Kamchatka to Anadyr; Anadyr

June 19, 2013

This time we were going virtually North to cover approximately 15 degrees or 900 Nm.

Departure went relatively smooth and though our Ukraine Margherita (Tatjana according to Urs) was not over-active, just sitting in the car to show her beauty, she knew how to handle the Authorities and that means in Russia 90% of the possible hindrances are taken away.

We had to use the old runway 34R full with uneven spots, even small holes. 34L is under preparation and will be virtually a new runway, once finished. I am confident it will be ready upon our next arrival in Kamchatka.

The country is showing as much snow tops as Switzerland. It was a beautiful scenery all the way until clouds close to our destination blocked our view.

Predictions for Anadyr were not very good with wind gusts upto 16 metres per second which I translated into Beaufort 8. Thanks Reima.

The arrival at Anadyr would mean we had covered just over 50% of the entire voyage of 18.000 Nm.

Once we landed with a strong 75 degrees cross wind -Urs helped me to let it go well- we felt the cold at 65 degrees North. It was only 6 degrees Celcius. We discovered some oil spots on the belly of the fuselage which must have originated from the strut/forewheel cylinder. Fortunately Fabian Conne is always at 0715 in the office, so Urs could talk to him instantly about this problem. It did not look serious at all.

Still we cleaned the outside of the frontwheel strut and Urs followed Fabian’s recommendations what to do after cleaning. After we came back from the a/c the second time, Urs could not find his crew bag with everything in it. His passport and documents were of minor importance since we certainly could have obtained new ones within a month or so, but the photographs of his grand childern would be lost since we had no internet connection needed to get a fresh supply photo’s of Sophia, Loris and Anna. In panic we called Igor and pleaded his assistance. He came right away, guided us to the aircraft virtually slaloming through the customs and security officers. Urs found his crew bag waiting for him inside the aircraft. Ha ha. Igor’s renumeration we traded right away.

Back in the hotel Igor advised to visit a small shop down below, since the hotel had no restaurant whilst we could not leave the airport. The ferry boat needed for a passage to the city did not operate due to the (too) strong winds. In a prison one has no options [waar niets is verliest de keizer zijn kroon, zegt mijn moeder. Translation: where is nothing the emperor looses his crown].

So we bought some yoghurts, coffee, toast (for the Dutch cheese present we had to use now unexpectedly ourselves). It was Nescafé, Francois.

Then we made a walk of maximum half an hour, we started warm but the ice cold wind brought our body temperature down quickly.

We did eat our dinner, drank a Nescafė coffee and I convinced Urs to start reading a Goethe story. He has not expressed himself clearly yet as to his findings. The curtains were thin, the night did not come at all at this latitude less than one week prior to the longest day, but we both did sleep very well.

What I have not achieved in Anadyr is to visit or even to call Mr Sergey Pasechinov, the Agent for Spliethoff and BigLift ships in Anadyr. The route to the city was blocked and both phone numbers I received from Andrew Kuchin in Vladivostok did not work. So I prepared in the hotel a package for him with Dutch cheese, Swiss chocolates and a Spliethoff and BigLift brochure and requested Igor to take of delivery to him once the ferries would operate again. I gave him more than enough money to bring it by helicopter and I sent an apology via Andrew Kuchin. Nothing more I could have done.

Next morning to the a/c where we spent a lot of time with the customs and security Officers since we did not carry an Immigration Card. We also were asked for the same Card in Novosibirsk, in Chita and in Khabarovsk but we always got away by saying that we had only a passport and a multiple visa for Russia. This time not. Blanc Immigration Cards were taken from their office, we filled them and the Custom Officers put various stamps on them.

Then they had a look at the inside if the a/c but believe they considered this a hopeless case. From some days ago I still have two photograps of the interior of the a/c so you can form your opinion.

This time they did not ask us to open the service bay doors, like they asked us to open in Chita.

We were happy and relieved being able to depart with a good looking strut of the front wheel.

Will be continued once arriving in Anchorage, a day earlier than we left Anadyr.

Theun, Wiecher, Maas en Hidde. Lezen jullie wel mee en wanneer komt jullie eerste Email voor opa Harry?