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 776/26 as a next-week naval-exercise and diving-prohibition box, not as a wreck rewrite. The working primary is: NAVWARN 776/26 BLACK SEA. BULGARIA SOUTH OF CAPE GALATA NAVAL EXERCISE. DIVING OPERATIONS FROM 030600 UTC TO 051430 UTC NOV 2026 IN AREA BOUND BY: 43-04.765N 027-54.949E, 43-04.767N 027-55.055E, 43-04.120N 027-55.807E, 43-04.120N 027-55.056E. AREA PROHIBITED FOR NAVIGATION, ANCHORING, FISHING, DIVING AND UNDERWATER ACTIVITIES. That is the product. It names a four-corner box south of Cape Galata, it names a 3–5 November UTC window, and it names a five-activity prohibition. It does not name a wreck, a keep-clear radius in cables, a port closure, or a new weapon clock.
That is the first dedicated Black Sea exercise instrument after this morning’s dedicated two-hour territorial-sea e-mail. This morning’s dedicated NAVWARN 775/26 piece on this desk recorded the coast-wide mailbox [email protected] and wrapped 776/26 as a same-board next-week box. Saturday afternoon takes that box as the primary. 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. 776/26 sits on the same in-force board, above those wrecks and beside 775/26. It is not a second drone attack. It is not a rewrite of 775/26, 768/26 or 766/26. Masters who brief Saturday afternoon as a Varna harbour shutdown, as a completed container recovery, as a new Kaliakra wreck, or as this morning’s 189-26 will have merged a Galata diving box into four other series.
What the warning actually printed
The hydrographic text is short and is the working primary. NAVWARN 776/26. Black Sea. Bulgaria. South of Cape Galata. Naval exercise. Diving operations from 030600 UTC to 051430 UTC November 2026 in the area bound by 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. Area prohibited for navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and underwater activities. Stay with that wording. Do not invent a cable radius. 776/26 prints a four-corner box, not a circle. 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 030600 UTC on 3 November and closes at 051430 UTC on 5 November.
The box is the first briefing fact. Cape Galata sits on the Varna coastal approach, west of the Kaliakra wreck water and well west of the Shabla Khoryv keep-clear. The four corners describe a small coastal rectangle, roughly six-tenths of a nautical mile north–south and under a mile east–west, immediately south of the cape. Plot the corners. A passage plan that only carried Thursday’s wreck plots, or that treated the Bulgarian coast as a lookout problem because 768/26 still prints no radius, has not budgeted a prohibited patch on the Varna approach for Tuesday through Thursday of next week. SeaLagom’s coastal board, industry colour of public availability only, first carried 776/26 at 1547 UTC 30 October; 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 prohibition list is the second briefing fact. Navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and underwater activities are all closed inside the box for the printed window. That is a hard box, not a “mariners requested to keep clear.” A master who treats 776/26 as advisory colour because 777/26 only asks for three cables has under-read the Galata product. A fishing boat, a yacht, a survey launch or a ship cutting the cape close on a Varna inbound track all sit inside that sentence. The notice does not carve out warships, yachts, or ships in innocent passage. Innocent passage still has to go around the box. 775/26’s two-hour e-mail does not authorise a track through it.
The clock is the third briefing fact. 030600 UTC 3 November to 051430 UTC 5 November is a fifty-six-and-a-half-hour window in the first half of next week, not this weekend. 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 box. A DPA who briefs Saturday afternoon as “Galata is closed now” has pulled next week’s exercise onto today’s lake regatta. A DPA who leaves 776/26 out of Monday night orders because “it is only an exercise” has left a prohibited patch off the Varna approach.
Same-board instruments, not second primaries, remain in force around this box. 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 777/26, issued on the same 30 October clock, puts hydrographic cutter 331 in Burgas Bay from 030615 UTC to 061600 UTC 3–6 November, mariners requested to maintain a safe distance of minimum 3 cables. 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 776/26. Do not merge a Burgas survey berth, a coast-wide e-mail, or a lake regatta into a Galata diving box.
What this is not
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. 776/26 does not replace that mail. It does not amend the mailbox. It does not add a Galata-box field. A master who thinks the two-hour pack covers a track through 43-04.7N 027-55E next Tuesday has invented a permit the notice does not print. Send the mail, and still go around the box.
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. 776/26 does not reprint that plot. The Galata box sits about 35 nautical miles west of the wreck, on the Varna approach, not on the Kaliakra drone-hit water. A DPA who briefs Saturday afternoon as “the wreck box” has moved a containership onto a diving exercise. 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 staying out of the Galata box, and the box 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. 776/26 does not move 43-30.60N 028-43.69E. It does not apply a five-cable circle to Cape Galata. Do not collapse the two wrecks into the diving box, and do not apply Khoryv’s radius to a ship that has only failed to plot four corners.
This is not 777/26, and it is not a Burgas product. Same-board NAVWARN 777/26 remains unused as a dedicated file: hydrographic cutter 331, Burgas Bay, 030615 UTC to 061600 UTC 3–6 November, mariners requested to maintain a safe distance of minimum 3 cables. That is a requested berth around a named cutter on the southern Bulgarian coast, one day longer than the Galata window. It is not a prohibited box. It is not south of Cape Galata. Hold it as wrap on today’s 776/26 unless a later NAVWARN names a hull against the cutter or converts the three-cable line into a closed area. Do not brief Saturday as a Burgas closure because a survey cutter will work that bay from Tuesday.
This is not Warning 189-26, and it is not a Hormuz product. This morning’s companion UKMTO Attack is a time-late 28 October crude-oil-tanker projectile on an outbound Hormuz transit. It does not name a Galata box. 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. The highlighted-incidents board, treated as a companion Saturday product on this desk, is the 122-count as at 30 October. Contship Jet, Khoryv and a Galata diving box do not belong on that table. 776/26 does not put them there.
This is not a Varna, Burgas, Constanta, Midia, Mangalia or Sulina closure. 776/26 prohibits a small box south of Cape Galata for 56 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 cape diving box. 776/26 is a plotted, time-bounded prohibition. 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 776/26. Do not promote it to a NAVWARN fact.
Operational implications
For a master shaping Varna between Tuesday and Thursday 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, and a prohibited diving box now sits on the Cape Galata approach. 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 now requires the 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. A passage plan that only carried the Kaliakra and Shabla offsets, or that treated Cape Galata as a visual mark because the wrecks sit 30-plus miles east, has not budgeted a hard box on the Varna inbound track. Innocent passage still has to stay out of it.
For a DPA and an operator with feeders or general cargo on Piraeus–Varna, Istanbul–Varna 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 a navigation prohibition, not a reporting substitute. 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 189-26. 776/26 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 clip the cape because the ship is only inbound to Varna East. Log the warning number, the four corners, the 030600–051430 UTC 3–5 November window, the five-activity prohibition, and the fact that 775/26, 768/26 and 766/26 remain the working e-mail and wreck instruments. Do not log a harbour closure, a wreck buoy, or a completed recovery that 776/26 does not print.
Same-board 777/26 is next week’s Burgas survey, not this afternoon’s Galata box. From 030615 UTC 3 November through 061600 UTC 6 November, cutter 331 works Burgas Bay with a requested 3-cable berth. That number belongs in the 3–6 November night orders for Burgas-bound ships. It does not replace 776/26, and 776/26 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 Galata window opens.
Keep the dedicated files on their own lines. 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. 189-26 is this morning’s companion 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 afternoon as a second Contship attack, as a Varna closure, as Warning 189-26, as a rewrite of this morning’s 775/26, or as a completed salvage.
What Operators Should Note
- Log 776/26 as a next-week Galata diving box, not as a wreck rewrite. NAVWARN 776/26, 30 October 2026. Black Sea, Bulgaria, south of Cape Galata. Naval exercise. Diving operations 030600 UTC 3 November to 051430 UTC 5 November. Box: 43-04.765N 027-54.949E, 43-04.767N 027-55.055E, 43-04.120N 027-55.807E, 43-04.120N 027-55.056E. Prohibited for navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and underwater activities. No wreck plot, no cable radius, no port closure on this notice. This is not 775/26, not 768/26, not 766/26, not 777/26, and not a harbour shutdown.
- Plot the four corners on the Varna approach, and keep them off this weekend’s track. The window opens Tuesday 3 November at 0600 UTC, not today. Cape Galata is west of the Kaliakra wreck water. Innocent passage, a Varna call, and a coasting track that cuts the cape all sit inside the prohibition. 775/26’s two-hour mail to [email protected] is not a permit through the box.
- Treat the prohibition as a hard box, not as a requested berth. Navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and underwater activities are closed. That is stricter than 777/26’s 3-cable request around cutter 331 in Burgas Bay. Do not borrow the Burgas “requested” wording onto Galata. Do not invent a VHF channel, a guard ship, or a daylight-only relaxation the notice does not print.
- Do not merge this box 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 before the 12-mile line. Sightings of those hulls still go to the MRCC, not to the Galata corners as a substitute. 189-26 is a time-late Hormuz crude-oil-tanker Attack. Update 109 remains last periodic note. 016-26 remains the blockade document pack.
- Hold 777/26 and 757/26 on their own lines. 777/26 puts cutter 331 in Burgas Bay from 030615 UTC to 061600 UTC 3–6 November with a 3-cable berth; unused as dedicated, wrap on today’s 776/26. 757/26 still prohibits a Varna Lake box through 311700 UTC today and again 010800–011600 UTC 1 November. Neither is the Galata diving box. Do not brief Saturday as a Varna or Burgas closure because a lake regatta and a southern-bay survey sit on the same board.
- Treat a missed box as an approach problem, not as a completed wreck recovery. 776/26 does not cancel 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 moves the corners, amends the window, or ties the box to a named hull; 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 closed a cape box for a naval dive next week.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining NAVWARN 776/26 against this morning’s dedicated 775/26 territorial-sea e-mail and against Thursday’s dedicated 768/26 Contship Jet wreck and 766/26 Khoryv keep-clear so operators can treat Saturday’s product as a 3–5 November prohibited diving box south of Cape Galata, not as a second attack, a harbour closure, or a completed salvage.
