Black Sea, Ukraine – Danube River Delta – CAUTION

The Danube entry/exit at Ust Dunaysk in Ukraine is no longer navigable.

We attempted an exit in our 14m yacht with the 2m draft and found the channel to the exit to open water totally unmaintained, unmarked and very shallow, grounding several times in broad reaches of the river en-route. At the exit, we were unable to find any depth greater than 1.8m.

The main shipping channel now is via the next main channel downstream from Vilkove.

This is marked with port/stbd buoys. The long exit to open waters was being dredged 15 June 2008, and we found depths of less than 3m in it. A fairway buoy is located on the 20m line in position approx 45 18.8 N 29 49 E. An entry from seaward would require caution, though large ships were being piloted through the channel, as the location of deep water in the channel is not at all obvious.

Peter Newman

S/Y Jack Tar