Sailing in the Sea of Okhotsk

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I never have, I don't know anyone who has, and I probably never will. But that's besides the point. When I am really distressed with having to sit at work rather than be out sailing (at its worst when I've just returned from a cruise), I like to look at a world map and find the name of a really out of the way place, get onto Google and type it in, along with words like 'sailing' and 'yacht' to see if there are any stories of sailing there.

Well you don't get much more out of the way than the Sea of Okhotsk, which is in the Russian far East, East of Siberia and West of Kamchatka. I can only find one report of a pleasure boat ever having been there. It was a young Russian who in 1992 got on a delivery trip of a motor yacht across this sea. The report is interesting reading to bored far away dreamers like me, <A target="_blank" HREF=http://dinets.travel.ru/ebear3-3.htm>here</A>. Don't like the sound of a gnat tornado though.

<hr width=100% size=1>Summer is what you expect - rain is what you get.
 
No Doubt

". A roaring black column of millions of gnats was slowly drifting above a forest bog. It is not a good idea to get close to such mega-swarm: the insects can smell you and will chase you down. They can kill a human in five minutes by sucking blood and injecting poisonous saliva."


Loch Ranza midgies are just as bad!

Donald


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Re: No Doubt

"........They can kill a human in five minutes by sucking blood and injecting poisonous saliva........."

So this is where the Inland Revenue get their inspiration and ideas

<hr width=100% size=1>If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.
 
Hi John

Some very interesting stories about sailing UNDER the Sea of Okhost in the book "Blind Mans Bluff", the story of submarine espionage. Some of the stories are beyond James Bond but true! Great read if you like that kind of thing.

Regards
Cameron

<hr width=100% size=1>Work to live, live to sail
 
Very shallow and tricky, I'm told, and the scene of immense illegal fishing operations backed by organised criminal gangs who fire-bomb each other at regular intervals and smuggle their catches into Japan. Quite a lot worse than Newtown Creek on a summer Saturday.

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I haven't sailed in the Sea of Okhotsk but I have walked on it......in the winter when it was frozen. Worked in Sakhalin for Marathon Oil on the Molipak, an oil rig that sits on the bottom off Nigliki. It was minus 54C and in reality I didn't fancy sailing at all!

Nige

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I realize that it was closed so there won't be many reports. The Russian who did write the linked report though seemed to have some good techniques for blagging his way round the former Soviet Union to places he should not have gone to.

Were you there in summer, or only winter?

<hr width=100% size=1>Summer is what you expect - rain is what you get.
 
I personally only sailed once on a ship near - based on Japanese trade ..... never on land there.

I live and work in Former Soviet Union and have friends originated from there and also have some knowledge of some of the unfortunate happenings there ....... transported people to work in mines etc. without proper clothes / accommodation etc.

There is a very good documentary movie that shows Kamchatka after the fall of Soviet ..... the Monty Python guy did a tour of the region ..... even uncovered one of the above camps where Radio-active material was mined with 'bare-hands' etc.

My time in Russia itself ended some time ago and I transferred to Baltic States ..... not quite so cold in winter ... only -20 -30 C



<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/
 
Nigel,

6000 people were sent to the gulags in Sakhalin every 5 weeks but the gulag population never exceeded 20,000!
The island was a closed area (remember the Korean plane that was put down) but now it is no longer closed. I spent a year there in 1998/99.
The fishermen returned to Yuzhno with just a brief case, never crab or fish and told the authorities that there was no catch. Inside the brief case was full of dollars obtained from the Japanese factory ships about twenty miles offshore.
Corruption is still rife but the women are soooooooo good looking.

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I've just been reading through this guys site. Incredible. The places this guy has been, and the experiences he has been through are amazing. I'm lost for words.....I've met a few people who I thought were adventurous, but this guy just heads off into places that most wouldn't even consider., I loved the bit about escaping from the police in China by bartering for a canoe while in custody, then escaping down river - and the handwritten document he used to go everywhere free.

The BBC should track him down, and get him to do some documentaries as he's a biologist as well, and talks about flora and fauna with obvious feeling

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni
 
I married a Russian lass ...... QED

I know people related to some that were sent for mining - the story literally repeats for various locations .... trains of the first lot arrive - no houses- nothing. They are anything from petty thieves to innocents from all areas of SU ... sent because of some court etc. decides they are to be trained out. The work is exhausting and relentless - with no chance of reprieve. Some were the famous salt-mines, others into the Volcanic / geyser areas and the already mentioned Uranium and other RA mines ..... without any protection. As I hear ... there are no real records to even guess at how many suffered or died and now there are only ruins of the shacks put up to try and survive the harsh environment .........

C'mon - onto a better subject eh ????


<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/
 
<Our car was stopped by armed people in combat fatigues, who took all our money and belongings, shot a full AK-74 magazine into us point-blank, and drove away in our car. The other passenger was killed, and the driver got a hole in his lung. I managed to fall back just before being hit by a bullet, but hit my head against the pavement really bad.

I somehow stopped a passing truck and took the heavily bleeding driver to a police checkpoint less than a mile away. But the police refused to chase the bandits, and tried to arrest me instead. I had to get to Moscow in bloody clothes and with almost no money. I still had my passport, otherwise I'd probably never make it home without spending some time in every jail along the route.>

He's not heavy on overstatement either Brendan! Fascinating read.

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Steadily reading through. This guy is not short of cojones. Read the one about the trip to the banned island off Mexico. He hired a Cessna to get there, Having never flown solo before!, using an old Russian driving licence as proof of pilots licence

I'd have thought it was all a con, but the details are just way too convincing, as I've visited some of the places he's been, and it all stacks up, as does the Biology he talks about.

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni
 
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