Bulgaria’s Navy Hydrographic Service, now carrying the English text on its in-force NAVWARN board, prints NAVWARN 789/26 as a named research-vessel keep-clear through the end of November, not as a wreck rewrite. The working primary is: NAVWARN 789/26 BULGARIAN BLACK SEA COAST. RESEARCH VESSEL ‘AKADEMIK’ WILL CONDUCT A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION FM 0500 UTC ON 04 NOV TO 1700 UTC ON 30 NOV 2026 WITHIN THE INTERNAL WATERS AND TERRITORIAL SEA OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA. SAMPLING AND MEASUREMENTS USING A CTD SYSTEM WILL BE PERFORMED DURING THE EXPEDITION. MARINERS TO NAVIGATE WITH INCREASED CAUTION AND KEEP SAFETY DISTANCE OF 1 NM FM THE VESSEL. That is the product. It names the hull, it names a conductivity-temperature-depth sampling method, it names a 4–30 November UTC window, and it names a one-nautical-mile berth from the vessel. It does not print an IMO number, a fixed four-corner box, a RAM status, a VHF working channel, a port closure, or a cancel clock other than the 1700 UTC 30 November end of the expedition.
That is Wednesday night’s working primary. It is a Bulgarian territorial-sea survey instrument. It is not a rewrite of Friday night’s dedicated NAVWARN 776/26 Galata diving box, not a rewrite of Thursday night’s dedicated 775/26 two-hour e-mail, and not a conversion of Tuesday morning’s dedicated 784/26 Ahtopol tank onto a research ship. Official English on hs-navy.mod.bg now starts at NAVWARN 790/26 and has taken 789. Official Bulgarian on the same service still starts at NAVWARN 788/26 and has not yet taken 789 or 790. SeaLagom’s English reprint, first seen at 11:04 UTC on 4 November, matches the official English body. Hold the Bulgarian lag as a board split, not as a second expedition.
What NAVWARN 789 actually printed
The hydrographic text is short and is the working primary. NAVWARN 789/26. Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Research vessel Akademik will conduct a scientific research expedition from 0500 UTC on 4 November to 1700 UTC on 30 November 2026 within the internal waters and territorial sea of the Republic of Bulgaria. Sampling and measurements using a CTD system will be performed during the expedition. Mariners to navigate with increased caution and keep a safety distance of 1 nautical mile from the vessel. Stay with that wording. The board did not print an IMO number. It did not print a call sign, a flag, a length, or a displacement. It did not print a four-corner box, a centre point, or a radius around a cape. It did not print “restricted in her ability to manoeuvre,” “not under command,” or a fishing prohibition around a patch of water. It did not print a VHF working channel, a Varna Radio mailbox, or a harbour-master closure of Varna, Burgas, Ahtopol or Sozopol. It did not print a wreck, a tank, a container, or a drifting object. The berth is from the vessel, not from a charted corner.
The moving berth is the first briefing fact. 789/26 does not freeze Akademik on a Galata, Kaliakra or Burgas plot. The expedition is “within the internal waters and territorial sea of the Republic of Bulgaria.” That is the entire Bulgarian coastal belt, not a six-tenths-of-a-mile diving rectangle south of Cape Galata. A one-nautical-mile circle around a ship that is sampling along the coast is a lookout and CPA problem that travels with the hull. A passage plan that only plotted 776/26’s four corners, or that treated the territorial sea as a two-hour e-mail problem because 775/26 is still in force, has not budgeted a named research vessel with a one-nautical-mile berth from 4 November through 30 November. Do not invent a Varna-only track. Do not invent a Burgas-only track. Do not treat 1 nautical mile as a closed area around a cape. Plot the ship. Keep a mile. Do not run a territorial-sea transit as if the water were empty because 776/26 occupies only a Galata patch.
The window is the second briefing fact. The expedition runs from 0500 UTC on 4 November to 1700 UTC on 30 November 2026. That is twenty-six days, not a 48-hour diving box. 776/26’s Galata prohibition still ends at 051430 UTC on 5 November. 777/26’s cutter 331 still ends at 061600 UTC on 6 November. 789/26 outlives both of those dedicated files. A passage plan that drops Akademik after Thursday because “the Galata box closes” has borrowed 776/26’s cancel and has dropped the research vessel that is the whole of 789/26. A passage plan that treats 43-04 N as the only water that matters in November has under-read a notice that names the territorial sea, not Cape Galata. The 0500 UTC 4 November start has already passed. The working state tonight is in-progress, not a next-week warning. Do not brief Wednesday night as a 5 November start. Do not invent a daily sampling window inside 0500–1700 UTC. The notice prints one start and one end.
The CTD line is the third briefing fact, used as method, not as a cargo class. 789/26 prints sampling and measurements using a CTD system. That is a conductivity-temperature-depth package, usually a lowered instrument string, not a seismic streamer, not a towed array printed as RAM, and not a fishing set. The notice does not print “restricted in her ability to manoeuvre.” It does not print “gear in the water.” It does not print a streamer length. Do not invent COLREGS Rule 27 lights because a CTD is named. Do not invent a fishing ban around the ship beyond the one-nautical-mile berth. Do not invent a second hull. Akademik is the named platform. Institute colour — IO-BAS, Fridtjof Nansen, a second November phyto- and zooplankton cruise — is not on this NAVWARN. Hold that colour off the hydrographic body. Do not promote an institute press line, a station list, or an IMO number onto 789/26.
The missing IMO, RAM and box lines are omissions, not a completed survey order. 0169/26 still names Britoil Centurion, IMO 9619177, MMSI 566921000, and two dotted-line tracks in the Central Mediterranean. 789/26 names Akademik and stops. Do not borrow Centurion’s IMO onto this hull. Do not borrow 776/26’s four corners onto the territorial sea. Do not borrow 766/26’s five cables or 777/26’s three cables onto a one-nautical-mile ship berth. One nautical mile is the printed figure. Give it. Do not invent two nautical miles because Sunday’s cancelled ARN 162/2026 used that number on a Romanian object.
Same-board wrap, held separately
NAVWARN 790/26, now the top line on tonight’s official English board: EAST OF MASLEN NOS. At 1000 UTC on 3 November 2026 two drifting containers were reported at 42-19N 028-21E and 42-17N 028-24E. Represent a navigational danger. Mariners are requested to navigate with caution. No hull, no IMO, no DG class, no radius, no wreck buoy, no least depth, no pollution, no cancel time. Distinct from dedicated 786/26’s unmanned lifeboat at 42-18.9N 027-56.4E — same cape tag, about 18 nautical miles of longitude to the west, a boat not two boxes. Distinct from wrap 787/26’s two Burgas Bay containers at 42-32.0N 028-19.0E and 42-22.9N 028-18.0E. Distinct from dedicated 779/26’s four 1 November Burgas plots. 790/26 is unused as dedicated unless a later NAVWARN names a hull against 42-19N 028-21E or 42-17N 028-24E, marks a wreck buoy, prints recovery, or converts the pair onto Contship Jet. Do not brief Wednesday night as a fifth Burgas container watch. Do not apply 789/26’s one-nautical-mile ship berth to two unlit boxes.
Official Bulgarian on hs-navy.mod.bg still starts at NAVWARN 788/26, east of Primorsko, drifting objects (containers) at 42-21.7N 028-01.3E and 42-12.0N 028-00.3E, and has not yet taken 789 or 790. That is the inverse of Tuesday morning’s 784/26 split, when official Bulgarian led official English. Tonight official English leads. Do not wait for the Bulgarian board before logging the English 789 plot. Do not treat 788/26 as the newest Bulgarian product merely because the Bulgarian page has not moved. 786/26 remains wrap on Tuesday morning’s dedicated 784/26: drifting lifeboat without crew, 42-18.9N 027-56.4E, 1245 UTC 2 November, east of Maslen Nos. 787/26 and 788/26 remain wrap on that same 784/26 file. SeaLagom’s 24-hour briefing listed 784, 787, 779, 768, 788 and 780 as withdrawn. Official Bulgarian still prints 788, 787, 784, 780, 779 and 768. Do not cancel those dedicated files from a SeaLagom withdrawn list. Official English still carries 786, 776, 775 and 766 under 790 and 789. Keep the dedicated wreck and tank files until the official board drops them.
NAVWARN 797/26 is not on tonight’s official English board and is not on tonight’s official Bulgarian board. SeaLagom English, first seen at 17:46 UTC on 4 November, prints: NAVWARN 797/26 BLACK SEA, BULGARIA, EAST OF CAPE KALIAKRA. At 1435 UTC on 4 November 2026, M/T MENTOR, IMO 9340374, is at 43-25.10N 028-37.00E, drifting southward at 3 knots without lights, no crew on board, increased caution, report to MRCC-Varna upon establishing visual contact. That reprint is unused as dedicated. Do not promote Mentor, 9340374, 43-25.10N 028-37.00E, a three-knot south set, or an unmanned-unlit tanker onto 789/26. Do not collapse 797/26 onto 766/26 as a second Khoryv. Do not collapse it onto 768/26 as a Contship naming. BNR, 17:52 on 4 November, reported a tanker believed to be carrying around 11,000 tonnes of sunflower oil drifting off Shabla after a towline broke, Mentor under tow from Constanta by tug Ramazan Bey — industry colour only, not a 789/26 fact and not a completed official NAVWARN. Hold 797/26 for a later run if official English or official Bulgarian takes MENTOR against 43-25.10N.
What this is not
This is not NAVWARN 776/26, and it is not a Galata diving-box rewrite. Friday night’s dedicated 776/26 remains: south of Cape Galata, naval exercise, diving operations 030600–051430 UTC 3–5 November, four corners 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. That box is a fixed patch immediately south of the cape, and it closes at 051430 UTC on 5 November. 789/26 is a ship, a one-nautical-mile berth, and a 30 November end. Do not convert Akademik onto Galata. Do not extend 776/26’s prohibition to 30 November because a research vessel is at sea. Do not brief the territorial sea as closed because 776/26 still occupies four corners tomorrow.
This is not NAVWARN 775/26, and it is not a second territorial-sea reporting product. Thursday night’s dedicated 775/26 remains the two-hour e-mail to [email protected] with SP A, H+C, G, I, P, W and X1–X4 before territorial-sea entry. 789/26 does not amend that mailbox, does not add Akademik to the SP field list, and does not replace the two-hour lead. A master entering Bulgarian territorial sea still sends 775/26 and still keeps a mile from Akademik if the ship is in the water. Registering the e-mail is not a substitute for the berth.
This is not NAVWARN 777/26, and it is not cutter 331. Saturday night’s dedicated Burgas survey remains 030615–061600 UTC 3–6 November, three-cable berth. 789/26 prints one nautical mile, not three cables, and names Akademik, not cutter 331. This is not 784/26, and it is not an Ahtopol tank. Tuesday morning’s dedicated 784/26 remains a drifting tank at 42-09.2N 027-58.6E, east of Ahtopol, south set, increased caution, no numeric berth. Akademik is a named ship with a mile. A tank and a research vessel are two products. This is not 779/26, not 768/26, and not 766/26. Monday morning’s dedicated four-container watch remains east of Burgas Bay. Thursday’s dedicated Contship Jet wreck remains 43-07.80N 028-45.36E. Thursday’s dedicated Khoryv keep-clear remains 43-30.60N 028-43.69E, five cables, capsized, unlit, unmanned. 789/26 names none of those hulls. Do not brief Wednesday night as Contship recovered, as Khoryv renamed Akademik, or as the Ahtopol tank now under a science cruise.
This is not NAVAREA III 0169/26, and it is not a second Britoil Centurion track. Wednesday afternoon’s dedicated 0169/26 remains oceanographic work on Britoil Centurion, IMO 9619177, MMSI 566921000, 5 November 2026 to 15 February 2027, dotted-line groups A and B in the Central Mediterranean. 789/26 is a Bulgarian coastal NAVWARN. It does not print 42-11.718N, it does not print a Mediterranean dotted line, and it does not print Centurion. SafetyNet at 1200 UTC and 2359 UTC will not carry 789/26 merely because 0168/26 is in force as weekly group 44. Keep the Varna file in the master’s Black Sea coastal pack alongside the NAVAREA III wrapper, not inside it. This is also not ARN 163/2026’s Mangalia piping box and not ARN 164/2026’s 11–12 November firing box. Those are Romanian Directorate products. They do not belong on a Bulgarian research-vessel berth.
This is not a UKMTO Attack, not a JMIC Update 111, and not a move of this morning’s dedicated IMO 128-count. UKMTO’s product board still ends at Warning 195-26. Update 110 remains the last numbered public periodic note, ICOD 011300 UTC 1 November. The IMO highlighted-incidents board remains 128 confirmed / 24 dead as at 3 November. Akademik does not belong on that Middle East table. No 196-26, no Update 111, no IMO 129, no NAVAREA IX 429/26, no NAVAREA III 0170/26 this run.
Operational implications
For a master already shaping a Varna, Burgas, Kaliakra, Shabla, Ahtopol, Sozopol or Turkish-border coastal transit, or holding for a Bulgarian territorial-sea crossing under 775/26, Wednesday night is a named research vessel with a one-nautical-mile berth anywhere in the internal waters and territorial sea through 1700 UTC on 30 November, on top of 776/26’s Galata prohibition through 051430 UTC on 5 November, on top of 777/26’s cutter 331 through 061600 UTC on 6 November, and on top of the still-in-force Kaliakra wreck, Shabla Khoryv keep-clear, Ahtopol tank, and Burgas container watches. 775/26 remains the working two-hour e-mail. A passage plan that only carried 776/26’s four corners, or that treated November’s Bulgarian coast as a lookout problem because 784/26 still prints no radius, has not budgeted Akademik as a moving mile.
A CTD expedition with a printed mile and no printed RAM, AIS guarantee, or daily window is a lookout, radar, CPA and night-unlit problem before it is a science rewrite. 789/26 does not say Akademik is lit, AIS-on, or transmitting a working channel. It does not say whether the ship is stopped, drifting to sample, or making way between stations. BMP lookout and company night-orders remain the working industry pack; 789/26 does not reprint them and does not order a deviation around a published cape. Log the NAVWARN number, the 4 November English-board appearance, the Akademik name, the CTD line, the one-nautical-mile berth, the internal-waters / territorial-sea field, the 0500 UTC 4 November start, and the 1700 UTC 30 November end. Do not log an IMO number, a Galata corner, a fishing ban, a RAM status, Mentor, 9340374, or a keep-clear around 42-19N that the notice does not print.
Charterers and P&I will now ask whether the ship was inside Bulgarian territorial sea after 0500 UTC on 4 November, whether it kept a mile from Akademik, and whether it sent 775/26. They will not be answered by Friday’s Galata box, by Tuesday’s Ahtopol tank, or by a SeaLagom withdrawn list that official Bulgarian has not matched. Sightings of Akademik, of gear in the water, of a second unlit object, or of pollution go to MRCC Varna / VTMIS and to the company security officer. Registering a 775/26 SP e-mail is not a substitute for a sighting report. Next-port authorities at Varna, Burgas and the Turkish approaches will want a written account of a named research vessel that 776/26 does not contain.
Keep the dedicated files on their own lines. 776/26 remains the dedicated Galata diving box through 051430 UTC 5 November. 777/26 remains the dedicated Burgas cutter-331 piece through 061600 UTC 6 November. 775/26 remains the two-hour territorial-sea e-mail. 784/26 remains Tuesday morning’s dedicated Ahtopol tank. 779/26 remains Monday morning’s dedicated four-container watch; 780/26 and 781/26 remain wrap. 768/26 remains Contship Jet sunk at 43-07.80N 028-45.36E. 766/26 remains Khoryv five-cable east of Shabla. 93/26 remains the standing KAIROS five-cable wrap. 786/26, 787/26 and 788/26 remain wrap on 784/26. 790/26 remains wrap on tonight’s 789/26. 797/26 remains unused as dedicated. Do not recast 4 November night as a Galata extension, as a Contship naming, as a Mentor official print, or as a closed Bulgarian coast.
What Operators Should Note
- Log 789/26 as a moving Akademik mile, not as a Galata rewrite and not as a Mentor naming. Official English NAVWARN 789/26 on hs-navy.mod.bg. Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Research vessel Akademik. Scientific research expedition 0500 UTC 4 November to 1700 UTC 30 November 2026, internal waters and territorial sea of the Republic of Bulgaria. CTD sampling and measurements. Increased caution. Keep a safety distance of 1 nautical mile from the vessel. The notice printed neither IMO, four-corner box, RAM, VHF, fishing ban, wreck, nor a port closure. SeaLagom first-seen 11:04 UTC 4 November. Official Bulgarian still starts at 788/26 and has not yet taken 789. This is not 776/26, not 775/26, not 777/26, not 784/26, and not unused 797/26.
- Hold the berth on the ship, not on a cape. One nautical mile from Akademik, anywhere in Bulgarian internal waters and territorial sea, through 1700 UTC 30 November. Do not freeze the mile on 43-04N. Do not borrow 776/26’s four corners. Do not borrow 766/26’s five cables or 777/26’s three cables. Do not invent two nautical miles. The 0500 UTC 4 November start has already passed. Do not brief a 5 November open. Watch a later NAVWARN that plots a box, adds RAM, names an IMO, or cuts the window.
- Keep 775/26 in the master’s pack. Two hours before territorial-sea entry, e-mail [email protected] with SP A, H+C, G, I, P, W and X1–X4. 789/26 does not replace that report. Sending 775/26 is not a substitute for keeping a mile from Akademik. Sightings go to MRCC Varna / VTMIS and the CSO.
- Hold 790/26 as wrap, not as a second dedicated survey. Official English 790/26, east of Maslen Nos, 1000 UTC 3 November, two drifting containers at 42-19N 028-21E and 42-17N 028-24E, navigational danger, caution. No hull, no IMO, no radius. Distinct from 786/26’s lifeboat at 42-18.9N 027-56.4E and from 787/26’s Burgas pair. Unused as dedicated unless a later NAVWARN names a hull against those two plots.
- Leave 797/26 off this sheet. SeaLagom English 797/26, 1435 UTC 4 November, M/T Mentor, IMO 9340374, 43-25.10N 028-37.00E, drifting south 3 knots, unlit, no crew, report MRCC-Varna, is not on official English and not on official Bulgarian tonight. BNR’s sunflower-oil / Ramazan Bey / Constanta-tow colour is not a 789/26 fact. Do not promote Mentor onto Akademik. Do not collapse 797/26 onto 766/26 or 768/26.
- Do not collapse 776/26, 768/26, 766/26 or 784/26 onto this number. 776/26 remains the Galata diving prohibition through 051430 UTC 5 November. 777/26 remains cutter 331 through 061600 UTC 6 November. 768/26 remains Contship Jet sunk, 43-07.80N 028-45.36E. 766/26 remains Khoryv five-cable at 43-30.60N 028-43.69E. 784/26 remains the Ahtopol tank at 42-09.2N 027-58.6E. 779/26 remains four Burgas containers. 0169/26 remains Britoil Centurion in the Central Mediterranean. 789/26 is a Bulgarian coastal survey, not a Mediterranean dotted line and not a wreck-move of Kaliakra cargo onto a science cruise.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining NAVWARN 789/26 against Friday night’s dedicated 776/26 and against Thursday night’s dedicated 775/26 so operators can treat Wednesday night’s tape as a named Akademik mile through 30 November, not as a Galata extension, a Contship naming, or a completed official Mentor print.
