​History of the Yacht Admiral Nevelskoi

In 1987 the Maritime State University acquier the cruiser class Cetus. The yacht was named admiral Nevelskoi. Leonid Lysenko wrote his book "One hundred thousand miles across the seas and destinies." Here are a few quotes from the book (chapter "First Letter" dated to the year 1993):
"Our yacht" Admiral Nevelskoi", it belongs to the Far Eastern State Maritime Academy Admiral GI Nevelskoi. We plan to get around on the boat all the land, and along the way to gather information about the Russians-pioneers. This work is familiar to us.For more than twenty years of his every vacation we spend on yachts, collecting the crumbs of the history of Russian pioneers. We have studied in detail, and repeated all routes Amur expedition GI Nevelskoi.
Leonid Lysenko started his round the world tour on the Admiral Nevelskoi in July 1993. He left Vladivostok to Taiwan , Hong-Kong , San Francisco , He sails to San Diego , through the Panama canal , accross the atlantic ocean , the Indian Ocean .
While he was in the Indian Ocean he notice that the mast has some corrosion.. He tried to fix it but it did not work .. He finally lost the mast of the Admiral Nevelskoi. He had still a hope to reach Australia but destiny had decided differently . The rudder of the yacht broke and he had to accept the fate that this was the end of his world tour.. Only at 1000 nautical miles from Australia, east of perth. The Admiral Nevelskoi was almost a wreck gliding on the water of the Indian Ocean . Leonid was not so silent on board water started to get inside and he had to remove water constantly.. In his statement he wrote that the yacht would sink as soon as he stops to pump water outboard. For 21 days he fought with only one hope the one to survive.
Then came an Australian cargo ship .. They wanted to rescue him , but he had to abandonned the yacht . He refused to leave the yacht and asked them to go back to ask for help.. Once in Sydney they asked for help and the Russian authority sent the Arkaja a Ukrainian vessel to Rescue Leonid . The order was clear , save Leonid and let go the yacht Admiral Nevelskoi. On the 3rd August 1996.
Leonid was rescued and brought to South Africa before he took the plane to Russia.
It was the end of the world tour for Leonid. The Admiral Nevelskoi was now a phantom vessel moving in the Indian Ocean crewless. Everyone thought that it would sink or move further down to the Antartic where it would be trapped.
On May 1997 , while going to fish one of the fisherman came accross a huge white ship in the sea. As it was still early in the morning and he was alone , he was scared and conclude that it was a phantom vessel  he ran away. Later during the day his friends wanted to prove to him that he was wrong .. They went back to the sea on the coral reefs and they saw the Nevelskoi standing there afer several months and days sailing crewless it was trapped in the corals.  The huge white yacht was here.  The authorities in Mauritius ordered to remove the yacht from the corals and to put it back on the shore at Pte Monier..
Here again the keel of the yacht was too high to move in the lagoon.. They decided to remove it and sunk it in the corals. This was the only way they found to free the yacht and to bring it to the shore. The yacht laid at Pte monier till 2010 .. When I went to Rodrigues I came accross the YAcht. I knew that it was a Russian yacht .. People there had never tried to know from where it came from. I finally discovered that it was for nobody and that the authority wanted to destroy it.. I immediately did some research and found out that it was for the Maritime University .. I  contacted Leonid and the University.  I remember that day when we called Leonid and asked him if he was the owner of the Yacht  and that we found it in Rodrigues .. He was  so surprised, his voice was full of emotion..  We manage with the help of the University and some personal financing to save the YAcht..



Eric Typhis Degtyarenko