© A. Kharuto, 2005
The North Dvina river: 200 miles under sail (1992)
The North Dvina begins from the confluence of the great Sukhona river and a smaller river Yug (="South" in Russian), which floats from the South to the town Ust-Yug (="the mouth of Yug river"), the native place of the Grandfather Frost.
We passed along the first river, Sukhona (500 km), with two canoes in 1969. The North Dvina river runs from the confluence point about 650 km and flows onto the White Sea at the Arkhangelsk city. After this great trip we planed to paddle until the White Sea, but... I returned to Dvina river only in 1992, and not with a canoe, but with a self-made sail catamaran.
My team included the oldest daughter Katia (1976) and my friend Victor, an old paddling amateur. Only I understanded to drive a sail boat (I do it from my childhood). We traveled during 18 days in August. From this time, 3 days we lost waiting on a bank until a strom finishes. Than, about 2 days we gathered berries and were cooking confiture. A tail-wind helped us only 2 days, and we passed on these days about 50-60 km instead of usual 20-25 per day. As result, we covered 200 miles, a little more than 1/2 of the entire river length.
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