Tuesday May 17 - Mandrogi

DAY 9, Tuesday - Daylight Sailing
Enjoy daylight sailing and the morning at leisure on board. Stop in the romantic village of Mandrogi, whose name literally means "pine-trees on the bog," to enjoy time at leisure to explore the city. Rejoin the ship and continue sailing for St. Petersburg. This evening, celebrate your final night sailing at a farewell dinner and gala talent show.
Overnight: Cruise
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The morning was at leisure and it was chilly and overcast so after breakfast we sat in the lounge read and drank tea.

We arrived at Mandrogi at 11am. This is a riverside village dotted with wooden and stone cottages mainly for the tourists. There are a number of artisan shops and a pub. The men were getting a little bleary with the shopping so Darren and John headed to the pub. 

Group number six were to meet at 12:45 for a BBQ lunch. It was too bad that today turned out to be the coldest so far but still the food was very good. We had selected our type of meat last night and we were served huge kabobs of our choice with baked potato, bread, a stuffed bread with meat, cabbage, beets. They were selling beer and vodka shots.

Back on board at 2:15 for our final sailing to St. Petersburg which is 1805 km from Moscow.

At 5:30 the women are going to the master-class on making good luck dolls, we had bought out materials last night for 250 ruples.

Tonight was the Captain's Dinner in celebration of our last night of sailing. Dress was smart casual once again. This really doesn't mean too much but some people do make an effort to dress up.

The captain going from table to table toasting the passengers

Baked Alaska