Nessabur

Day 9 Nessebur, Bulgaria Monday 8th October , Dry with sunny intervals, 23C, but very windy!

Another day and another new country for us, Bulgaria. The longest distance between two ports without a day at sea, 329.3 nautical miles so we have been steaming at over 21 knots all night, The distance means we don't reach the bay, we drop anchor and tender to the town, until 9am so plenty of time for breakfast before we even see land. We love to watch, and photograph' the views as we approach each port, especially the new ones. It is amazing how few people are on deck to watch each sail in!

Nessebur is an ancient town and one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, located in the Burgas Province. The ancient part of the town is on a peninsular, formerly an island, connected to the mainland by a narrow man-made isthmus. Nessebur was made a world heritage site in 1983 because of the abundance of historic buildings.

The main square, Nessabur

Off as usual on first tender to find that it might be dry and warm, but very windy. Sea is calm so tender ride relatively smooth. Nessebur has narrow cobbled streets with old buildings and churches wherever you go. Most of the buildings have been turned into shops for the cruise market and the place is NOT the better for this. We explored most of the 'island' and looked at the man made causeway which links the old island to the mainland. The seafront areas showed that it was now off season and the wind made them even less welcoming. There were some pretty areas but generally we felt it lacked a something, don't know what but it just did not seem to do what it should have. It could have been the wind. Back on an empty tender to the ship for a swim before lunch and yet another lazy afternoon: we are on holiday!

One of the many churches

Afternoon weather much less windy and some late sunshine. When the wind dropped the ship swung around to give us a wonderful panoramic view, from our balcony of the Bulgarian coast line, bathed in bright sunshine! When the wind was at its strongest, about gale force, the ship had to use its thrusters both aft and bow as well as the front anchor to keep position.

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