Yachtsman Thought He Would Die
Yachtsman Sergei Morozov told a Canadian newspaper today [Dec. 28] he thought he would die during his ill-fated voyage from Halifax to Bermuda and recorded a farewell message for his loved ones.
Mr. Morozov left Halifax on December 5 bound for Bermuda on the first leg of an around-the-world voyage in his sailboat “Hikari”.
But almost as soon as he reached the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the self-steering system he had purchased a few weeks before leaving Halifax failed.
“I’ve never had two weeks of opposite wind, minimum 20 or 30 knots, and opposite storms,” he told Halifax’s “Herald News.”
Mr. Morozov added: “It wasn’t my mistake. I am a professional navigator and I’ve spent almost all my life in the sea … The next six days I steered by the hand almost 24 hours a day.”
The sailor said he spent almost a week battling the rough seas, going largely without sleep and almost running out of his provisions.
When the “Hakari” was overdue in Bermuda, his daughter contacted the United States Coast Guard which launched an unsuccessful air search for his vessel.
Eventually the search was called off.
On December 23, Mr. Morozov’s yacht was spotted by a freighter some 120 miles southeast of Bermuda. After taking food and water from the ship, he limped towards the island and arrived in St. George’s on Christmas Eve [pictured].
“I felt like [it was] my new birthday,” Mr. Morozov told the “Herald News”, adding: “Trust me, three weeks in the sea — two weeks in the rough sea and one week in the calm — with my water almost finished and my food almost finished, [I thought I would die].”
Mr. Morozov said he plans to resume his attempt to circumnavigate the globe once repairs to his yacht are finished early in the New Year.
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