To St Petersburg: desk studies

DISCLAIMER! All information below is only the best of my present knowledge, and it may be incomplete, incorrect or (unintentionally) misleading, or whatever. Therefore, please do not blame me if you get in any trouble using the knowledge you find here, or in ofelia2.com in general. I will update the text when necessary until our visit is over or aborted.

This post will be a boring list of procedures. During this week the coronavirus has been declared pandemic. It remains to be seen, how it affects our plans. So far I will keep calm and carry on preparing this trip. It is at least more fun than panicking with the numbers of ill and dead caused by the virus.

There are a number of things one has to consider when boating to Russia: how to get there and back the correct route, the customs and border control, and visas. I have now spent quite some time to collect information about those.

How to get to Kronstadt and back the correct route?

One of the first concerns was the correct route. I got earlier an impression that the only way to enter Russia – the Saimaa canal excluded – by boat from the Finnish side would be from Haapasaari to Kronstadt. Haapasaari has a Finnish Coast Guard station for the passport inspection and other paperwork related to entering the Russian border. From Haapasaari it is about 80 NM open sea to Kronstadt island, which has an entry port for the foreign leisure boats. From Kronstadt it is a short sail to St Petersburg.

I was hoping we could enter or leave Russia towards Vyborg, but it is obviously impossible. At least I have not yet found any reliable, i.e. official documents where it is said to be possible. It is a pity, because it would be more relaxed and interesting to sail along the coast towards St Petersburg. The 80 NM open sea leg is rather long for a day sail, and it has quite heavy traffic. A boat entering Kronstadt has to follow the shipping line and may not alter the course more than 2 NM. It is also prohibited to find shelter regardless of the weather.

I don’t want to enter any unknown harbour late in the evening or at night, especially not Kronstadt. 80 Nautical miles means about 14 hours of boating with 6 kn speed. We shall be motoring, when having a headwind or when the speed would go below 6 kn. The winds tend to be westerly, so the headwind is expected on the way back. We will not start if the weather forecast is somehow discouraging.

We have two options to be at Kronstadt during the daylight: starting very early in the morning, say at five o’clock and entering Kronstadt around seven o’clock in the evening, or leaving sometime in the afternoon, sailing the widest shipping line during the night and entering the narrower zone at daylight. The latter choice has some advantages, as the wind tends to die towards the evening and motoring over the night is quite simple. Also at Kronstadt the local Coast guard and Customs would have their normal working hours upon our arrival (they have one hour’s time difference compared to Finland). The problem is that of the present Ofelia standard crew, only I have night sailing experience.

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There are again two basic options to get more night sailing experience: train the crew, or get somebody experienced on board. At present, both options are still open. It would be useful to train night sailing anyway; one never knows what might happen: just an engine failure is enough to change the plans. My default assumption is, however, to leave Haapasaari early in the morning and enter Kronstadt before it turns dark. There should be a possibility for each of the crew members to have a nap during the long day, and the threshold to wake up the napping skipper is low, should there be a need. The night before will be short anyway, I reckon.

The way back has similar issues, plus the possible restrictions given by the Russian authorities, such as when allowed to sail away. It should be easier to enter the home country, though.

The Russian authorities require paper charts on board. That is quite ok, I don’t want to sail myself without paper charts either. The challenge is to get the, I have turned to the British Admiralty. A 1:250 000 larger chart for planning and open sea sailing I have already in storage, the Finnish chart “Yleismerikartta 951, Itäinen Suomenlahti 1:250 000”

The customs and border control

Finally some written instructions! For the pleasure crafts the Finnish Boarder Guard gives instructions in several languages. Here is the English version https://www.raja.fi/guidelines/advice_to_boaters/border_checks_on_pleasure_craft The border check at Haapasaari for Russia will include the following:

• Passport and visa control.
• The skipper needs to show a passenger- and a crew list. There should be minimum four copies of them for the Russian authorities.
• Customs clearance. I tried to find out what that means in practice from https://tulli.fi/en/private-persons/faq/customs-information-service (English version), but it required a logging in, which didn’t work… I don’t think it is very vital for us, as we will be just normal tourists. I will update this as soon as I will have something relevant to tell.

The Haapasaari Coast Guard is open 8-22 o’clock, unless they have some urgent duties. We should notify them an hour prior to the border check. On VHF radio, the calling channel is 68 and the backup channel is 16.

Here is a picture of the Haapasaari Coast Guard Station, copied from https://www.raja.fi/slmv/organisaatio/merivartioasemat

It seems to be windy out there, just look at the flag…

Done, lets sail to Kronstadt! Easy… Here we are! At Kronstadt Island there are both the Russion Coast Guard and the Customs. The Coast Guard is said to be present 24/7 but the Customs only between 10-19 o’clock. One cannot go on land until the both procedures are clear. According to http://balticborder.com/procedure-of-clearance/ the procedure is as follows:

• We need to give a preliminary notice with all the data required by the Border Guard Service less than 24 hours before the the presumed time of arrival (or minimum 24 hours before?), either directly or through an appointed Agent. The last specification of the estimated time of arrival (ETA) should be presented by VHS, Skype or the mobile phone. Need to find those…
• We should be mooring at the zone of border – custom control (ZBCC) for the clearance process, and not to go on land before everything is clear. We should present the following documents:
  • “All onboard – arrival-departure (1 pc)
  • Crew list – arrival-departure (4 pcs)
  • Passenger list (if needed) (4 pcs)
  • General Declaration – arrival-departure (4 pcs)
  • Passenger customs declaration – arrival-departure (2 pcs)
  • Yacht’s Register document (copy, 2 pcs)
  • Skipper’s license (copy, 2 pcs)
  • Document certifying the owner (copy, 2 pcs)”

A number of different documents can be downloaded – as a RAR file – from the link above, or here. It includes a Bunker report, Money declaration, a couple of Pass declarations and a Store declaration. There is also a passenger list as an Excel file but in the case of Ofelia, there should be no passengers. Everybody should be a part of the Crew, maybe my mother excluded. She probably excludes herself from this journey anyway…

After the clearance we are allowed to stay in ZBCC maximum 12 hours, after we need to move to a yacht club at Fort Konstantin, or any other yacht club.

According to http://www.saint-petersburg.com/essentials/customs/ there are a few things to declare:

• Cash over 10 000 $. No problem for us, unfortunately…
• Travelers Cheques, stocks and securities. No problem, only travelers’ socks onboard.

In addition, there is a list of things one might need to pay duty:

• Tobacco. One has to be 17 years old to import or export tobacco.
• Alcohol. Individuals (21 years or over) are allowed to import/export up to two liters of alcoholic drinks undeclared. Is wine and beer defined as alcohol or does it only mean distilled products?
• Caviar. Individuals are allowed to import/export 250g of caviar (sturgeon roe). undeclared, provided it is packed in a sealed factory tin.
• Goods intended for production or commercial activity. Please, see the given link for more detailed explanation, if you feel insecure about this point. I don’t consider this being an issue.

There are items which require special permission to import/export and they are subject to mandatory declaration. One must also obtain a permission from particular departments of the Russian government if one wishes to carry them across Russian borders:

• Firearms, ammunition and explosives.
• Radioactive substances.
• Endangered species of flora and fauna, and any goods made from them or their parts. This includes sturgeon and caviar.
• Precious metals and precious stones, except as part of personal jewelry. There should be no jewels inboard Ofelia in any case. They only cause trouble when disappearing.
• Narcotics, psychotropic substances, toxins, and powerful drugs. Any prescription medicines that might fall into this category should have the prescription attached. I’d include all medicins requiring a prescription.
• Radio technology, excepting cellphones, but including GPS systems and any equipment operated at frequencies higher than 9Hz (or kHz, MHz, GHz?).
• Extremist film, photography, and publications. No state secrets, nor pornography. I think we can live with that, too…
• Objects of cultural significance.

The GPS thing might be interesting. Practically every boat has some kind of GPS systems nowadays. I will probably make a list of the two devices we have, the old chart plotter and a Garmin handheld GPS-navigator, which I use as a backup (it contains my mushroom places in forests marked on the maps. I consider those almost state secrets…), and all the computers we will have with us. Maybe they will be automatically included in the General Declaration – arrival-departure or some other document mentioned above.

Done, we visited the city of ST Petersburg, and now we are sailing back to Finland: We need to inform the time of departure in no less than 24 hours in advance, and more specified four hours before approaching the Check Point, i.e. Kronstadt. We will need to go through a similar procedure as described above. After that we are on our way to Haapasaari, Finland again – I hope…

Visas

Two basic types of visas seem to be available for us: the eVisa, which is good for the ST Petersburg area for citizens from a a number of countries, including Finland (better check that list, if you are non European. People from some countries need no visa at all) and the standard Tourist visa. Here is the link to eVisa. I filled it until I came to the point of paying just to see, what the application is and what it requires. It was quite straightforward including basic details, such as personal details, passport information, and information regarding travel plans while in St. Petersburg.

The thing that worries me at the moment, is that the eVisas can be checked in only some Check Points. The Kronstadt Check Point is not specifcally mentioned. In https://www.expresstorussia.com/news/the-free-e-visa-to-st-petersburg.html there is a following text: “the marine crossing points “Vysotsk”, “The big port of St. Petersburg (Marine station section)”, “Passenger port St. Petersburg” ” Could “The big port of St Petersburg” include the Kronstadt Check point? I need to find that out somehow.

The standard Tourist Visa can be applied in Russian Embassies or Consulates. The application form – with the possibility to choose the country and language – can be found here. For the visa one needs the following documents:

1. A passport with at least one blank page, valid for at least six months after the end of your proposed visit to Russia.
2. A completed and signed visa application form..
3. One recent passport sized photo.
4. A tourist confirmation either from the hotel where you will be staying or from your travel agent (Russian or otherwise).
5. A tourist voucher, also issued by the hotel or booking agent.
6. A passport valid for at least six months after the departure date on your visa application.

I have earlier applied a visa both through a Travel Agent and just by myself. It should not be done in the last moment, better to apply well in advance, especially if you do it privately. An invitation might be an issue to a pleasure boat crew. I need to study that in more detail.

Ofelia motoring by force towards east in headwind from Örö to Sommaröstrand, July, 2018. We had again some deadlines to meet…