cruising southbound), we “opened” this route in a part of Russia where they had never seen a foreign boat. Sailing in this part of Russia is great and fascinating. We got a really warm welcome. But the paperwork is big, sometimes fastidious and the procedures have to be taken seriously.

The few local sailors we met were really happy to welcome us and encourage other yachtsmen to sail there. Hope this will help other sailors to discover this really nice and remote area.

More details (stories, pictures and videos) are on our blog Chamade – L’aventure en partage. The blog is in French but the Google translation you get on the website works pretty well.

Sailing Far East Russia (by “Chamade” 2017)

Sailing the Far East coast of Russia is definitely a great adventure. Apart from Vladivostok, no foreign sailing yachts were seen before 2017, when the French “Maewan” sailed Kamchatka and Kuriles (southbound) and the Swiss “Chamade” and “Anthea” sailed the east coast, Sakhalin, Kuriles and Kamchatka (northbound). Everywhere the welcome was warm and people very helpful. But very few people speak English. Enough for basic contact. But to get deeper contact, it’s a good idea to have a crew member speaking Russian. There are few sailing boats (apart from in Vladivostok), but everywhere the sailors are really happy to welcome you.

Formalities:

Warning:- Being the first is always difficult. The maritime Russian laws are done for big ships. For the Russian authorities, you are a big ship. A foreign big ship comes and goes to one port, loads and unloads, moors in the “international zone” in the harbour. The crew stay on board and that’s it. No thought for a sailing yacht and its crew. The authorities are always kind, but very strict and often fastidious. No suspicion, but the law is the law!

Immigration: Visa is not an easy topic!

First, for the Russian authorities, each time you sail further than 12 NM from the coast, you leave the country. So you have to do a clearance as a new entry in Russia each time, except if you sail along the coast. But sailing from Vladivostok to Sakhalin or from Sakhalin to Kuriles or Kamchatka is a long distance. For that a multi-entrance visa is necessary. Second problem, under the Russian immigration law, there is only one or two entrances permitted on a tourist visa. A multi-entrance tourist visa doesn’t exist. The one or two entrance tourist visa is reasonably easy to get. So you need to manage your program to make only 2 stops (for example Sakhalin and Kamchatka)

To sail to many destinations, you need a “multi-entrance humanitarian visa for sports events”. Really difficult to get it. Could be done through the Russian Olympic committee or Russian Sailing Federation. We did not try. We got our visas through an old professional network.

The paperwork!

Maritime Agents: Remember, you are a “big ship” and so, you need to have an agent to arrange the formalities. This is really expensive. Between 450$ in Vladivostok and 2000$ (!) in Kamchatka. In Severo Kurils’k or Kamchatka, the price includes the mooring tax. The agent prepares all the paperwork for you (in Vladivostok I had to sign 32 different papers!) and usually it is fast and easy with Immigration, Customs, quarantine and Coast Guards.

Agents: 

Vladivostok: Genady at Osa Maritime

Tel:+7 914 067 72 36

Speaks English

Email: saprykin@osaco.ru Korsakov:

Dmitry So

Tel:+7 914 085 37 34

Speaks English

Email: tdkservis@list.ru

Severo Kurils’k: Danil

Tel:+8 924 288 60 13

Speaks English

Email: s-kmak@mail.ru

For Kamchatka, it is possible to avoid the crazy price asked by a local agent. Make contact with the Kamchatka’s sailing federation (yes, they have 4 sailing boats at Petropavlovsk!).

Andrei Podlas, president of the Kamchatka’s sailing federation. Speaks basic English.

Email:  podlas.eco@yandex.ru

WhatsApp +7 914 625 10 60

Alexei, a member of that federation, works at the Coast Guard. Speaks English.

Email: alexei4584@gmail.com

WhatsApp +7 914 028 72 20

Andrei and/or Alexei will help you to avoid the agent, arrange the formalities and get a mooring in the small pontoon in the local “marina”.

Harbours

Vladivostok: (marina: 43°06.493’N,131°52.300’E)

Manager Ilya Ermakov: very nice guy. Speaks perfect English.

Tel: +7 984 199 78 88

Email: ermakov1219@gmail.com

You have to stop first at the Maritime Harbor Station for formalities. Genady, the agent will give you instructions.

The small yacht club of Antares

Nakhodka: (42°46.823’N,132°48.593’E)

Nice small marina will welcome you. It’s not in the main harbour, but in a bay further east. Ilya from Vladivostok will help you to contact Dmitry in that marina (Dmitry does not speak English) Taxi to the town. Supermarket in town.

Olga: (43°44.431’N, 135°16.846’E)

Very good protection in the “lagoon”. You can anchor just in front of the small boat area on the beach. There is a watchman looking out for your boat. Small town, nice people, but they do not speak English. Many good shops in town for provisioning.

Korsakov: (south of Sakhalin): (46°37.436’N, 142°46.124’E)

We did the clearance for Korsakov at the commercial harbour. Very difficult as they had never seen a sailing boat and didn’t know what they had to do. They do not speak English.

Good protection, but dirty harbour. You stay in the “International zone” Expensive: 300$ for a week. But the agent Dmitry So will help you to get fuel by jerrycans. We bought 300 litres of mineral water in small jugs. Only “technical water” on the quay.

Severo Kurils’k: (50°41.372’N, 156°08.386’E)

Good protection in a pretty dirty harbour. Amazing and interesting small town under an active volcano. No diesel, no water.

Petropavlovsk: You need to get authorization from the Coastguards to enter the Avacha Bay. First, stop in the commercial harbour to do the paperwork. Then, excellent protection in the GBF marina (52°57.751’N, 158°42.033’E) where Andrei and Alexei will welcome you. Big supermarket close to the marina. Diesel at the station close to the supermarket. Ask Alexei to get water.

Marc and Sylvie

SV Charmade

www.chamade.ch