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Other Entries
Entries that do not belong unambiguously to one route or practical section.
Publications are arranged chronologically – from the earliest to the most recent. Select a title to open the full entry.
Cyprus: Making the Most of 60 Hours
What can you fit into 60 hours? In 2 days and 3 nights in Cyprus, we swam with lorries, buried the car and then nearly drowned it, earned a diving certification, ran out of money, and stu…
Witch Hunt and Police Raid
Samui. High Season Today my friend and I were fined 300 roubles for riding without helmets. It was the first police dragnet in the history of our moped-riding in Thailand. The helmet enfo…
Three Dangerous Adventures in a Tropical Paradise
Three Dangerous Adventures in a Tropical Paradise. First Mate’s Notes. Koh Samui, Thailand 🙂 I need to check my horoscope.... The stars seem to have had something ominous in store... The…
Malaysia. Langkawi: Where, What and How Much
Many Europeans flee the cold winter for the hot summer. More and more often, our compatriots stay in warmer climes—for example, Thailand—for extended periods. If you decide to stay longer…
Life in the Tropics. Sketches
On Coconut Palms in Bloom For the second morning in a row, I wake up because of the scent. Or rather, because of a delicate, sweetish, very pleasant fragrance. In the humid morning air, t…
Samui Reference Guide
What to Do on Samui (as Anywhere Else, Really) Rent a motorbike or a car and set off to explore the island, discovering your own “places of power.” You can find a map of the island at the…
How We Lived Under a State of Emergency: Chronicles of a Flood. Part 1
How We Lived Under a State of Emergency: Chronicles of a Flood. Part 1 28 May 2014 Photo: The “Dragon’s Teeth” rocks in the Katun riverbed Photo: The same rocks before the flood We’re liv…
Heading Out to Sea. Preparing the Home Front
Heading Out to Sea. Preparing the Home Front A cosy little house against a backdrop of mountains . Smoke rising from the chimney... That’s on the outside. Inside, though—... beneath the h…
What Dreams May Lead To. A Thriller with Elements of Melodrama
What Dreams May Lead To If you are a novice sailor, a voyage on a sailing yacht can bring some unexpected discoveries. Not at all the ones you dreamed of when you heard the words “sea” an…
Better This Than Drink or the Common Cold: How My Father, Sergei Sokolov, Died
Better This Than Drink or the Common Cold: How My Father, Sergei Sokolov, Died 1 August 2004. The killer mountain K2. The Himalayas, the Karakoram Range, northern Pakistan: “Summit callin…
Visa for Thailand
Russian citizens do not need a visa for Thailand for stays of up to 30 days. In the past, when that period expired, our compatriots spending the winter there would travel to neighbouring …
Today Is World Maritime Day!
World Maritime Day A wonderful excuse not only to crack open a bottle of rum :), but also to give some thought to the sea itself... And here is what comes to mind: Each in our own way, we…
The Charm of Slow Travel
The Charm of Slow Travel. A Captain’s Notes. What is the charm of slow travel? There is no need to rush anywhere every day to keep up with a sightseeing schedule you invented yourself. Yo…
Silver in the My Planet National Awards, or How Competitions Are Won
Silver in the My Planet National Awards, or How Competitions Are Won The fanfares are sounding, the timpani are singing, and a flute is quietly whimpering: “Hooray! Hooray!” We took secon…
The Leading Travel Portal Interviewed Us
The Leading Travel Portal Interviewed Us By Svetlana Chanilova An honest traveller’s account of where childhood dreams can lead, whether a dream is worth the hardships that must be overco…
A Sailing Yacht for a Circumnavigation. For Living Aboard. Buying a Yacht.
A Yacht for a Circumnavigation Nauticat 40, built in 1988 The circumnavigation yacht Lady Mary Length 12 m, maximum beam 4 m, draught 1.77 m. Ketch/cutter rig (two masts—the mainmast and …
Malaysia
Malaysia. About the Country Malaysians are friendly and disinclined to conflict. The main ethnic groups in Malaysia are Malays, Chinese and Indians. English is widely spoken here, as it i…
Cyprus
The Island of Aphrodite Divided into the north (the Turkish sector, the partially recognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) and the south (the Greek sector, the Republic of Cyprus).…
Thailand
About visas Russians do not need a visa for a 30-day stay in the “Land of Smiles.” To find out what to do next, read here >> 🙂 About the King A kingdom ruled by the world’s longest-reign…
Morocco
About visas for Morocco Russian citizens may stay in Morocco without a visa for three months. If a Russian traveller has a burning desire to remain in the country longer, they must also o…
The Canary Islands on the Map. Yacht. Holidays. Tenerife. Gran Canaria
The Canary Islands on the Map. A Remote Overseas Territory of Spain Although the Canary Islands are geographically not Europe at all, but rather Africa, Spanish rule determines that they …
Senegal
Visa for Senegal — the rules change often. Sometimes no visa is required, sometimes it is issued at the border, and sometimes you have to obtain one in advance at home. We entered Senegal…
The Gambia
The Gambia The country of The Gambia—a coastal strip along the river of the same name—extends like a long tongue 400 km into Senegal, while its western coast is washed by the Atlantic. It…
Malta
Malta An independent island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and Tunisia. A member of the European Union; the currency is the euro. The official language is English; the lo…
The Cape Verde Islands on the Map: Sal, São Vicente and Santiago
The Cape Verde Islands (Cabo Verde) on the map. Anchorages and the only marina. What is where and how much it costs. Healthcare, sights, a little history and lots of photos! The independe…
Links to Sailing Websites, Personal Pages and Blogs
Our links to sailing websites Here we decided to collect all the links to sailing websites , personal pages and blogs that we found useful, interesting and inspiring Advertisement 🙂 http…
Open Meeting — EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH A DREAM
Guys, if you’re coming, please register on our website. We need to know whether there’ll be enough room in the hall 🙂 The event will take place in Novosibirsk at 8A Vokzalnaya Magistral,…
The Maya: Where They Lived and Where They Disappeared To
Where did the Maya disappear to? What have we forgotten, and who do we confuse them with? What does the Soviet scholar Yuri Knorozov have to do with the Maya legacy? A historical and geog…
Road Trip to the Great Maya Pyramids — Chichén Itzá
A road trip through Mexico, or how to become a headless captain—innocent amusements and sacrifices among the ancient Maya. Mexico by Car Mexico ranks second in the world for the number of…
An Education Post
An education post. The hottest topic on board. The post and readers’ comments from the social networks Facebook and VK We are now into the second week of heated debate aboard our vessel a…
If You Don’t Have a Dog, or How to Save Food While Travelling: A Life Hack
If you don’t have a dog, or how to save food on a sea passage. This post is for those who love good food and absolutely hate throwing perfectly edible food overboard. How to use food wise…
The Galley
The Galley — an introductory mini-article. Does the crew’s diet depend on the weather at sea? The cook’s tools on a long passage. Plus links on organising meals aboard a yacht. — Waiter, …
The Galley — It’s All About the Subtleties of Cooking While Travelling! How to Preserve Supplies and... Your Sanity
Food on a long journey is not just a source of fibre and vitamins, but also fuel for the crew’s morale. It has to be tasty and varied. To stop a hungry crew from feeding the bosun to the …
Video — Weighing Anchor Under Sail
Video — weighing anchor under sail. Children under sail, with Central America’s premier Caribbean resort on the horizon It’s rare for a video to make it all the way to our website—or even…
How to Set Sail Around the World. A Film
A circumnavigation through the eyes of those taking part—a man, a woman, a teenager and a child. A film by the Travely-Family sailing expedition. Guess why we disappeared off the radar? �…
Underwater Sculpture Park. Grenada
Underwater Sculpture Park. Grenada. A short video sketch. We’ve been meaning for ages to write about the underwater wonders of the Caribbean Sea and show you a little floating video, and …
How We Set Out for Hiva Oa but Ended Up on Nuku Hiva
How We Set Out for Hiva Oa but Ended Up on Nuku Hiva (also known as Nuku Giva—the name used by Krusenstern—and Nuku Iva, as the French and the locals pronounce it) Our days with friends i…
Nomination for the My Planet Award
Nomination for the My Planet Award. Dear Readers! Our website is taking part in the My Planet Award, in the “Blogger of the Year” category, and... there’s a public vote 🙂 This particular…
Holidays and the Island of Moorea. Or Why We Disappeared for a Week
Holidays and the island of Moorea. Or why we disappeared for a week. How we sailed away for three days and came back on the sixth. How to amuse yourselves when it is dead calm, there are …
The Tree House. The Carlson Who Lives...
The tree house. The Carlson who lives.... Did anyone dream as a child of building a small, cosy house somewhere behind a chimney on an old roof, or among the spreading branches of a tree?…
The House Spirit’s Mischief
The house spirit’s mischief, heading farther west, saying goodbye to friends, and how to receive a letter from the heart of the ocean You may remember that we wrote about the house spirit…
Hooray! We’re Offline Again!
Hooray! We’re offline again! Huahine Island. To appreciate all the benefits of the internet, you need to spend a year living almost without it, then plunge into the online world for three…
How We Woke Up on a Reef
How We Woke Up on a Reef If Lady Mary’s daily activity is measured by the crew members who are awake, ours is a yacht that hardly ever sleeps: the first mate’s internal alarm goes off at …
The Biggest Downside of Sailing Around the World
The biggest downside of sailing around the world. A major key in a minor mood 🙂 “Mum, I dreamed about Polina and Ksyusha again. We went swimming together, and we played too, like this...…
Tierra del Fuego. Clearing In by Yacht
Tierra del Fuego. Clearing In by Yacht Chile has two ends of the Earth. The western end is the planet’s most remote island from inhabited lands— Easter Island —that’s one. The southern en…
Patagonian Seafarers’ Daily Life
Patagonian seafarers’ daily life. What happens after two non-stop months in the ocean. The answer to “How are you enjoying your holiday?”—a favourite question from old acquaintances. The …
Russian Antarctic Expedition
Russian Antarctic Expedition Warm days have come to Tierra del Fuego. We now wear jackets, but no hats. Delighted by the sunshine, the dusty calafate berries have ripened and swollen, giv…
Greetings from the Edge of Argentina
Greetings from the edge of Argentina. We have moved from Puerto Williams in Chile to Ushuaia in Argentina. Twenty-seven miles into the wind through the Beagle Channel. Warm reunions and s…
Gateway to Antarctica
Ushuaia—the Gateway to Antarctica. About the end of the world and Russian hospitality. Who sails to Antarctica, and what everyone else does. Whether you can manage to travel when you trav…
7 Things About Antarctica We Didn’t Know
7 Things About Antarctica We Didn’t Know. Who is eagerly awaiting the end of the Antarctic Treaty. How easy is it for a Russian yacht to sail to Antarctica? Where king penguins live, and …
Hello from the Stormiest Place on Earth
Hello from the stormiest place on Earth. We have entered the Drake Passage, the stormiest place on the planet. At the official end of the world in Ushuaia, we acquired outfits and gear. T…
The Drake Passage—the Whole Truth Under Sail
The Drake Passage—the whole truth under sail. February 23. The daily grind of a passage is exhausting; half the crew still haven’t found their sea legs, and the waves just keep pounding u…
Antarctica. The First Russian Family Expedition
Antarctica. The First Russian Family Expedition. Drake Passage. We Crossed 61° South. Bellingshausen Station The captain’s calculations proved correct: after motoring for more than twenty…
Antarctic Creatures, Icebergs and Polar Explorers
Antarctic creatures, icebergs and polar explorers. No, Andryukha, this is all just too surreal! Could you ever have imagined that we would sail to Antarctica ourselves and walk among peng…
How We Woke Up Surrounded by Ice
How we woke up surrounded by ice. Yankee Bay, Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. At 5 a.m., the alarm traditionally began singing in Vladimir Vysotsky’s voice: Amid gut…
Catching a Shore Line. Antarctic Anchorages
Catching a Shore Line. Antarctic Anchorages. A Night Among Icebergs. Our overnight Antarctic passage began with the captain retiring to his bedchamber at 9 p.m. and Nastya taking the watc…
Antarctica. A Refuge for Castaways and Expedition Worries
Antarctica. A Refuge for Castaways and Expedition Worries. We are reading all your comments on our Antarctic reports. Friends, thank you so much for your concern and worry, your words of …
The Ice Continent!
The Ice Continent! The ice conditions have grown more difficult: ice floes and ice mountains are no longer occasional sights that cause amazement. Now they are scattered in a checkerboard…
The Adventures of Brave Parcels at the End of the World :)
The Adventures of Brave Parcels at the End of the World :). The most precious things when sailing around the world and far from home. How parcels reach us out on the ocean, how ours reach…
The Angel Who Went to Sea
The Angel Who Went to Sea. Why Sophie, Lord!? Why her...!? — I am sobbing in the bowels of the yacht while my crew are ashore enjoying themselves.... It is hard to take in. Impossible to …
Tierra del Fuego Today
Tierra del Fuego today. Would you like to know what an ordinary diary page looks like when it is not intended for publication, but for internal use? The first mate on honest toil. Reflect…
+ Backpack – Wallet = Tierra del Fuego. Real Travellers’ Stories
+ Backpack – Wallet = Tierra del Fuego. Real stories of backpacking travellers who do not need a million bucks to make it happen—just a sense of adventure, courage, and a thirst for life …
Our Radio Show on Yacht Radio :)
Our radio show on Yacht Radio :). Links to the first two episodes. Somehow we’re always getting caught up in everything and forgetting that, for example, we have another project—a show on…
Life Aboard a Yacht in the High Latitudes
Life aboard a yacht in the high latitudes. The practicalities of everyday life in the high latitudes. The captain’s flights for the glory of the Russian space programme, putting instrumen…
Winter Is Coming
Winter is coming. About the marinas and prices, the hardiest polar captains and their yachts. About how the young sailors motivate and demotivate themselves, and whom they socialise with …
Meeting Fedor Konyukhov. Back to Cape Horn
Meeting Fedor Konyukhov. Back to Cape Horn. The situation in the southernmost city in the world. Fedor Konyukhov’s expedition headquarters and its influence on our way of life. Plans for …
Expedition to Cape Horn to Meet Fedor Konyukhov—and the Flotilla’s Unexpected Split
Expedition to Cape Horn to meet Fedor Konyukhov—and the flotilla’s unexpected split. Chronicles. Transmitted via satellite. Yesterday morning, as part of a flotilla of three yachts, we se…
Cape Horn, Passage No. 2
Sent via satellite link. It seems the post did not make it to the website because of an anomaly in the Drake Passage. We are trying again. Chronicles of the rendezvous with Fyodor Konyukh…
Meeting Fyodor Konyukhov at Cape Horn
Meeting Fyodor Konyukhov at Cape Horn. The storm, movements and manoeuvres, the return journey and the end of the expedition. First impressions of meeting a legendary adventurer. Between …
The World’s Southernmost Tundra by Car
The world’s southernmost tundra by car. A landward foray by a seagoing crew. In two days on the road, we found ourselves both in winter snowdrifts and in a cold summer. Where did the indi…
Tierra del Fuego. 500 Years of Ordeals
Tierra del Fuego. 500 Years of Ordeals. Genocide, penal servitude, beavers and a Garden of Eden at the end of the world. The world’s southernmost history, told from aboard the family iceb…
Leaving for Chile. Farewell to Ushuaia
Leaving for Chile. Farewell, Ushuaia. How we caught luck by the tail and made it all the way to wild guanacos! Beaver dams, icy lakes, a curious fur seal. How much it costs to send mail f…
Easter Island. We Broke the Rules!
Easter Island. We Broke the Rules! A New VIDEO on Our Channel Remember how we told you that we were nearly hauled off to jail on Easter Island once? Seriously—they tracked us down, marche…
Christmas Trees—in Africa
Christmas trees—in Africa. We are now past the halfway point of our stay in Cape Town. And the passage across the southern Indian Ocean is already closer than our passage across the South…
How We Went to a Russian Camp in Africa
How we went to a Russian camp in Africa and how it all ended :). The first thing I learned about South Africa from a Russian-speaking Facebook group was that there is a Russian camp in Ca…
Year in Review
YEAR IN REVIEW. 2019—and what impossible dreams came true once, on 21 November, we decided to turn against every law of logic, every established sailing route, and all our terrible fears.…
South Africa, Russian-Style
South Africa, Russian-style. In three months, South Africa seems to have squeezed itself into our lives as a vivid, action-packed chapter. Finding friendship and losing it, falling in lov…
Quarantine and Coronavirus in Australia
Quarantine did not prevent the Lady Mary crew—us—from setting foot in the land of kangaroos. We managed to enter 2.5 days before the borders were closed to all foreigners. Remember how, i…
The Adventures of Niko the Little Penguin and His Friends. A Story by Our Young Sailor
Our young sailor has literary ambitions. The Adventures of Niko the Little Penguin and His Friends is her first story, written a year ago in the wake of our voyage to Antarctica, meeting …
What You Need to Know About Australia. Or: We’re Going Where Three Bodies Were Found
Why people die on a sacred mountain, what the Australian continent consists of besides its coastline, and how well prepared you need to be before venturing into its interior. Let’s go! Sa…
What’s the Difference Between a Lucky Person and a Loser?
What’s your superpower? “Lucky you. Not everyone gets that lucky!” people often write in the comments—obviously referring to the yacht someone gave us, the attentive guidance “from above,…
Halloween in Australia + the Captain’s Birthday
How to combine Halloween with the birthday of the most important crew member Two weeks have flashed by since Andrey’s birthday. In that time, we managed to fall ill, send the first chapte…
How We Changed Our Lives: November 22 in History
Two years ago today, we radically changed our lives. At this very moment, we made a sharp turn into the South Pacific to find Maria-Theresa Island and reach the 37th parallel. You can fin…
New Year in Different Countries
POOR FATHER FROST, or THE GEOGRAPHY OF NEW YEAR Over the past 10 years, we have celebrated New Year in different countries—at these blue dots on the map. At first, from Southeast Asia and…
Long Farewells Mean Extra Tears. We’re Heading Out to Sea
Long farewells mean extra tears I usually say this phrase after hugging a friend goodbye for the tenth time. Over our year in Perth, we have become entwined in such a dense web of connect…
Rottnest Island. To Leave or Not to Leave
First, We’re Heading to Rottnest I woke at six with the oppressive thought: “This is it. Today.” We’re leaving Perth for Rottnest Island after a year at the marina. We’ve lived in Austral…
Waiting for the Storm
For the past couple of days, all the weather services in Western Australia have joined forces and held their breath, waiting for the storm—a double cyclone coming down from the north. It …
A New Video from Our Young Sailor — Space in 5 Minutes
He said, “LET’S GO!” and waved his hand. — 12 April 1961. The clock at the Baikonur Cosmodrome reads 14:07. In 108 minutes, the world will change forever. First Mate Marina: “Gagarin’s fl…
There Is No Growth in Comfort. We Hoist the Sails.
“There is no growth in prolonged comfort,” I say, scraping myself off the watchkeeper’s settee to step out into autumn. 2 a.m. We set sail and thread our way around the reefs by instrumen…
Tame Stingrays and Great Cape Leeuwin
Tame Stingrays This enormous stingray swam up to be hand-fed... The whole family comes right up to your feet and lets you stroke them. The children, standing knee-deep in the water, chirp…
A Whale and the Expedition’s Final Interim Tally
We’ve rounded all three Great Capes; only one task remains, and for now it is proving difficult to accomplish On 17 April, Lady Mary crossed the longitude of Cape Leeuwin—the third Great …
How We Became Native Americans — Fun Aboard the Yacht
Dawn over the “Great Lakes” 🙂 Why the Great Lakes? Because that was where real Native Americans lived. And they are what this story is about. A real Native American... Over the long week…
The Story of a Shipwreck. The Wrecked Ship in Albany (Western Australia)
We brushed up against the story of this shipwreck on Lenin’s birthday, no less. That was when Lady Mary moved from a fabulous mooring buoy among pelicans and the cries of kookaburras to t…
Off to Tasmania, or 2,000 Miles in the Southern Ocean
And so our working holiday around Albany is drawing to a close. Nastya has passed her assessment, so we can head out into the ocean with peace of mind. We’re leaving today. If only Andrei…
Into the Forties. Passage from Western Australia to Tasmania, Days 1–5
Judging by the activity on our website over the past four days, you’ve probably already realised that Lady Mary’s chief chronicler has been in no state to write. The moment we left Albany…
Passage to Tasmania, Days 5–6. Masochism, Breakdowns and Provisions
Morning of May 20... Last night, we were too lazy to set anything besides the small jib. The thinking was that we’d soon have to tack anyway, so we’d set something then. When the wind die…
Hove-to in a Storm and Black Humour. Passage to Tasmania, Days 7–8
22 May. The morning before the storm was clear and almost calm. The captain and I get dressed to set more sail. I pull on a bright orange jacket. The captain says: “Your jacket really is …
Storm in the Roaring Forties. Day 11 of the Passage to Tasmania
It’s been a long time since we saw the weather change quite so dramatically, with the wind swinging through 180 degrees in half an hour. One minute it was sunny and as calm as paradise, t…
On Watch After the Storm. Passage to Tasmania, Days 11–13
Just a diary, no frills. The waves in this storm really got going, no mistake. Even a day later, they are frightening to look at. We lay hove-to until morning. In one gust I saw 59 knots …
Hooray, an Anticyclone! Passage to Tasmania, Days 15–16
29 May. We have been sailing to Tasmania for fifteen days. After a year of being stuck in one place, two weeks at sea feel very boring and endless. Today is the first day the sailing has …
Meet the Family of Four Sailing Around the World
Meet the Family of Four Sailing Around the World WORDS AND PHOTOS BY IULIA GALUSHINA PHOTOJOURNALIST IULIA GALUSHINA KNOWS HOW TO SNIFF OUT A GREAT STORY—WHETHER IT’S DOCUMENTING THE COMM…
How a Book Inspired This Family to Sail Some of the World’s Most Dangerous Routes
How a Book Inspired This Family to Sail Some of the World’s Most Dangerous Routes Inspired by a book and a childhood dream, a Russian family embarked on an epic voyage in 2018, sailing so…
A Month and a Half in Tasmania
Where we disappeared to from the website, and what happened in the meantime It has been a month and a half since we arrived in southern Tasmania. Yet the website is still silent, not burs…
Plans for Completing Our Circumnavigation. Heading Out into the Pacific
We are preparing to head out into the Pacific Ocean from Tasmania. We have stayed here, sailing straight past the whole of eastern Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney, Bri…
Round-the-World Journal. The Ocean in Winter off the Coast of Tasmania
What a journal that was never meant to become a post looks like The countdown began three weeks ago. We’re poised for the final, enormous dash across the Pacific Ocean, closed because of …
We’re Off to Cross the Pacific Ocean
A year and a half, guys... Nowhere in the world, apart from our homeland, have we lived as long as we have in Australia. A whole little lifetime, almost settled, yet lived out of suitcase…
8 September. Five Days. Not Exactly a Smooth Flight
8 September. Five Days. Not Exactly a Smooth Flight “Wanderers need no home or comfort, they need the ocean, the land”—to recharge our batteries, Andrey puts on Children of the Great Bear…
A Tough Week in the Tasman Sea
A Tough Week in the Tasman Sea For a week, we steered 24 hours a day: the windvane self-steering couldn’t cope with the strong, gusty wind. 25–45 knots (if you prefer, divide the number o…
Oh, Bitter Cold… Day Ten in the Southern Tasman Sea
Oh, bitter cold—day ten in the southern Tasman Sea Inside the yacht, it is like a polar station: for most of the day, our breath hangs in the air. A wind has come up from Antarctica, and …
All Five of the Planet’s Southern Capes—Rounded!
All five of the planet’s southern capes have been rounded! Today, 15 September 2021, at 15:40 New Zealand time, Lady Mary and our crew crossed the meridian of 167°32′ E, the longitude of …
An Emergency and a Mystical Groundhog Day
An Emergency and a Mystical Groundhog Day Had it not been for a serious breakage, 16 September could have been called the only Groundhog Day of our lives. Having put the clocks forward by…
The fair wind, as if bedevilled, cannot find our sails
The fair wind, as if bedevilled, cannot find our sails “Maybe I should go and wash my face. Think it might help?” “Well, give it a try. I washed mine; it didn’t help.” A nauseating mornin…
20 Days in the Ocean: The Unvarnished Truth About the Romance of the Sea
20 Days in the Ocean: The Unvarnished Truth About the Romance of the Sea A cyclone, then an anticyclone, then another cyclone keeps spinning around beyond New Zealand. In this automatic w…
About Coconuts, a Sawed-Off Boom, and Monsters from Suwarrow Atoll
About Coconuts, a Sawed-Off Boom, and Monsters from Suwarrow Atoll Keep sawing, Shura, keep sawing: it’s made of gold That was what the captain kept saying as he used a hacksaw to saw thr…
All Hands and Provisions. Day 56 of Self-Isolation
All Hands and Provisions. Day 56 of Self-Isolation Provisions at Sea: What We Have Left Coconut water for breakfast + the tender flesh of a young coconut. This kind of diet is a joy. The …
The Captain’s Birthday. Calms and Squalls
The Captain’s Birthday. Calms and Squalls It is so strange that Novosibirsk time is only six hours behind ours, yet over there it is already today while here it is still yesterday. Take t…
The Equator!
The Equator! This morning, we have 36 miles left to the point at latitude 00.00. This Neptune’s Day will be a modest affair, because we already crossed the equator at the end of March 201…
We’re Being Swept Past Land
We’re Being Swept Past Land “What a nuisance,” as Miss Bock used to say. And what pains me most is wasting two days heading north, then another two days heading south to get back on track…
Everything You Need to Know About an Emergency Stop. Or the Zombie Apocalypse on Christmas Island
Everything You Need to Know About an Emergency Stop. Or the Zombie Apocalypse on Christmas Island We asked them for some water to drink Or else we’d die before our prime And the uncles sa…
Day 87. Land Is Close
Day 87. Land Is Close “Marinochka, what if we hang around French Polynesia for five years or so? We’ll sort things out at home, then come back. We can take our time going through the vide…
How the Tahiti Rescue Service Wrote to Us. Day 91
How the Tahiti Rescue Service Wrote to Us. Day 91 And just like that, it’s winter. And south of the equator—just like that, it’s summer. We haven’t posted for a while. As soon as we caugh…
95 Days After Tasmania
95 Days After Tasmania One day in 1992, when I was in Year 11, recruiters from a sewing vocational school came to our school: come and train with us as industrial sewing-machine operators…
Yacht Repairs in Beautiful Places. Or Where We’ve Disappeared To
Sailing across a hundred seas during a pandemic means that even if you do find yourself close to land, you will have neither the opportunity nor the time to go travelling around it. Becau…
Aliens. What Moved In on Deck While the Crew Were Away, and What Was Christmas Like There?
We’ve got... flying slugs living on deck. Even as I write this, my hair is standing on end. It’s the tropics, baby... How did it happen? It was raining cats and dogs in the village of Gad…
Preparing for the Voyage: News from the Past Month
For the preparations for a voyage to go well, you need to recover from the previous voyage. Otherwise, disaster and burnout will come for you, scythe in hand, and there’ll be no strength …
We’ve Set Off to Cross the Pacific Ocean!
Our posts from the passage will carry a fresh ocean breeze and the hope that everything will be all right again. Because there has to be hope. Chronicles of Our Final Days in Polynesia Th…
Pacific Crossing, Days 5–6. And Another Torn Sail
This isn’t the Tasman Sea! we thought—and our motto, not a day without adventure, instantly kicked in. Our old mainsail, which had gone around the world through the Roaring Forties and Fu…
11 Days in the Ocean: Electrical Problems and a Yachtsman of the Year Award Win
11 Days in the Ocean: Electrical Problems and a Yachtsman of the Year Award Win Lady Mary has already whistled through one fifth of the Polynesia–Vladivostok route. Contrary to our rosy d…
The Equator and Our First Catch. Ocean, Day 16
The Equator and Our First Catch. Ocean, Day 16 Yesterday, Lady Mary crossed the equator once again, stepping from the Southern Hemisphere into the Northern. This teleportation has now hap…
Young Sailor Lada’s and First Mate Mum’s Birthdays in the Ocean
Young Sailor Lada’s and First Mate Mum’s Birthdays in the Ocean We’ve been celebrating for two days now. It just so happened that everyone in our family has had the chance to experience t…
Stuck on the Tropic of Cancer. Days 36–37
Stuck on the Tropic of Cancer. Days 36–37 The wind that carried us 4,500 nautical miles in a month has vanished. A light following wind is pushing the boat completely off her course. Then…
Escaping the Typhoon. Six Weeks in the Ocean
What can we say on the 43rd day of our journey? That if Lady Mary had maintained her speed from the first month, we would already be entering blessed Russian waters—or godforsaken ones, w…
Japan Is Gliding Past to Starboard. Day 50
Japan Is Gliding Past to Starboard. Day 50 The greatest joy for a long-haul sailor is sailing close to shore. No, friends, there is no romance in a weeks-long ocean passage. No adrenaline…
10 Days That Changed the Way We Travel
How does this keep happening, guys? The moment we come ashore—boom. We drop out of reporting mode and lose ourselves in life on land. A Gateway to Another Life For the last twenty-four ho…
Going All Out: Entering the Home Straight of Our Second Circumnavigation
“Isn’t it time you rested your tongues in a glass of water?” our friend Masha sweetly enquired. “We could certainly use it :),” we laughed. Because although talking the hind leg off a don…
Pacific-to-Atlantic Road Trip!
CALENDAR of motivational meet-ups in cities across Russia in August and September The main thing in this post will be the map. On 22 May 2022, our family somehow managed to complete its s…
Lady Mary and the Captain Are Back in the Ocean!
Unexpected news and the continuation of our maritime Odyssey So here I am, keeping quiet and dragging my feet, hiding behind the urgent need to finish writing the book, and the fact that …
Typhoon
Approaching the Philippines. Compiled from the captain’s messages sent via satellite tracker Morning of 16 October: “We sailed into a storm; it’s blowing 35+. The guys steered heroically …
Typhoon. From the Captain in the Ocean
#captainslog “...We really took a beating. It was blowing a steady fifty knots; in the gusts—I couldn’t say how much, because the wind instrument died. But there was a lot of wind. The be…
Happy Birthday, Captain Andrey Klochkov!
The captain and I have only been this far apart once before, seven years ago. He flew to the Canary Islands to prepare the yacht for our round-the-world voyage, and we were supposed to jo…
A Winter Apart, or Siberian Frosts Without the Captain
#lifeaftercircumnavigation November 2022 I promised to write about how we’re surviving in a Siberian village while the captain resuscitates the yacht in the Philippines. Our house in the …
The Captain Has Gone to the Southern Ocean!
10 December — Across the Pacific on a Schooner Andrey has gone to sea for two months. He is sailing as chief mate on a 37-metre sailing vessel (the same size as Duncan) across the Pacific…
How We’re Writing a Book Here in Siberia Against the Backdrop of... Well, Just Read It
I don’t know whether you’ve noticed that, apart from the stories about how Andrey is once again crossing the South Pacific right now, there hasn’t been anything on the page for ages. Ever…
In the Furious Fifties. News from the Captain
29 January We’ve dropped another couple of degrees south and are steadily approaching 53° south latitude. After weighing up the forecasts and probabilities, we decided to alter the plan s…
The Approaches to Cape Horn Begin a Thousand Miles Out
The Great Cape Horn Is Drawing Near 3 February Cape Horn is still more than 1,000 miles away, but we are already beginning to work out our strategy for the approach. To do this, several t…
The Storm Is Catching Up with Us. Captain’s Log
5.02 “The sea surges through the leeward scuppers (openings for draining water) with almost every wave. We’re making 8 knots on a port-tack beam reach under a reefed mainsail, main staysa…
Plan B: The Beagle Instead of Cape Horn
News from the captain: “We’re not going via Cape Horn. This decision was prompted by two important factors. First, we have only just enough diesel fuel left to reach Ushuaia. Second, we’r…
Plankton and the Scientific Expedition. Approaching Antarctica
18 February The wind in the Drake Passage refused to shift all morning. We are making extremely slow progress compared with our dash across the Pacific from Australia to Ushuaia. A head c…
Ocean TV — Defenders of Wildlife
The Expanding Role of PVC Cables in the Renewable Energy Industry and Environmental Conservation Trends and Innovations in the Renewable Energy Sector The development of renewable energy …
We’re Going to Antarctica!
And this time, you can join us on a tour to Antarctica. In December 2023, we returned to the ocean once again—together. And we are continuing to fulfil one of the dreams we were left with…