I realized that I still had a couple too many loose ends to tie up before I can head into blue water again. The safety netting, short wave radio hook up, which has not been used since I arrived in Holland two years ago, etc. The wind was good for getting down south from here but then it was turning from the west at 24 k.m./hr on Sunday and that is right on the nose on my approach to Constanta. It was quite breezy this morning and would have been rough gettting out of the river and into the Black Sea.  Wednesday looks like a good forecast. And I still have plenty projects while I have free and reasonable good moorage here. On Monday the weekend hot rodders should be back in Bucarest and I will have less reason to be tempted into screaming at these idiots.

I am parked in front of a oceanographic research ship, the “Marina 1” from Constanta. Four men crew, captain Constantin who has sailed the seven seas as a merchant mariner and 5 researchers, marine bilologist, hydrologist, etc. They are recording the ocean quality. I could not help bringing up the trash flood issue. I took a hike to the edge of town to visit the cemetery. Very interesting. There are several separate sections for the different nationalities and ethnic population Sulina. The Romanians, Greek, English and German and the Lipovans. The Lipovans moved out of Russia into parts of the Ukraine and Bulgaria but the majority settled in Moldovia and here in the Danube Delta in the area called Dobrogea. They held on to the old Orthodox traditions and resisted to conform to the revisons under Patriarch Nikon in 1652. They were persecuted in Russia for their stubborness and therefore moved away, somewhat similar to the Hugenots, Pilgrims, Quakers, Mennonites. The Reed thatched houses are a typical Lipovan feauture. I talked to three Lipovan sisters who had come from Ukraine to visit the grave of their mother.

In the English section there were a number of grave stones of young men who had died in 1856, obviously from the Crimean War. See below pictures. There are also supposed to be a number of Romanian pirates buried here. In the book “Sailing across Europe” there are some great stories about the pirates that operated in the Danube delta. One of them a la Robin Hood.

A ship is just passing here with these cages filled with life goats, destined for the Muslim butchers.

The bird pictures were taken in a swamp on the edge of town. I had never seen a Spoon Bill in the wild. I also saw a number of White Pelicans overhead.