Welcome to the Ukraine... go home.
After leaving Istanbul the R/V Endeavor passed uneventfully through the Bosporus and into the Black Sea. Once in the Black Sea, the ship turned north and headed for Stavastopol, Ukraine. During the Cold War, this port was the home to the Soviet Mediterranean fleet. The day we arrived it was dark and stormy outside. This made the already dismal, post-communist, apocalyptic landscape that much more depressing. It looked like no one in this town had enjoyed a day of fun since the Nixon administration.
Here's a little side note about the port. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow refused to give Stavastopol to the local Ukrainian government because the large military presence. The townspeople didn�t mind since most of them were in the Navy. The net result is that most of the local officials are still living in a Cold War era mentality and are not particularly friendly towards their ex-adversary, the USA. Oh yeah... On top of all that the Endeavor was the first American ship to enter Stavastopol since WWII. Let the games begin.
So all of this history became apparent when the customs officials tried to arrest the entire crew on speculation that we were smuggling. The local officials boarded the ship, inspected the holds, the stores, the reefer and the captain's safe, twice. They also made each crewmember go to their cabins and await inspections. Then they tried to arrest the captain because they felt the ship had an excessive amount of over-the-counter medication?? It eventually all passed and no one got arrested. I thought the whole ordeal was all crap and just a scare tactic employed by our hosts. We later found out if we had only bribed the (already drunk) customs agent with vodka and smokes we probably could have made the whole process go by a lot smoother.
Since it was clear that we were not welcomed, the captain had us shoved off and head back out to sea after spending only five hours in port. We'e going to be in these waters for two weeks, I hope we find a friendlier port soon.
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