KAREN EARNSHAW
A yacht that arrived in Mili Atoll last week was on Tuesday this week reported to be headed north and was in the vicinity of Utrok Atoll.
Last Thursday, Assistant Police Commissioner Harris Kaiko reached out to an official of the Mieco Beach Yacht Club, asking if the club knew anything about a yacht that had arrived at Mili: “There is a yacht right now anchored inside Mili Atoll without proper papers.”
Club members were not aware of the yacht and confirmed there had been no communication with it on the club’s daily single-sideband radio net.
Kaiko reported that the yacht’s name is “Elizebata 49-4772”. Later, using various internet apps and sites, it was discovered that the yacht’s name is in fact Elizaveta and that it flies the Russian flag
The National Police arranged to take the Lomor patrol vessel to Mili to check out the situation. Kaiko then said that when they left Majuro, “we received word that the yacht left the islands around 4pm.” Kaiko and the crew of the Sea Patrol boat decided to continue on to Mili, but on arrival couldn’t find anything unusual to report.
RMI’s border has been closed to yachts for a year, and there are numerous requirements for visiting container vessels and fishing boats that require no contact with anyone on land.
The Elizaveta’s last known port was in Nadi, Fiji, with the Yacht Partners Fiji blog site including the following under the title “What our clients are saying about us…”: “The sailing vessel Elizaveta came to Fiji at the very hard time and we are really appreciate the assistance of our brilliant agent Josephine Morris and her team of Yacht Partners Fiji. Russian sailing Around the World expedition is making the last part of the program from Chile to Russia across the Pacific Ocean.
“The expedition is devoted to 200 years since discovery of Antarctic and is supported by Russian Geographical Society. But the last part turned to be the extremely difficult, because of COVID restrictions. Majority states in the Pacific Ocean are closed and we had to spend in the sea about four months without possibility to land. We had a lot of technical problems with our sailing vessel including navigation system. And also we were almost empty with water, food and fuel.
“When we came to Fiji our agent supported us with food and water immediately. We had a lot of problems because of our navigation system didn’t work correctly and we can’t show our track in correct way, but the agent made a lot of negotiations to solve our problems and finally the agent managed with all…”
The message was signed: Alexey Loginov, Commodore of the expedition, captain of the sailing vessel “Elizaveta,” Vice President of the polar association of Russia, member of the Russian Geographical Society.