Countywide : 5 Russians, 3 Vessels Make Port

For five Russian sailors who left their country a year and half ago to sail around the world, the visit to Orange County this week has been a respite for frazzled nerves.

“This is a beautiful place--it’s a cool place,” said Alexander Krivenyshev, 32, exercising his colloquial English.

Krivenyshev, who was born in Siberia, left his job as an oceanographer to join the expedition.

“I like California,” he said. “We meet some people in yacht clubs and they let us shave and clean our faces. It makes me feel comfortable.”

The crew shoved off in three vessels from Vladivostok in the summer of 1991, tracing north and east through the Sea of Japan, the Bering Sea and across the North Pacific. The crew members then sailed down the North American coast and into Newport Beach last Friday. The group sailed Thursday to Dana Point, where the vessels moored at the Orange County Marine Institute.

At each stop, the crew members and their wooden boats dock for a few days to allow time for sunning, doing laundry and meeting the locals.

Krivenyshev was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to visit nightclubs here as opposed to Russian clubs, which he said are off-limits to all but those with pocketfuls of rubles or ties to the criminal underground.

“Here in America, the common people can visit nightclubs,” he said. “That really surprised me.”

Between visits to tourist spots--including the Ronald Reagan presidential library--the crew members have had plenty of time to contemplate the wisdom of their expedition.

“This is one time in your life you can do something amazing,” Krivenyshev said. “People who go on a boat . . . they are all a little crazy.”

While the crew was at sea, the Soviet government crumbled, swallowing up its source of funding. That has forced the voyage to become somewhat of a crazy scavenger mission.

“We have no money,” said Michael Poboronchuk, 44, the expedition chief. So each day he sells T-shirts with the expedition logo for $20. He also sells souvenir pins and hats for $5 and $10. He hopes the sales will help pay the estimated $20,000 to cover food, fuel and visas they need to complete the journey. “I worry about that every day,” Poboronchuk said.

Poboronchuk, a journalist for a Moscow magazine, said he has dreamed of this trip since reading a book about sailing around the world when he was 13. He was responsible for finding the rubles to build the ships and assemble the crew.

The three boats are each 52 feet long and have diesel engines, two masts and plenty of bunk space. The weather-beaten vessels, named for the saints Peter, Paul and Gabriel, were built more than two years ago with a million-ruble grant from the government.

The burly, bearded expedition chief says he will not tolerate the notion of turning back, although he worries constantly about the yearlong trip around South America. He does not know if all the Central and South American countries will allow his boats to dock and the crew to replenish its supplies.

“We are going on spirit alone. We only go forward, forward to home,” Poboronchuk said.

After sailing around South America, the crew will stop in Florida to prepare for the transatlantic journey that will take them around Africa and into the Indian Ocean. The crew’s goal is to visit each of the continents--excluding Antarctica--before returning home to Vladivostok in 1998 or so.

Poboronchuk said he is looking for a couple of Americans to join the trip at least as far as San Diego if not farther. He picked up three Americans in Northern California; two have since changed their minds and gone home.

“I need some crew members--a mechanic and someone who can speak Spanish,” Poboronchuk said.