A friend of my marina neighbor offered to take me to the Customs, to try and get my invoices stamped to get my GST refunds. He is a retired super cargo and I figured he knew his way around the system. We walked for ever from building to building and it turned out that much had changed since his retirement. Customs was not able to help me and I am supposed to go to a small sub port called Agigea, which is about 6 k.m. by water and 20 k.m. by road. But there apparently is no place for my boat to tie up. My friend has offered to take me there on Monday, but I have my doubts that I’ll get anywhere.

It is a lot cooler today and overcast, I got some more sanding done on the repairs and the Teak trim. And will continue this afternoon. Yesterday evening I drank a beer with part of the crew of the large Austrian tri-maran. They were supposed to get the mast stepped early this morning but it has not happened yet. It took them 8 days to get from Linz to Constanta. It took me more than 8 weeks. The two commercial river skippers went home this morning. One of them, Peter, a Serb was very outspoken about his dislikes for Muslims, Americans and Dutch (because we allow Muslims to build their mosques). But he was so blunt that it was disarming.

Being moored Med style, stern to the dock and bow on anchor, makes it a lot easier to sand and finish the rub rail and tend to the damage to the hull the fisherman caused on Sunday in Sulina.  No fenders or mooring lines to contend with. I just finished the prep work and the epoxy repairs. Tomorrow sanding again. I do have electric power at the dock but now my cheap Austrian sander I bought in Swishtov broke down. But I can manage with handsanding for now.

I have paid for a week’s moorage, which is about the same as 5 days on the daily rate. So, depending on my chores, I’ll leave on Sunday afternoon or on Monday morning. There is a Roman Catholic church in town.  I need to try and get close to $2,000 in sales taxes refunded, on the engine and parts I bought in Holland. This is the last EEC port and I need to get the customs here to verify the export of the purchases.

I had expected to run into more sailors on the Danube but apart from the one kayaker and a couple power boats and passing a German and a Swede, going uphill, I have till now always been the only traveller since Rouse, three weeks ago. But today a large Austrian catamaran just checked in, they are getting their mast stepped here. I assume that they came down the canal, which branches off before Galati and is a shortcut but the approach on the Danube is too shallow for most keel boats.

The below picture was taken yesterday with Daniel’s I-Pad, when they stopped to visit me. I was in my work uniform.

I left Sulina in the early afternoon and I had calculated that the 82 miles should get me into Constanza in the early morning hours. The forecast was for moderate Westerlies turning into mild North Westerlies. But it turned out to be a strong south westerly. Right on the nose. I just stayed on the closest to the wind tack that I could hold, which was about dead south expecting that N.W. to bring me into Constanta. But it never happened. In the early Monday morning hours I was abreast of Constanta but 55 miles to the East of it. And then it turned even more westerly, again tacking. I tried to motor sail, which allows me run much closer to the wind and still get some push from the main sail and give me more stability than just running the motor, when the about 15/20 knots calmed down some but the chop in the Black Sea is a little like the old Zuiderzee. Waves close together and the bouncing would practically bring the boat to a stop. I was tempted to bag Constanta and keep heading south. But that
meant another night without sleep. Anyway the last 15 miles the wind went South and I had a terrific close reach and made it into the Tomis Marina at 9 p.m., the sun had just set. I am now using the Open CPN electronic chart software. It is free. And I bought a bunch of inexpensive Vector charts, for this area, on a CD from an individual near Green Cove Springs, Florida. It is not as easy to use as my Nobeltec but the Nobeltec charts are very expensive.  The vector charts do not appear to be compatible to the Nobeltec software. Raster charts and all the NOA free charts
work on Nobeltec. Anyway between the two systems I managed to find the entrance to the Tomis Marina in the dusk.

Constanta’s history goes back to about ten centuries before Christ. The Greeks made the Black Sea area part of their back yard 4 or 5 centuries before Christ. Then the Romans came in the first centuries. The Turks were here from the 14^th century till 1877. The local Museum of Archeology is worth a visit and I learned much about the early times. The Greeks called this city Tomis.

Jason is supposed to have landed here, according to the Greek mythology, with his Argonauts looking for the Golden Fleece.

Next week there is a commemoration here of the 70^th anniversary of the 1941 bombing and capture of Constanta by the Germans in World War II.

The Black Sea has a very low salinity. You can hardly taste any salt in the water. And there is practically zero tide. For all the trash that came down the Danube, I saw little of it floating on my way yesterday. The skipper, Constantine and three of the crew members of the “Marina 1” research vessel that had left yesterday as well from Sulina for her home port came by the boat here. Last night I  parked on the seawall and just a while ago I moored, Med style with an anchor from the bow and stern tied to a float, in the marina. This should give me a chance to put a coat of finish on the new rub rail.  There are a couple more chores to do. I have to try and sweet talk someone to crank me up the mast to correct the lens on
the Tricolor. The moorage costs about $ 15 per day.

Yesterday I ran the engine a little higher, when I had a chance to motor sail, than I had done on the River. And I suspect that I am due for a new drive shaft. The rudder just shakes from the prop wash and even the Monitor wind vane rattles more than I had ever noticed. When the shaft was slightly shortened in Zimnicea, to accommodate the flex coupling, it was done on the old lathe. And about 3 feet, with the folding prop on the end, extended beyond the lathe. And I noticed that when the machinist turned the shaft, with a cutting knife, the end was sort of sweeping a wide swath. Like when you use a bent drill.  I do not expect to use the motor much from now on and then I’ll try to have it checked on a haul out in Turkey.
The stuffing box is still staying at a comfortable temperature, even when I ran the engine at nearly 2000 rpm.

The pictures below show the Mosque here, right above the marina.  I climbed the minaret this afternoon. The minaret is lit up with blue lights at night and around ten o’clock, last night, the muse sang his call to prayers from the minaret. “Allah, Akbar”. God is Great.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             I have reached the threshold of Europe and Asia.