Evgueni Gvozdev : Un navigateur russe, explorateur et voyageur.2 photos

Evgeny Gvozdev
Russian sailor, explorer, and traveler

The interrupted journey of a 74-year-old lone adventurer

This renowned Russian sailor and traveler was the first Russian captain to complete a solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1996, using a small recreational sailboat. In 1999, he undertook another round-the-world voyage, but in 2008, he lost his life at sea during one of these expeditions.

Evgeny Alexandrovich Gvozdev was born in 1934 in the Belarusian city of Pinsk. His father was taken away in 1937 and never returned. Evgeny grew up with his mother, but she died during the Great Patriotic War, leaving him to live with a distant relative.

After graduating from a maritime school in Astrakhan, Gvozdev began working on ships, serving as a marine engineer for over thirty years.

In the late 1970s, he took up yachting, building his first boat himself—a one-deck vessel constructed from an old sailing ship that had been retired from service. He named it “Getan,” combining the names of himself and his family: Evgeny (GE), his wife Tatyana (T), son Alexander (A), and daughter Natalia (N).

With this boat, he crossed the Caspian Sea several times. On July 7, 1992, he set off on his first round-the-world voyage aboard a new 5.5-meter-long yacht named “Lena.” This journey was groundbreaking, as no one had ever done such a thing in a vessel of that size before. The voyage was dangerous: in August 1995, he was attacked by local pirates off the coast of Somalia and nearly killed.

He successfully completed the voyage on July 19, 1996. Two years later, on May 17, 1999, he embarked on his second round-the-world journey, this time aboard a 3.7-meter-long yacht named “Said.” During these final years, he spent much of his time preparing and repairing his boat.At the age of 65, he began his third round-the-world voyage on September 19, 2008, in Novorossiysk. Unfortunately, this journey ended tragically. In October, he successfully crossed the Black Sea, but in late November, he encountered a severe storm off the coast of Italy. Contact was lost with him on December 1, and his body was found on a beach in Italy on December 2.

Thus came to an end the life of this brave Russian sailor who brought honor to Russian yachting around the world. In memory of him, his yacht “Lena” is displayed at the “Admiral” yacht club in Moscow, and “Said” is exhibited in a school in Machachkala where he used to live.Interestingly, Evgeny himself admitted that he had always been afraid of the sea, yet it was this very fear that drove him to venture out into the ocean time and again. Had his last journey been successful, he likely would have continued on. Sadly, this did not happen.

Friends of Gvozdev remembered that he cherished life on the sea above anything else and that he truly embraced his destiny to die in the ocean, as it befit a true sailor.'>Men must accomplish something in their lives that they can be proud to tell about: climbing Mount Everest, planting a garden, curing a disease, writing a book—anything meaningful and useful,'> Evgeny used to say.