Bulgaria’s Navy Hydrographic Service, now carrying the English text on its in-force NAVWARN board and on the Varna Radio / VTMIS warning page, prints NAVWARN 777/26 as a next-week Burgas Bay hydrographic-survey berth, not as a wreck rewrite. The working primary is: NAVWARN 777/26 BLACK SEA. BULGARIA BURGAS BAY HYDROGRAPHIC CUTTER 331 WILL CONDUCT HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEY FROM 030615 UTC TO 061600 UTC NOV 2026. MARINERS REQUESTED TO MAINTAIN SAFE DISTANCE MINIMUM 3 CABLES. That is the product. It names a cutter, it names Burgas Bay, it names a 3–6 November UTC window, and it names a requested three-cable berth. It does not name a wreck, a four-corner prohibited box, a port closure, or a new weapon clock.
That is the first dedicated Black Sea survey instrument after this afternoon’s dedicated Galata diving box. This afternoon’s dedicated NAVWARN 776/26 piece on this desk, published about 11:35 UTC, recorded the four-corner prohibition south of Cape Galata and wrapped 777/26 as a same-board Burgas berth. Saturday night takes that berth as the primary. This morning’s dedicated NAVWARN 775/26 remains the coast-wide two-hour territorial-sea e-mail to [email protected]. Thursday afternoon’s dedicated NAVWARN 768/26 remains Contship Jet, IMO 9348625, sunk in 43-07.80N 028-45.36E with more than 20 dangerous-goods containers adrift. Thursday morning’s dedicated 766/26 remains the five-cable keep-clear on Khoryv, IMO 8138712, at 43-30.60N 028-43.69E. 777/26 sits on the same in-force board, above those wrecks and beside 776/26 and 775/26. It is not a second drone attack. It is not a rewrite of 776/26, 775/26, 768/26 or 766/26. Masters who brief Saturday night as a Burgas harbour shutdown, as a completed container recovery, as a new Kaliakra wreck, or as this morning’s 189-26 will have merged a survey cutter into four other series.
What the warning actually printed
The hydrographic text is short and is the working primary. NAVWARN 777/26. Black Sea. Bulgaria. Burgas Bay. Hydrographic cutter 331 will conduct hydrographic survey from 030615 UTC to 061600 UTC November 2026. Mariners requested to maintain safe distance minimum 3 cables. Stay with that wording. Do not invent a four-corner box. 777/26 prints a named cutter and a requested berth, not a closed rectangle. Do not invent a VHF working channel, a guard ship, or a daylight-only window. The notice does not print those. Do not invent a start on 31 October or 1 November. The window opens at 030615 UTC on 3 November and closes at 061600 UTC on 6 November. Do not invent a latitude and longitude for the cutter. 777/26 does not print a plot. Burgas Bay is the working water, not a single waypoint.
The berth is the first briefing fact. Three cables is 0.3 nautical miles. That is a requested safe distance around a named hydrographic cutter, not a harbour closure and not a five-activity prohibition. Cape Galata and Varna sit on the northern Bulgarian approach. Burgas Bay sits on the southern Bulgarian coast, on the order of 50 nautical miles south of the Galata box and well south-west of Thursday’s Kaliakra wreck water. A passage plan that only carried this afternoon’s Galata corners, or that treated Burgas as a visual mark because 768/26 still prints no radius, has not budgeted a moving survey hull in the southern bay from Tuesday through Friday of next week. SeaLagom’s coastal board, industry colour of public availability only, first carried 777/26 at 1547 UTC 30 October on the same stamp as 776/26; the official hydrographic English archive is the working text. Do not treat 1547 UTC as a start-of-enforcement clock that the NAVWARN itself does not print.
The requested wording is the second briefing fact. Mariners are requested to maintain a safe distance of minimum 3 cables. That is not “area prohibited for navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and underwater activities.” A master who treats 777/26 as a hard box because this afternoon’s 776/26 closed Galata has over-read a survey berth. A master who treats 777/26 as colour only because the notice says “requested” has under-read a named cutter that will work the bay for more than three days. A fishing boat, a yacht, a feeder inbound to Burgas or a ship cutting the bay on a southbound coastal track all sit inside that sentence. The notice does not carve out warships, yachts, or ships in innocent passage. Innocent passage still has to give the cutter room. 775/26’s two-hour e-mail does not authorise a close CPA on 331.
The clock is the third briefing fact. 030615 UTC 3 November to 061600 UTC 6 November is a seventy-five-and-three-quarter-hour window in the first half of next week, not this weekend. It opens fifteen minutes after the Galata box and runs one day longer, through Friday 6 November. 757/26 still closes a Varna Lake regatta box through 311700 UTC today and again 010800–011600 UTC 1 November; that is a lake product, not this coastal survey, and it ends before cutter 331 starts. A DPA who briefs Saturday night as “Burgas is closed now” has pulled next week’s survey onto today’s lake regatta. A DPA who leaves 777/26 out of Monday night orders because “it is only a survey” has left a named cutter off the Burgas approach.
Same-board instruments, not second primaries, remain in force around this berth. NAVWARN 776/26 remains this afternoon’s dedicated Galata diving box: naval exercise, diving operations 030600 UTC 3 November to 051430 UTC 5 November, four corners 43-04.765N 027-54.949E, 43-04.767N 027-55.055E, 43-04.120N 027-55.807E and 43-04.120N 027-55.056E, prohibited for navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and underwater activities. NAVWARN 775/26 remains this morning’s dedicated two-hour territorial-sea e-mail to [email protected], fields SP A / H+C / G / I / P / W / X. NAVWARN 768/26 remains the working Contship Jet wreck-and-cargo instrument, 43-07.80N 028-45.36E, extreme caution, over 20 containers including flammable gases, non-flammable non-toxic gases, flammable liquids and other dangerous goods. NAVWARN 766/26 remains the Khoryv five-cable keep-clear, 43-30.60N 028-43.69E, capsized, semi-submerged, drifting, without crew and lights. NAVWARN 757/26 remains the Varna Lake BRIZ-ESEN 2026 regatta prohibition through this afternoon and again on 1 November. None of those numbers is 777/26. Do not merge a Galata diving box, a coast-wide e-mail, or a lake regatta into a Burgas survey berth.
What this is not
This is not a rewrite of the Galata diving box. This afternoon’s dedicated NAVWARN 776/26 remains the working Varna-approach prohibition: four corners south of Cape Galata, 030600–051430 UTC 3–5 November, navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and underwater activities closed. 777/26 does not reprint those corners. It does not apply a five-activity prohibition to Burgas Bay. A master who thinks the Galata box covers a Burgas inbound track next Tuesday has invented a closed southern rectangle the notice does not print. Stay out of the Galata box, and still give cutter 331 three cables in Burgas Bay.
This is not a rewrite of the territorial-sea e-mail. This morning’s dedicated NAVWARN 775/26 remains the working reporting instrument: all ships planning navigation through Bulgarian territorial sea, two hours before entry, e-mail [email protected] with the SP A / H+C / G / I / P / W / X pack. 777/26 does not replace that mail. It does not amend the mailbox. It does not add a Burgas-survey field. A master who thinks the two-hour pack covers a close CPA on 331 has invented a permit the notice does not print. Send the mail, and still keep three cables from the cutter.
This is not a rewrite of Contship Jet. Thursday afternoon’s dedicated NAVWARN 768/26 remains the working wreck: M/V CONTSHIP JET, IMO 9348625, sunk at 282030 UTC 28 October in 43-07.80N 028-45.36E, over 20 dangerous-goods containers adrift, extreme caution, no radius, no wreck buoy, no least depth. 777/26 does not reprint that plot. Burgas Bay sits on the order of 50 nautical miles south-west of the wreck, on the southern commercial coast, not on the Kaliakra drone-hit water. A DPA who briefs Saturday night as “the wreck box” has moved a containership onto a survey cutter. Sightings of the wreck, of containers, of pollution or of persons in the water still belong with the coastal-state MRCC and with the company security officer. They are not a substitute for giving 331 room, and the cutter is not a substitute for them.
This is not a rewrite of Khoryv. Thursday morning’s dedicated NAVWARN 766/26 remains the working five-cable keep-clear east of Shabla: 43-30.60N 028-43.69E, IMO 8138712, capsized, semi-submerged, drifting, without crew and lights. Friday’s dedicated Romanian Naval Authority file remains the Khoryv casualty and search piece. Tuesday’s dedicated ARN 158/2026 remains the last Romanian wreck-move and is no longer the working keep-clear. 777/26 does not move 43-30.60N 028-43.69E. It does not apply a five-cable circle to Burgas Bay. Three cables on a live cutter is not five cables on a capsized hull. Do not collapse the two wrecks into the survey berth, and do not apply Khoryv’s radius to a ship that has only failed to plot a moving cutter.
This is not Warning 190-26, and it is not a Hormuz or Aden product. Tonight’s companion UKMTO Suspicious Activity is a Friday 1419 UTC boarded fishing vessel with a Pirate Action Group concern. It does not name a Burgas cutter. This morning’s dedicated 189-26 remains a time-late 28 October crude-oil-tanker projectile on an outbound Hormuz transit. NAVAREA IX still ends, on the Pakistan Saturday table, at 423/26 as an in-force list and at 422/26 as a southern-Gulf dhow sailing race; 420/26 remains last night’s dedicated RITI fire-and-anchor. This is not Update 110. Update 109 remains the last numbered public periodic note. This is not an International Maritime Organization 123-count. This afternoon’s dedicated highlighted-incidents board is the 122-count as at 30 October. Contship Jet, Khoryv and a Burgas survey cutter do not belong on that table. 777/26 does not put them there.
This is not a Varna, Burgas, Constanta, Midia, Mangalia or Sulina closure. 777/26 requests three cables around cutter 331 in Burgas Bay for about 76 hours next week. It does not close the port. It does not print a traffic-separation change. It does not print an armed-boarding warning. 757/26 is a Varna Lake regatta through this afternoon and 1 November, not a Black Sea coastal closure. Do not merge a harbour-training circle or a lake prohibition into a southern-bay survey. 777/26 is a named cutter with a requested berth. It is not a shoreline-pollution confirmation and not a completed container recovery.
This is not Wine Trader at 45-00.40N 029-59.92E, not HS Dignity, not Chelsea 3, not MApN 213, not the EP 432-52-88 / CSAT vote, and not Tuesday’s NATO extra-MPA note. Open-register colour on the two wrecks is unchanged from Thursday’s dedicated files and stays colour here. None of that listing colour sits on 777/26. Do not promote it to a NAVWARN fact.
Operational implications
For a master shaping Burgas between Tuesday and Friday of next week, Thursday’s two wreck plots are still on the board, this morning’s two-hour e-mail is still in front of the 12-mile line, this afternoon’s Galata box still sits on the Varna approach through Thursday, and a named survey cutter now works the southern bay through Friday. 768/26 still puts a sunk containership at 43-07.80N 028-45.36E with an unlocated dangerous-goods box field. 766/26 still puts a five-cable keep-clear on Khoryv at 43-30.60N 028-43.69E. 775/26 still requires the ship to identify itself two hours before the territorial-sea line. 776/26 still requires the Varna passage plan to go around 43-04.765N 027-54.949E / 43-04.767N 027-55.055E / 43-04.120N 027-55.807E / 43-04.120N 027-55.056E from 030600 UTC 3 November to 051430 UTC 5 November. 777/26 now requires the Burgas passage plan to keep a minimum of three cables from hydrographic cutter 331 from 030615 UTC 3 November to 061600 UTC 6 November. A passage plan that only carried the Kaliakra, Shabla and Galata offsets, or that treated Burgas Bay as open water because the wrecks sit 50-plus miles north-east, has not budgeted a moving survey hull on the southern inbound track. Innocent passage still has to give the cutter room.
For a DPA and an operator with feeders or general cargo on Piraeus–Burgas, Istanbul–Burgas, or any west-Black-Sea rotation next week, the split is the operational content. The two-hour SP mail still goes to [email protected]. The Galata box is still a navigation prohibition on the Varna approach through Thursday. The Burgas berth is a requested three-cable CPA on a named cutter, not a reporting substitute and not a closed rectangle. Further sightings of Contship Jet, of Khoryv, of containers, of pollution or of persons in the water belong with the coastal-state MRCC and with the company security officer, not with UKMTO 190-26 or 189-26. 777/26 does not order an armed team, a daylight-only transit, or a deviation around Thursday’s wrecks. It also does not authorise a master to close the cutter because the ship is only inbound to Burgas. Log the warning number, the cutter name, Burgas Bay, the 030615–061600 UTC 3–6 November window, the three-cable requested berth, and the fact that 776/26, 775/26, 768/26 and 766/26 remain the working Galata box, e-mail and wreck instruments. Do not log a harbour closure, a four-corner box, a wreck buoy, or a completed recovery that 777/26 does not print.
Same-board 776/26 is next week’s Galata diving box, not this afternoon’s Burgas survey. From 030600 UTC 3 November through 051430 UTC 5 November, a small coastal rectangle south of Cape Galata is prohibited. That number belongs in the 3–5 November night orders for Varna-bound ships. It does not replace 777/26, and 777/26 does not replace it. 757/26 still closes a Varna Lake box through 311700 UTC today and again on 1 November; that is a lake regatta, not a substitute coastal prohibition, and it ends before the Burgas window opens. NAVWARN 93/26, still in force on the same board, remains the unlit, unmanoeuvrable MV KAIROS at anchor in Burgas Bay at 42-30.40N 027-48.10E with a five-cable keep-clear. That is a standing Burgas hazard, not a 777/26 rewrite. Hold both. Do not convert cutter 331 onto KAIROS, and do not treat three cables around 331 as a substitute for five cables around KAIROS.
Keep the dedicated files on their own lines. 776/26 remains this afternoon’s dedicated Galata diving box and is still in force. 775/26 remains this morning’s dedicated two-hour territorial-sea e-mail and is still in force. 768/26 remains Thursday afternoon’s dedicated Contship Jet wreck-and-cargo piece and is still in force. 766/26 remains Thursday morning’s dedicated Khoryv five-cable keep-clear and is still in force. 759/26 remains Thursday morning’s dedicated surface-drone-hit piece and is no longer the working caution. Friday’s ANR Khoryv naming remains the casualty/search piece. Wine Trader remains the dedicated Sulina fire. 190-26 is tonight’s companion PAG fishing-vessel boarding. 189-26 is this morning’s dedicated Hormuz time-late Attack. 188-26 remains last night’s Lavan Island Attack. 187-26 remains Friday morning’s Khasab attached-device Attack. 420/26 remains last night’s dedicated RITI fire-and-anchor. Update 109 remains the last periodic Middle East threat note. 016-26 remains Wednesday afternoon’s blockade document pack. Do not recast 31 October night as a second Contship attack, as a Burgas closure, as Warning 190-26, as a rewrite of this afternoon’s 776/26, or as a completed salvage.
What Operators Should Note
- Log 777/26 as a next-week Burgas survey berth, not as a wreck rewrite and not as a Galata box. NAVWARN 777/26, 30 October 2026. Black Sea, Bulgaria, Burgas Bay. Hydrographic cutter 331. Hydrographic survey 030615 UTC 3 November to 061600 UTC 6 November. Mariners requested to maintain a safe distance of minimum 3 cables. No wreck plot, no four-corner box, no port closure on this notice. This is not 776/26, not 775/26, not 768/26, not 766/26, and not a harbour shutdown.
- Treat the berth as a moving CPA, not as a closed rectangle. Three cables is 0.3 nautical miles around a named cutter. The notice does not print a latitude/longitude or a prohibited area. Burgas Bay is the working water. Innocent passage, a Burgas call, and a southbound coastal track all sit inside the requested berth. The window opens Tuesday 3 November at 0615 UTC, not today, and runs through Friday 6 November at 1600 UTC — fifteen minutes after Galata opens and one day longer than Galata closes.
- Do not borrow Galata’s hard-box wording onto Burgas. 776/26 remains in force: four corners south of Cape Galata, 030600–051430 UTC 3–5 November, prohibited for navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and underwater activities. That is a Varna-approach prohibition. 777/26 is a requested berth on the southern coast. Do not invent a VHF channel, a guard ship, or a daylight-only relaxation the notice does not print. Do not invent a four-corner Burgas box the notice does not print.
- Do not merge this berth onto Contship Jet, Khoryv or the territorial-sea e-mail. 768/26 remains in force: Contship Jet, IMO 9348625, 43-07.80N 028-45.36E, over 20 dangerous-goods containers, extreme caution, no radius. 766/26 remains in force: Khoryv, IMO 8138712, 43-30.60N 028-43.69E, five-cable keep-clear. 775/26 remains in force: two-hour SP mail to [email protected] before the 12-mile line. Sightings of those hulls still go to the MRCC, not to cutter 331 as a substitute. 190-26 is tonight’s companion fishing-vessel PAG boarding. 189-26 is this morning’s time-late Hormuz Attack. Update 109 remains last periodic note. 016-26 remains the blockade document pack.
- Hold 757/26 and 93/26 on their own lines. 757/26 still prohibits a Varna Lake box through 311700 UTC today and again 010800–011600 UTC 1 November. 93/26 still puts unlit, unmanoeuvrable MV KAIROS at 42-30.40N 027-48.10E in Burgas Bay with a five-cable keep-clear. Neither is cutter 331. Do not brief Saturday as a Burgas or Varna closure because a lake regatta and a standing disabled hull sit on the same board. Do not convert 331 onto KAIROS.
- Treat a missed CPA as an approach problem, not as a completed wreck recovery. 777/26 does not cancel 776/26, 775/26, 768/26 or 766/26. It does not mark a wreck buoy, a least depth, a pollution line or a salvage. Watch a later NAVWARN that names a hull against the cutter, converts the three-cable line into a closed area, or prints a plot; a later ministry note on the 18 or the 421; or a flag/class statement. Do not brief Saturday as a completed hull or cargo recovery because Bulgaria has asked for three cables around a survey cutter next week.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining NAVWARN 777/26 against this afternoon’s dedicated 776/26 Galata diving box and against Thursday’s dedicated 768/26 Contship Jet wreck and 766/26 Khoryv keep-clear so operators can treat Saturday night’s product as a 3–6 November requested three-cable berth around hydrographic cutter 331 in Burgas Bay, not as a second attack, a harbour closure, or a completed salvage.
