It would seem that what could happen on the shallowest, warm and calm Sea of ​​Azov in the world? Alas, the tragedies of recent years, including the current swimming season, confirm that the Sea of ​​Azov, despite its outward calm and grace, is fraught with a lot of mysteries and dangers.

Last year we talked about the tragedy that happened on the other side of the Azov shores, on the island of Yeisk Spit. On the morning of July 7, 74 children and teenagers from the pioneer camp arrived on an excursion to the island. During the group's stay, children were allowed to swim near the shore. But due to the strong current, six children were unable to go ashore and drowned along with the teacher who tried to save them. To date, all the bodies of the victims have been identified - a teacher, three boys, aged 8, 9 and 11 years, and three girls, aged 12, 16 and 9 years.

In the summer of the year before last, a tragic incident also occurred in the village of Yuryevka, located fifty kilometers from Mariupol. At a depth of only about a meter, twenty meters from the shore, a twelve-year-old boy almost drowned. Two adult, physically strong thirty-year-old guys who came to his aid were able to push the boy out of the water, but they themselves became victims of the depths of the sea.

It was nine o'clock in the morning, the adults were sober, relaxing on the beach with their families. How such a tragedy could happen is beyond comprehension. The surviving boy says that he was playing ball with his uncle in the sea and suddenly the sand began to suddenly disappear from under his feet. He began to scream, and his uncle rushed to help, who at that time went away to pick up the ball that had flown to the side. The uncle arrived in time, pushed the boy aground, but began to drown himself. Seeing such a picture, another man rushed to help. They and the rescuers who arrived in time pulled the boy out of the water, but unknown sea forces pulled two adult men under the water.

What is the reason for these tragedies? Are they rare? Let's try to understand these questions in order.

One of the most obvious causes of tragedies is sea currents and the whirlpools they cause. Yuryevka is located between two spits of Belosarayskaya and Berdyansk. When two currents meet in the Yalta Bay, a swirl of sea water is formed, which often leads to whirlpools. Fishermen say that sometimes the boats spin so that it is difficult to row them out. Local residents do not remember any cases when boats sank due to a whirlpool; in the worst case, they were carried out to sea. That is, there is no need to talk about any huge whirlpools in Azov.

According to the head of the recreation department of the regional landscape park "Meotida" Andrey Kiyanenko, currents and whirlpools are strong not only in the Yuryevka area, but especially at the ends of the Azov spits - on the Belosarayskaya, Berdyanskaya, Dolgaya, Sedov spit, Yeisk spit and others that are unique in their to its formation of the Azov braids. Tragic cases where people were carried out to sea not only on inflatable mattresses, but also without them, have happened before. Even athletes who were fully prepared for high water drowned on the spits.

So, exactly twenty years ago from the day of the tragedy in Yuryevka, on July 15, 1989, the crews of 9 ships of the city Young Sailors Club set out to sea from Mariupol. After a twelve-day voyage, the training ship "Orion", 2 motorboats and 4 boats returned back, and two ships with seven adult crew members and five cadets had to sail further to circle the Sea of ​​Azov, calling at Yeysk, Kerch and Berdyansk. At noon on July 28, the executive committee of the Mariupol City Council received the first alarming information: the ships were at the Dolgaya Spit, the crews were missing. Without delay, an emergency commission of the city executive committee was created. The search for the missing included vessels of the Azov Sea and Volga Don River Shipping Companies located in the sea, rescue vessels of the emergency rescue service of the Black Sea Fleet, rescue equipment of fishing collective farms of the Krasnodar Territory, military aircraft and helicopters, and aviation of the traffic police of the Donetsk region.

On the evening of July 31, military pilots from Rostov-on-Don reported: in the area of ​​the village of Kamyshevatskaya, not far from Yeisk and the Dolgaya Spit, bodies washed ashore by the waves were discovered. Soon there will be a new message: 5 more bodies have been found. And only in the second half of the next day the tenth dead crew member was discovered. The surviving two passengers of the yacht - an eight-year-old boy and a seventeen-year-old girl - did not clarify the course of events. When they were asked where the others were, they said that they were sleeping and did not see anything. At the dawn of perestroika, this mysterious incident was discussed for a long time in the press and did not leave the lips of ordinary people. Some considered UFOs to be the culprit for the death of the entire crew, others considered poachers, whose illegal fishing was allegedly witnessed by young sailors.

We will not comment on the first assumption... The other is unlikely. If poachers had so easily destroyed ten young boys, then in those days they would definitely have been found and simply drowned somewhere nearby. It is unlikely that anyone would raise their hand to commit such a blatant atrocity. It remains to look for the cause of the terrible mystery in the sea.

As the two surviving guys later said, they woke up simultaneously in the middle of the night with a feeling of inexplicable anxiety. The sailors' clothes were randomly scattered on the deck. The depth in that place was insignificant - the yacht was sitting aground, where the bottom was visible from any side. The yachtsmen with whom we spoke believe that the reason for the death of the guys could be strong sea currents running along the tip of the Dolgaya Spit, caused by a surge wave. Most likely, the guys got into the water to push the boat off the shoal, got caught in the current, the others rushed to save them and were also carried out to sea one after another.

I would not like to turn to mysticism, but in all these accidents there are still several fatal coincidences and magic numbers. The boat, which perhaps indirectly caused the death of the crew in 1989, at that time it was called “Arktos”, exactly 13 (!) years later, and, what is more incredible, again on July 25, converted by this time into a yacht with a new name "Mariupol" drowned five passengers and sank itself. In the area of ​​the village of Melekino, she gave rides to vacationers. Despite the fact that it was designed for only 10 people, the captain took 38 passengers on board. A small wave one and a half kilometers from the shore caused the yacht to capsize. The ship fell on its side and began to slowly sink. Of the 38 passengers, 33 were rescued. Interestingly, after the tragedy, the yacht was lifted from the bottom by a floating crane of the Mariupol port, stored in the port for about a year, and then taken out in an unknown direction; its further fate is unknown to us. Will it be restored and launched again? It is quite possible, although the yachtsmen with whom we spoke believe that such an unlucky yacht still needs to be looked for and the best thing would be to simply destroy it, burn it, and scatter the ashes over the sea. But let's return to the topic of our main question.

Dolgaya Spit, if anyone doesn’t know, is located on the opposite shore of the Sea of ​​Azov, on the territory of the Russian Federation. In the Soviet years, when there were no borders between our countries, Mariupol yachtsmen often sailed on the other side of the sea. If you look at the map of the Sea of ​​Azov, it is noticeable that the Dolgaya Spit is located almost directly opposite the Belosarayskaya Spit. Thus, the flow of water mass in this place passes through the neck of a bottle and accordingly intensifies. With a surge caused by western and southwestern winds, the sea level in the Taganrog Bay area sometimes rises to two meters. When the winds weaken, the water rushes back, and in a fairly rapid stream.

A friend of the author of these lines just recently became personally convinced of how dangerous the ends of the Azov Spit can be - he saved a girl of about twelve years old at the tip of Belosarayka. While her parents were chatting enthusiastically on the shore, she walked into the shallows about fifty meters from the shore, there is no other way to say it - into the open sea, because at the tip of the spit there is sea on almost all sides. The depth for her height was just above her waist, but at the same time she could not get out of the sea on her own. She happened to fall right at the junction of two currents, this was clearly evidenced by the waves rolling onto each other from different sides at an angle of about fifty degrees.

“At first she didn’t understand that something was wrong and calmly jumped on the waves, but then horror appeared on her face,” said a friend. “She tried to go to the shore, but the sea dragged her back. Surely, in such an unequal struggle, her strength would not last long, especially since physically the girl was clearly not an athlete. When I approached it, despite the relatively calm surface of the water, I felt a mighty river flowing along the bottom. The current was so strong that I could hardly stand on my feet. I was seriously scared. I told the girl to hold on to my hand, and so, step by step, we gradually got out into the shallow water, and then onto the shore. If it had been a little deeper, I wouldn’t have been able to fight the current...”

This kind of power lives in the “gentle” Sea of ​​Azov. The author of these lines, as an admirer of holidays on the Belosarayskaya Spit, has himself tested the strength of this current on himself more than once. At the very end of the spit it is better not to swim at all, but before reaching its last point you can. The main thing is to stay no more than ten to fifteen meters from the shore at all times, and so that the depth is no higher than your waist. You can get interesting sensations. You just need to relax, lie on your back, and the current itself will carry you along the shore at approximately the speed of a person walking at a fast pace - it’s been tested. Although such a strong current does not always happen. Such a river in the sea - exotic! But this exoticism would be good if it didn’t kill so many people.

According to Andrei Kiyanenko, there are fewer cases of drowning on the spits than in other places only for the reason that the number of vacationers on them is much smaller. And on the Sedov Spit, the guards of the Meotida Landscape Park generally do not allow vacationers to go to the tip of the spit; they guard the nesting places of birds. Things are worse on the Belosarskaya Spit. Every year more and more vacationers come here, to the tip of the spit, but many of them are not even aware of the danger that this beautiful place conceals.

But the tragedy that occurred in Yuryevka last year cannot be clearly blamed on sea currents. Firstly, near the shore at shallow depths they are not strong enough to drag and drown two young, physically strong men who can swim. Secondly, Yuryevka is located practically in the Yalta Bay and the currents here are extremely weak. For some reason, similar cases were not recorded in the neighboring villages of Yalta and Urzuf. Moreover, there were none not according to official data, but precisely according to local residents, including Meotida employees. The most dangerous place, according to the Yuryev residents, is located on the outskirts of Yuryevka, on the Urzuf side, in an area with a self-explanatory name - Cape Zmeinny.

The head of the Mariupol public environmental organization “Clean Coast”, sailor and yachtsman Yulian Mikhailov, also does not believe that currents were the cause of the tragedy in Yuryevka.

“The bottom there is muddy, almost a swamp; what kind of strong currents can there be there? – He wonders. – I have been involved in yachting for many years, I know the sea like my own and, believe me, I have never seen sinkholes even on the open sea, not to mention the Yalta Bay, that could pull an adult man who knows how to swim under water. The sea directions (handbooks for sailors) also do not mention strong currents in this area. I can only guess about the reasons for the natural anomalies in Yuryevka, but sea currents are not to blame for them.”

Olga Shakula, head of the nature department of the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore, agrees with the opinion of the yachtsman-ecologist. According to her, the reason lies most likely in the fact that just in the area of ​​​​Cape Zmeinny there is a global geological fault between the bedrock plates at a depth of about one kilometer. It crosses the entire Sea of ​​Azov and creates seismic activity in Crimea. During geological movements, the plates overlap each other, crumble, and shift the upper soil layers. By the way, the release of fragments of these rocks appears on the surface in the ill-fated, widely known radioactive “black” sands, the basis of which is radioactive thorium. In addition to the release of sand, the geological instability of the area also contributes to massive movements of the upper part of the earth's surface, including leading to mudflows and landslides that occur not only on land, but also under a layer of sea water.

According to Olga Shakula, it is possible that the cause of the tragedies in Yuryevka was precisely these features of changes in soil conditions. Mud mudflows are a low-density mass of solid matter consisting of silt, clay and sand. This mass cannot support the weight of a person. Soil activity, faults and cracks also contribute to the formation of underground rivers. Where these waters wash out the bottom surface, sinkholes form. Locals say that during the construction of one of the buildings of the boarding house in Yuryevka, during the driving of the first pile, it simply fell somewhere deep underground and the idea with piles had to be abandoned.

“Five years ago we vacationed in Yuryevka with families and employees of our museum,” says Olga Shakula. – Our colleague almost drowned at a shallow depth, before our eyes she began to fall into the sand, screamed, from her face we realized that she was not joking, my husband would not have had time to swim, and therefore he threw her a children’s inflatable ring. Everything happened in a matter of seconds, the colleague still believes that the circle thrown by her husband saved her life.”

Another phenomenon also occurs in Yuryevka - the release of gas to the surface. Locals say that in winter, when the sea is covered with a crust of thin transparent ice, accumulations of gas bubbles under the ice are very clearly visible. Children even have fun - drilling a small hole in the ice and igniting the gas that comes out of it.

According to Georgy Ryazantsev, an employee of the Azov Research Station, the cause of death is methane emissions from silt deposits.

“Under sand, under shells, under clay rocks, cavities may form in which gas is located, and if these cavities are overfilled, gas can escape here,” says the researcher.

Thus, at the moment of gas release, a person finds himself in a rarefied gas environment, the density of which does not allow the person to remain on the surface. He instantly falls into the abyss and dies in a split second.

Experts note that extensive scientific research on the influence of the geological fault on the ecology of the Sea of ​​Azov in its northern part has not been carried out. The seashore is fraught with a lot of unsolved mysteries. Unfortunately, some of these mysteries lead to dire consequences, and therefore, in our opinion, deserve closer, more detailed scientific study. According to experts, in order to accurately determine the causes of the tragedies and develop a set of safety measures, it is necessary to carry out drilling operations in the anomalous zone of the Azov Sea, and this is a very expensive and troublesome undertaking. However, the number of tragic incidents in Yuryevka has already passed the point when it’s time to deal with the issue like an adult. After all, a significant part of drowning cases are still attributed to their drunken state and careless behavior in the water. What percentage corresponds to the real state of affairs, no one can say today.

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Stormy winds and strong seas led to the wreck of several ships in the Azov and Black Seas on November 11. The wind speed in the area of ​​the Kerch Strait connecting them reached 32 meters per second, and the sea state reached six to seven points. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, as of 06.00 Monday, four ships sank in one day, six more ran aground, two tankers were damaged, one barge is drifting.

As RIA Novosti was told by the press service of the regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, incidents similar to the current one have never happened in the Kerch Strait. Representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations suggested that the cause of the emergency could be that the ship crews ignored the storm warning that was sent out on Saturday.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, at 08.00 Moscow time on November 11, there were 59 ships in the area of ​​the port "Kavkaz", while all captains received information about deteriorating weather. But the weather conditions turned out to be even worse than predicted. In addition, the peculiarity of the Kerch Strait is that there are few bays to shelter ships from storms.

SHIPWRECK

At 04.45 Moscow time on Sunday, south of Port Kavkaz, in a roadstead during a storm, the Volgoneft-139 tanker, loaded with more than 4 thousand tons of fuel oil, broke in half. There were 13 crew members on board the tanker.

“The ship loaded oil products in Samara and proceeded to unload to Ukraine,” said Vladimir Erygin, head of the administration of the Novorossiysk commercial seaport.

“As a result of the accident, the bow remained at anchor, and the stern with the crew members was adrift.” By the evening of November 11, the stern of the tanker, with the help of its own ship power, ran aground in the area of ​​the Tuzla Spit.

Rescuers removed 13 people from the ship and took them to the port of Kavkaz. A representative of Port Kavkaz told RIA Novosti that as a result of the incident with the Volgoneft-139 tanker, no one was injured, but about one thousand tons of fuel oil spilled into the Sea of ​​Azov.

At 10.25 on November 11, the bulk carrier Volnogorsk sank, carrying more than 2.6 thousand tons of sulfur. The crew of eight people left the ship on a life raft and managed to land on the Tuzla Spit. They were hospitalized in the central district hospital of the city of Temryuk.

These are captain Sergei Porkhonyuk, first navigator Viktor Ponomarev, electrician Vadim Maslyukov, motor mechanic Dmitry Slegontov, cook Natalya Bobokhina, motor mechanic Denis Marov, third navigator Alexey Dobrovidov, motor mechanic Alexey Golovachev.

Having stumbled upon the sunken Volnogorsk, another dry cargo ship with sulfur, the Kovel, received a hole and began to sink. Rescuers transferred the Kovel crew to a tugboat; there was no fuel spill. At 19.00 Moscow time on November 11, the Kovel completely sank.

The cargo ship "Nakhichevan" with 2 thousand tons of sulfur also sank. Currently, three of the 11 crew members of this cargo ship have been rescued. The search for the remaining crew members continued into the night. Four Russian ships took part in them - "Proteus", "Poseidon", Mercury" and "Captain Zadorozhny".

The force six storm also caused the non-self-propelled barge "Dika" to run aground in the southwestern part of the Tuzla Spit. On board there are two people and 4,149 tons of fuel oil. There is no fuel leak. In the same area, a floating crane with one person ran aground.

On the evening of November 11, the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine reported that the Russian tugboat "MB 1224" with 13 crew members ran aground off the northwestern coast of Crimea during a storm. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the tug is located at a distance of 15-20 meters from the shore in the area of ​​Uzkaya Bay, not far from the village of Chernomorskoye. The ship was moving from the city of Azov to the mouth of the Danube.

And in the Novorossiysk area, Greek and Turkish dry cargo ships ran aground, Vladimir Erygin, head of the administration of the Novorossiysk seaport, told RIA Novosti. According to him, in both cases the captains lost control in the storm.

In addition, on the night of November 11, the cargo ship "Khash-Izmail", sailing under the Georgian flag with a cargo of metal from Mariupol to Tartu, sank in Sevastopol.

The head of the propaganda department of the Sevastopol city department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine Valery Strelets said that only two of the 17 crew members were rescued. It was previously reported that the cargo ship was Russian and rescuers managed to bring 14 crew members ashore, but Strelets denied this information. According to his information, the ship was not anchored in Sevastopol and sank while entering the bay in the area of ​​​​the Khersones lighthouse. “They decided to go into the bay to wait out the storm and, while performing maneuvers, sank,” Strelets said.

According to the press service of the Crimean Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in the area of ​​​​Kapsel Bay (the vicinity of Sudak, the eastern part of the southern coast of Crimea), the Ukrainian ship Vera Voloshina, with 18 crew members on board, ran aground. The ship with a cargo of agricultural machinery was traveling from Romania to Novorossiysk. Employees of the Crimean Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations evacuated the crew from the ship.

RESCUE OPERATIONS AND ELIMINATION OF CONSEQUENCES OF EMERGENCY

The storm wind caused significant damage to the infrastructure of Sevastopol - trees were knocked down and power supply was disrupted. Many settlements in Crimea are without power; units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Crimea, Krymenergo, RES, and the gas service are eliminating the damage caused by hurricane winds.

Official representative of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Viktor Beltsov noted that all the vessels that suffered an accident on Sunday belong to the “river-sea” class. “Not a single incident has occurred with ocean-class vessels,” he noted. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, bad weather will continue until November 14.

To avoid new shipwrecks, 40 ships from the roadstead were removed from the roadstead of the port "Kavkaz" due to a strong storm. Ten ships remain in the roadstead, including two bulk carriers carrying sulfur.

The operational group of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory operates in the port "Kavkaz", and the operational headquarters of the Southern Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation operates in Rostov-on-Don. The overall management of the rescue operation is carried out by the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, and the coordination of all forces involved in it is carried out by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.

As Assistant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Captain First Rank Igor Dygalo, told RIA Novosti, ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet (Black Sea Fleet) are ready to provide assistance to ships in distress.

However, so far there have been no requests for help to the command of the Black Sea Fleet. “On the ships of the Black Sea Fleet moored at the berths in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk, additional mooring lines have been installed. An additional watch has been set up. A search and rescue control post has been deployed at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, which monitors and analyzes the situation developing at sea,” he said Dygalo.

In connection with the incidents in the Kerch Strait, a hotline has been opened for relatives of sailors of the affected ships, a representative of the Southern Regional Center of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry told RIA Novosti.

Two hotlines have been opened at the port "Kavkaz" - (8-86148) 581-45 and 517-48. Two more hotline numbers operate in Krasnodar (8-861) 262-34-46, 262-52-27.

A helicopter from the Ministry of Emergency Situations flew to the disaster area, and it is also expected that as soon as the weather permits, two more helicopters will fly from Rostov-on-Don and Sochi.

15 of the 17 crew members of the cargo ship "Khash-Izmail", which sank in Sevastopol, sailing under the Georgian flag, are still listed as missing.

ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES

He cited other figures - according to him, not one, but more than two thousand tons of fuel oil out of four thousand tons on board the tanker spilled into the water due to the fact that due to bad weather it was not possible to stop the oil spill from a broken in half the ship. “The crack, along which a fault later occurred, is located in the middle, between the third and fourth tank,” Mitvol said.

“There are serious concerns that the oil spill will continue,” said the deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor.

As for the sunken cargo ship, according to Mitvol, sulfur is an inert material, and there is hope that it will not enter into any compounds that are dangerous to humans. In addition, after the storm, rescuers will try to lift containers with sulfur.
“But the dry cargo ship (Volnogorsk) also had tanks full of fuel oil. That is, we are dealing with a very serious situation related to the contamination of the Kerch Strait with oil products,” Mitvol said.

He noted that oil skimmers cannot work when the sea is very rough, and the fuel oil begins to sink to the bottom and will “create an increased background of oil content in the water” for several years.

“That is, this problem can turn into a problem of several years. Work to restore the ecological state of the Kerch Strait will take more than one month,” Mitvol said, pointing out that the technology for collecting fuel oil is very complex and expensive.
The President of the Russian Green Cross, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Sergei Baranovsky, on the contrary, believes that the sulfur cargo on dry cargo ships that sank due to a storm in the Kerch Strait is more harmful to the environment than an oil spill.

WRECKS

The bulk carrier "Volnogorsk" of project 21-88 was built in 1965 at the Slovenske Lodenice shipbuilding enterprise (Komarno, Czechoslovakia). The length of the vessel is 103.6 meters, width - 12.4 meters, draft 2.8 meters. The vessel's carrying capacity is two thousand tons. Until 2007, the ship was owned by the Azov-Don Shipping Company, located in Rostov-on-Don.

The bulk carrier "Nakhichevan" of the same project was built in 1966, it is owned by the Azov-Don Shipping Company.

The dry cargo ship "Kovel" was built in 1957 according to project 576. Similar ships were built at the Nizhny Novgorod plant "Krasnoe Sormovo" and in Romania. Dry cargo ships of this type are designed for transportation of bulk, bulk, packaged cargo, such as construction rubble, sand, coal, paper in rolls, and timber in logs. According to media reports, Kovel belongs to JSC Volga Shipping Company.

A similar type of cargo ship "Kaunas" crashed into the Liteiny Bridge on the Neva in St. Petersburg in August 2002. The ship, which had almost two thousand tons of metal on board, was holed and sank, blocking ship traffic on the Neva for four days. During this time, more than 300 ships accumulated on both sides of the river, waiting for passage. The cause of the emergency was the failure of the steering device. After the accident, the cargo ship was written off.

In November 2003, the motor ship "Victoria" of the same project ran aground in the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, no one was injured. According to media reports, the captain of the Victoria, at the direction of the company's management, overloaded more than 300 tons. At the entrance to the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, the ship began to tilt, and water began to flow into the hull. To avoid flooding, the captain decided to run the ship aground.

The Volgoneft-139 tanker that broke apart in the Kerch Strait was built in 1978. It belongs to JSC Volgotanker. According to the vessel's owner's website, this tanker has eight tanks for transporting fuel oil, a double side and a double bottom. The first tanker of the Volgoneft series was built in 1962. They are built at the Volgograd Shipyard, at shipbuilding enterprises in the Bulgarian cities of Varna and Ruse.

The tanker is designed to transport crude oil and petroleum products, its length is 132.6 meters, width - 16.9 meters, draft - 3.5 meters. The tanker's carrying capacity is five thousand tons. There were 4.777 thousand tons of fuel oil on board Volgoneft-139.

There are several projects of tankers of this series - 550, 550A, 558, 630, 1577. They differ in their carrying capacity, pipeline design, superstructure, and mast design. 65 tankers of Project 550A, to which Volgoneft-139 belongs, and more than 200 tankers of other projects were built.

In December 1999, a similar incident occurred with the Volgoneft-248 tanker of Project 1577. It broke under the impact of a powerful wave and sank during a storm in the Sea of ​​Marmara off the coast of Turkey on December 29, 1999. The Coast Guard was able to evacuate 15 crew members from the ship. About 800 tons of fuel oil spilled into the sea.

In the summer of 2002, the tanker Komsomol Volgograd (originally Volgoneft-213) ran aground on the Svir River near St. Petersburg. The cause of the emergency was a technical malfunction of the steering. The tanker received three holes, but no oil spill occurred.

The material was prepared by the online editors of www.rian.ru based on information from RIA Novosti

A terrible tragedy occurred in the Azov children's camp in Kuban: six children and a teacher drowned, one child is in the hospital. The cause of the tragedy was strong undercurrents on the Yeisk Spit, where the children were swimming.

The tragedy occurred on the morning of July 7. A group from the Azov children's camp, located on the Dolgaya Spit near the village of Dolzhanskaya (Yeisky Peninsula), went on a boat tour of the Sea of ​​Azov. According to preliminary data, there were about 70 vacationers, 63 children aged 8 to 16 years and seven adults. They sailed along the spit and landed on one of the nearby shell islands about 10 km from Yeisk, deciding to swim.

“Even the locals know that you can’t swim there - there is a very strong undercurrent, but the older groups apparently allowed swimming. This was the cause of the tragedy,” said the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Krasnodar Territory.

According to the Southern Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, the emergency signal arrived at the control panel of the duty rescue center in Yeisk on Wednesday at 11.30. According to eyewitnesses, a group of children disappeared while swimming.

All the children who died while swimming were students of Moscow school No. 1065.

List of victims: Daria Terskaya (12 years old), Egor Usherenko (10 years old), Lydia Anufrieva (12 years old), Georgy Bai (10 years old), Svetlana Dyumbetova (15 years old), Nikita Bratsev (8 years old), Vitaly Morozov, 27 years old .

It is worth noting that the body of eight-year-old Nikita Bratsev was found by rescuers at 19.30 at the place where the children were swimming. According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, there are two children in the hospital - 9-year-old Yaroslav Ignatiev and 15-year-old Sergei Averkin.

“This is an island, not a beach, not a place where people usually swim. If this were an unequipped beach on the coastal strip, there would be signs saying “swimming is prohibited.” But since the island is located in the sea 10 km from Yeisk, no one puts such signs on it. This is not a traditional swimming place - you can only get there by boat, and children, especially themselves, cannot get there by accident,” explained the head of the RF Ministry of Emergency Situations of the region.

He emphasized that the sea around the island is very dangerous, with strong currents and depth changes. “Local residents know about this. But since the teachers were visiting, and the boat was from Rostov-on-Don, then, most likely, none of the adults knew about it.”

A successful search and rescue operation took place off the east coast of Japan, where a fishing boat crashed.

The incident occurred in the Pacific Ocean and almost cost the lives of 18 crew members of the ship in trouble.

The crew of the sunken ship was reportedly rescued by a fishing schooner passing nearby. Also, part of the crew of the rescue vehicle managed to leave board on a lifeboat, after which they were picked up by another ship.

At the moment, nothing threatens the life and health of the sailors. A total of 18 crew members were rescued - 12 Japanese citizens and 6 Indonesian nationals.

The first reports of the sinking of a fishing vessel 850 kilometers off the coast of the Japanese Miyagi Prefecture arrived on the night of June 19-20. At the moment, the causes and circumstances of the shipwreck are unknown.

In all likelihood, the ship received a hole, since the colleagues rescuing the sailors noticed that the ship tilted to the left side.

The incident occurred in stormy conditions. In the region of the shipwreck there was a strong storm and waves of up to 4 meters were recorded. Two Japanese Coast Guard ships and three helicopters were sent to the sinking ship, the crews of which did not have time to provide assistance to the sinking ship.

On Monday, July 2, at the Zaporozhye resort, vacationers filmed a tornado that was spotted in the Sea of ​​Azov, at a great distance from the coast.

Helper Zaporozhye activist Evgeniy Pavlyuk managed to photograph the disaster.

It is worth noting that the natural phenomenon was recorded in the resort village of Kirillovka.

In particular, the tornado was noticed in the Azov Sea at about 9:30.

Almost two hundred people are missing in a shipwreck

A large-scale water disaster occurred in Indonesia, where 166 people went missing as a result of a ferry accident. This was stated by Indonesian government officials.

Let us note that previously there was information about 130 potential victims of the crash.

Let us recall that a ferry with several hundred passengers sank on Lake Toba in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra yesterday, June 19. In total, there were more than 350 people on board the sunken ship.

At the moment, only one person is known to have died, since the bodies of the remaining passengers from the ferry have never been found. Hundreds of rescue workers and volunteers are working at the scene of the tragedy. The search for potential victims of the crash is complicated by bad weather conditions.

At the moment, there is no information available about the probable cause of the ship's disaster.

Residents of South Korea on Sunday, July 1, suffered from powerful torrential rains, which were caused by the approach of a typhoon called Prapirun to the southwestern coast of the country. Reports a natural disaster The Korea Herald.

According to the publication, due to worsening weather conditions, at least one person has previously gone missing and another has died.

In total, about 33 flights at eight airports across the state had to be cancelled. Heavy rains caused flooding in many parts of the country.

Ship accident in Indonesia: rescuers cannot find about 60 passengers

On Monday, June 18, a ferry carrying about 80 passengers sank in Indonesia, killing one and leaving dozens missing.

The ferry Sinar Bangun, which was carrying passengers in North Sumatra province on Lake Toba, sank in stormy weather at about 17:30 local time (13:30 Kyiv time) a mile from the port of Tigaras.

In the first hours of the search and rescue operation, about 19 people were lifted from the water. In addition, the body of one tourist was discovered. All others are listed as “missing in action.”

National disaster management authority spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said rescue efforts were ongoing at the lake but were being slowed by bad weather.

It is reported that Lake Toba, where the accident occurred, is located in the crater of an extinct volcano. The lake is considered the world's largest reservoir of volcanic origin. Its dimensions reach 87 kilometers in length and 27 kilometers in width.

Heavy rains in South Korea: 1 dead, 8 injured.

South Korea was hit by heavy rains that led to flooding. In different parts of the country, 66 houses and 4,528 hectares of agricultural land were damaged or flooded, and 22 cars were under water. 1 person died as a result of a lightning strike. Eight people were injured during the floods, KBS World Radio reports.

A ship exploded in the Bahamas

A tourist boat exploded in the Bahamas. As a result of the explosion, one person died on the spot and another 11 received injuries of varying severity.

According to CNN, the ship's engine exploded during a tourist voyage. The boat with passengers was immediately engulfed in fire.

Coast Guard personnel arrived at the scene of the accident.

In total there were ten passengers and two crew members on board - residents of the islands.

The Coast Guard said four US tourists were taken to a Florida hospital and the rest were sent to Princess Margaret Hospital in the Bahamian capital of Nassau.

Among the victims is also the ship's captain, who requires medical attention.

A video has emerged of a boat with 10 tourists on it at the time of the explosion.

In the Bahamas, tourists witnessed a terrifying sight: a boat with people on board burst into flames before their eyes. This happened due to an engine explosion, after which the ship was instantly engulfed in flames. Witnesses of the tragedy were able to swim closer to help the tourists who were there.

According to the New York Post, there were 10 American tourists and two Bahamian residents on the boat. One person died, and everyone else received serious injuries and burns. They were pulled out and taken to the hospital.

Floods in Ghana kill 5 people

A flash flood last Thursday in the city of Kumasi in Ghana left at least five people dead and another missing, the agency reports. G.N.A.

The Emergency Response Team rescued 293 people from flood waters. The search continues for a missing teenage girl.

The outbreak of flooding was caused by heavy rain that continued for six hours. Some buildings were damaged.

The shipwreck took the lives of hundreds of people, including infants

A ship disaster in the Mediterranean Sea could have taken the lives of about 100 illegal migrants. Among the possible victims of the shipwreck are two infants and three children under 12 years old.

It is reported that the shipwreck with refugees occurred yesterday near the coast of Libya.

“The bodies of three children have been found and about a hundred more are missing after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Libya on Friday.”, - said representatives of the authorities.

There were about 120 people on board the sunken ship, of whom only 16 were rescued. It is assumed that another 100 people died in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Passengers who survived the disaster said that the ship sank as a result of the explosion. On board were citizens of Morocco and Yemen.

A search operation is currently underway in the area of ​​the shipwreck. The chances of finding surviving passengers are minimal.

Typhoon Prapirun passes Okinawa, warnings are issued on the Japanese island of Kyushu and South Korea

Typhoon "Prapirun" ("Florita" - according to the Philippine classification) passed off the Japanese island of Okinawa, where there were no serious consequences, and continues to move in the East China Sea, shifting towards the island of Kyushu. Wind speed reaches 125 km/h, gusts - 180 km/h, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reports. In South Korea, warnings of strong winds and heavy rainfall are in effect on Jeju Island and southern parts of the country, warns the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

A cargo ship crashed into moored ships and sank them.

The bulk carrier BAO KHANH 16 (IMO 8603236, flag of Vietnam) rammed the ships that were at the berth.

In total, experts counted that a large vessel collided with three small ones.

Thus, the ship “NB-6589” still managed to stay afloat as a result of the impact. Only minor damage to the hull was recorded on the craft.

Two more ships sank from the strong impact and completely sank. It is reported that one of them tried to reach the shore, and the second sank at the scene of the accident.

The preliminary cause of the collision of such a number of vessels was indicated as an accident.

Storms sweep across the United States

Several storms swept across the United States from the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf Coast, leaving a vast trail of destruction along the way. The storms were fueled by intense heat and humidity that continues to accumulate over the eastern half of the country.

© globallookpress.com

Most of the damage was caused by wind. A tornado was confirmed in Hickman, Tennessee, with winds reaching 180 km/h. Wind gusts of up to 60 mph were widespread from eastern Missouri and southwestern Illinois to western Tennessee and much of Alabama. Strong winds easily knocked down trees and power lines, leaving more than 200,000 people without power at the height of the storms.

200,000 residents were left without electricity in Alabama alone. In Huntsville, also in Alabama, a 70-year-old woman was struck by lightning during severe weather and remains in critical condition. New storms on June 30 could disrupt recovery efforts in the southeast of the country. However, the severity and destructiveness of the events that just occurred are not expected to be repeated.

US Navy destroyer comes to the aid of distressed Filipino fishermen

The crew of the US Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin came to the aid of two Filipino fishermen whose boat's engine had failed. The portal Korabli.eu reported this on Thursday, June 28, citing the press service of the US Navy Department of Defense.

The destroyer's crew immediately came to the aid of the Filipinos in distress. First, the sailors contacted the nearest other fishing vessel and reported what had happened. After this, a boat was lowered into the water, which towed the emergency boat to other fishing vessels. The victims were also provided with food for three days.

After making sure that the fishermen were all right, the destroyer Mustin continued patrolling.

The Mustin is part of the USS Ronald Reagan strike group.

In the Krasnodar Territory, hail caused the death of a local resident

Timashevsky, Bryukhovetsky, Korenovsky and Pavlovsky districts of the Krasnodar Territory suffered from hail. The heaviest damage was caused to the Timashevsky district, where 1,800 houses were damaged in the village of Novokorsunskaya, the district administration reports. In the Bryukhovetsky district, 1,438 households in the village of Baturinskaya and the village of Zarya were in the emergency zone. Restoration work lasted just over a day.

Currently, the consequences of the disaster have been practically eliminated, the district administration notes. In the village of Baturinskaya, a canopy collapsed during a disaster, resulting in the death of a local resident. Based on this fact, the Timashevsky interdistrict investigative department of the Investigative Committee for the Territory organized a pre-investigation check, reports the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory.

Also, squalls and heavy downpours with hail occurred throughout almost the entire territory of Ukraine and Crimea. Many settlements were flooded and without power, and damage was caused to agriculture.

Tragic mysteries of Azov

...Kamysh-Burunsky iron ore plant in Kerch several years ago was extracting Kerch iron ore at the Kamysh-Burunsky and Eltigen-Ortelsky iron ore deposits. The total volume of ore production reached 7.5 million tons, of which the sinter plant produced 4.5 million tons of sinter - an intermediate product for metal smelting at Azovstal in Mariupol. The still hot sinter was loaded in the Kamysh-Burun port directly into specially equipped ships - sinter carriers - and this “fiery fleet” traveled from Kerch to Mariupol. The sinter was loaded from wheels, and the ships moved one after another.

On that fateful day when the disaster occurred (late November 1968), there was a strong storm in the Sea of ​​Azov caused by a nor'easter. But the Kerch mine - sinter plant - Mariupol blast furnace conveyor operated, and the ships sailed, despite the bad weather. The tugboat "Kommunist" brought the lighter "Roksha" to the Kamysh-Burunsky pier. The Roksha lighter is a huge specially equipped barge with a displacement of 4.5 thousand tons, a length of 94 m and a width of up to 13 m. It took on board 3,750 tons of sinter, the temperature of which was 600-650 °. There were 13 people on the barge, led by female captain A.I. Shibaeva. Due to difficulties with transport - there were no tickets for passing ships in Mariupol - several passengers boarded the barge; no one knows how many. The Nord-East tossed the ship throughout the entire route, and at night a 6-7 force storm hit it near Mariupol - 17.5 miles southeast of the southern tip of the Berdyansk Spit. The outer lining of the barge leaked. The internal heat-resistant lining also did not withstand impacts. Cold water penetrated the hold and actually caused an explosion from interaction with the hot agglomerate. There is a version that the lids of the holds were also broken. Having taken on 700 tons of water, the lighter capsized and sank. One way or another, the tugboat was horrified to see a huge cloud of steam instead of a lighter. The tugboat crew could not do anything; they could not save the people. Everyone on the barge died. They managed to put on life jackets, but, presumably, the main enemy was not water, but hot steam. The sea scattered the bodies of the dead. The body of a female captain was found on the Arabat Spit.

The Maritime Safety Service of the Azov Shipping Company immediately outlined the skeleton of the sunken Roksha, which was sticking out one meter from the water (Fig. 53). It was forbidden to take passengers on board sinter carriers. Hydrographers welded a metal truss with a luminous sign to the Roksha’s hull.

The circumstances of the death of the sinter carrier were examined by a special government commission. The causes of the accident are not entirely clear, but shipbuilders suggest that the leak arose from wear and tear on the hull. This is also confirmed by eyewitnesses. Bosun "Roksha" Venedikt Fedorovich Groshev accidentally did not go on this fateful voyage. He says that the lighter was already old and rusty, the registration period of the ship's mechanisms had already expired, and the ship set out on a voyage without registration documents. The plan for transporting the sinter was disrupted and was carried out at any cost.

The hull of the Roksha rested near the canal fairway in Mariupol, and this created a danger for navigation. The Azov Shipping Company decided to remove the Roksha from the fairway. Explosions divided the hull into several parts, and in the summer they pulled out everything except the bow. The work on raising the remains of the hull was planned to be completed in the summer of 1973. 2 buoys were placed at the bow of the Roksha. The troubles, however, did not end there.

Captain 2nd rank B.V. Sokolov, who for many years served as the head of the Kerch-Azov region of the Black Sea Fleet hydrographic service, says that in the same winter, in March, he was woken up at night and handed over: the Greek ship “Agios Nikoleos” with a displacement of 4 thousand tons, 85 m long, 12 m wide, 6 m, side height 7.4 m, loaded with coal, was traveling with a pilot on board from Berdyansk and at night came across the remains of the Roksha hull, because the buoys were not lit. Within 17 minutes, the Greek ship sank three miles west of the site of the death of the Roksha (N 47°28'67, E 37°04'93). The depth of the sea at the site of the ship's death was 12 m. The sinter carrier "Enakievo" passing by picked up the entire Greek crew and our pilot. The pilot tried to organize the rescue of the ship, but the Greeks simply dragged him into the boat by force. The hole in the hull of the Greek steamer was huge - up to 6 m. A commission headed by the captain of the Kerch port, Leonid Denisovich Samborsky, was immediately sent from Kerch. The hydrographic vessel GS-103 and diving boats took part in the work. One of the hydrographic officers participating in the work reported to B.V. Sokolov that the buoys around the remaining part of the Roksha hull were burning, and the Greek ship sank 3.5 miles from the Roksha. Divers discovered that the “Greek” had run into the bow of an old riveted ship. They began to find out. It turned out that at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the tanker “Ivan Bogun” left Mariupol and died. Divers found round holes - craters - around the hull. The following year, the rescue service sent a three-hundred-ton crane to lift the remains of the Roksha, but they could not be found. The buoys stood still, the ill-fated “Roksha” was not there. A version arose that the remains of the lighter were stolen for scrap metal. It was, perhaps, a fantasy. They weighed 150 tons, and there was only one powerful crane capable of lifting them in the Sea of ​​Azov. B.V. Sokolov believes that the bow of the Roksha was moved by ice, the thickness of which that winter reached 60-80 cm in the northern part of the Sea of ​​​​Azov. We even had to ferry an icebreaker from the Baltic to break through the ice channel (the Baltic didn’t freeze that year!). The ice became hummocky, and it carried with it the bow of the barge, which froze into the ice field. The search for the remaining parts of “Bogun” yielded nothing. The Greek ship was first protected by buoys, and in 1977 it was blown up and raised, after unloading coal.

Accidents with sinter trucks have happened before. So, in the fifties, a lighter of the Pervomaisk type sank in Azov. It was the lighter “Zaporozhye”, with a displacement of about 3 thousand tons, the shipowner of which was the Azov Shipping Company, it was traveling from Mariupol to Kerch with a cargo of coal. On May 1, 1957, the lighter collided with the cargo ship Karaganda, which had a displacement of 10 thousand tons. As a result of the collision, the lighter Zaporozhye sank to the bottom. In 1961, the tug Priboy came across a sunken ship. There were no major consequences, however.

On January 29, 1970, in the Sea of ​​Azov, a disaster occurred with the medium Black Sea seiner “Pioneer” (displacement 90 tons). The ship left the port of Temryuk for the port of Kerch, but in conditions of a force six storm, due to loss of orientation, at 23:00 at night it ran into the rocks of Cape Kamenny at full speed. Attempts to get off the rocks under our own power failed. The ships that quickly arrived at the scene of the accident were unable to refloat the Pioneer due to the intensifying storm. The seiner remained on the rocks, the crew was removed, and the hull was smashed against the rocks. The cause of the accident was the negligence of the navigators. (265)

The day of January 8, 1982 was tragic for the Azov basin. More precisely, the night of January 8. On this day, a strong winter storm led to the death of three medium-sized Black Sea seiners (SChS) in the southern part of the Sea of ​​​​Azov near the Kerch Strait. At night, the ships washed up on the coastal cliffs in conditions of a strong nor'easter, high waves, snowfall and zero visibility.

SChS-151 died four miles west of Cape Zyuk. The team was picked up by helicopters.

SChS-1239 washed ashore at Cape Zyuk. The crew managed to get ashore on their own.

In the Yenikale area, Chroni, at the entrance to the Kerch Strait, crashed onto the coastal rocks at 2 a.m. SChS-1148. The captain and chief engineer were killed. The rest of the crew was removed by helicopter pilots.

Hard night...

Navigation in the Sea of ​​Azov requires attention. Even special attention, because shallow waters and unpredictable processes create a danger for navigation. In addition, lost ships complicate the approaches to the northern ports and it is necessary to constantly carry out work to maintain shipping channels in order. But the sinter trucks are not visible in Azov: the Kamysh-Burunsky plant no longer produces ore.

The loss of ships in the Sea of ​​Azov is not news. The statistics already cited for the last century indicate that dozens of ships perished in this small body of water every year. Since then, the composition of the fleet has improved, weather service has improved, and crew training has improved.

But... Disasters still happen, and especially often with small vessels.

Svezhak is tearing himself up. Urging on the rampage

Sea of ​​Azov trough

Watermelon upon watermelon - and the hold is loaded,

The pier is covered with watermelons.

A breaker hits the thick bearded forest,

To scatter in splashes,

I will choose a kavun as loud as a tambourine

And I’ll cut out the heart with a knife...

The desert sun sets in the brine,

And they’ll push out the month in waves...

The fresh air is blowing!

Backhand!

Oak, move the sails!

The sea is full of thick lambs,

And the watermelons are rubbing, and it’s dark in the hold...

With two fingers, like a boatswain, the wind whistles,

And the clouds are packed tightly together,

And the steering wheel fidgets, and the trim cracks,

And the canvases were taken into the reefs.

Through the waves - right through!

Through the rain - at random!

In the whistling, persecuted soap,

We grope

Sobbing and out of tune

Linen wings snore.

We're caught in a wild carousel

And the sea tramples like a market,

Throws us aground

We're running aground

Our last poutine.

This description of the Azov storm belongs to the poet E. Bagritsky. (266) Little has changed in nature since then, since 1924.

...There are numerous cases of ships being discovered in the ocean without crews. The mysterious region of the “Bermuda Triangle” in the Atlantic Ocean is especially distinguished by this. So, from 1840 to 1955. A dozen serviceable ships were discovered in the Bermuda Triangle, but without crews. Much has been written about the disappearance of ships in the Devil's Sea, which lies southwest of Japan. Dozens of cases of this kind were described by L. Kushe (267). Among the victims were quite large ships and small sailing ships. Airplanes also disappeared. Here is one of the relatively recent episodes in the Atlantic Ocean.

In July 1969, five (!) ships abandoned by their crews were found in the Atlantic Ocean and, surprisingly, on one of them, the Tinmouth Electron, the participant and leader of the round-the-world races of solo yachtsmen, Donald Crowhurst, disappeared. This was reported by the London Times on July 11, 1969. The weather was excellent, the trimaran yacht was in perfect order, the logbook was filled, personal belongings, an inflatable boat, and a life raft were in their places. The athlete disappeared. On July 27, 1969, The New York Times reported that the search had been called off.

On June 30, 1969, northeast of Bermuda, a 60-foot vessel without a crew and keel up was spotted from the English motor ship Maplebank (The Times, July 12, 1969)

On July 4, the Cotopaxi discovered a 35-foot yacht in the central Atlantic with automatic control, but ... without a crew (The Times, July 12, 1969)

On July 6, the Swedish motor ship Golar Frost found the sailing yacht Vagabond in the ocean about 200 miles from the place where the Teignmouth Electron yacht was found. And also without a crew. The yacht was boarded by the Swedes (The Times, July 12, 1969)

On July 8, between Bermuda and the Azores, the English tanker Hilisoma picked up an overturned yacht 36 feet long (New York Times, July 13, 1969). All vessels were discovered in a calm ocean, in clear and calm weather. A representative of the marine insurance company Lloyd's, regarding accidents with sailing ships in the Bermuda Triangle and the Central Atlantic, said: “Well, miracles happen in such a patch of such a vast ocean.” This all looks strange. The newspaper campaign in the West dedicated to these events lasted a long time and attracted public attention. Having read L. Kushe’s book about the Bermuda Triangle, I had no idea that such mysterious events were possible in domestic waters. One such serious incident in the Sea of ​​Azov was written about in the Soviet press, but much less. Nevertheless, the incident was completely unexpected and mysterious.

...The Mariupol school of young sailors in the Donetsk region decided that in mid-July 1989 the cadets, under the guidance of experienced sailors, would carry out maritime practice on small ships on a cruise around the Azov region and at the same time get acquainted with the main ports of the Azov Sea. (268)

There was no radio communication on the ships. This was a big disadvantage of the cruise, due to the poverty of the club. But the sea was its own, nearby. Many people swam without radio communication. We'll make do! - the cruise directors decided.

Nine small ships set off on the journey. In 12 days they had to visit Berdyansk, Kerch, Yeisk. But only seven ships returned from the Azov campaign. Two yachts - "Mariupol" and "YAL-6" continued their cruise. And that’s where the two yachts disappeared.

There was no news for two days. On the third day, two cruise participants came to the club in Mariupol - Svetlana Tkacheva, a seventeen-year-old girl, a crane operator of the Azovmash association, and a ten-year-old schoolboy, nephew of the yacht captain Sergei Maksimenko. The story shocked the club's leaders.

On that black day there were no signs of trouble. By evening, dinner was cooked in the galley on the yacht, and the attendant jumped into the boat with dinner. In the distance one could see the outline of the Long Spit. The boy and girl went to the cockpit to sleep. In her sleep, the girl heard the cruise director, Dmitry Kharkov, calling cadet Volodya Golovin from the cockpit. In the morning, while it was still dark, they woke up to the yacht rocking. There was no one on deck and no one at the helm either. "YAL-6" was nearby. They suspected that the entire crew, all ten people, were on the boat. The boy waved the carrying lamp for a long time - no one responded. They shouted for a long time - there was no answer. The yacht was washed aground by an oncoming wave. The boy managed to start the diesel engine, pulled out an anchor, approached the boat - no one was there. They still hoped that the others were swimming somewhere. It took the yacht two days to reach the lighthouse on Dolgaya Spit. We ran out of fuel and set sail. In the morning, fishermen passed by on a motorboat, but, obviously, they did not understand the guys and passed by. Seryozha and Svetlana anchored the yacht, put their things in a bag, and moved ashore. We got to Yeysk by bus. There were no tickets for the Comet from Yeisk to Mariupol. With tears, Sveta persuaded the captain to take them on board and immediately came to the club.