Russian Explorer Discovers New Friends in His Voyage Around the World

Leonid Lysenko has braved freezing waters and treacherous weather to navigate from his Russian homeland to the outer islands of Alaska and other ports to explore the landing sites of Russian mariners from centuries past.

This past week found the 53-year-old navigation professor from Vladivostok docking in Newport Bay and resting at the Balboa Yacht Club--not in search of Russian sailors’ artifacts, but to get help repairing his boat, damaged during his current around-the-world voyage.

Lysenko, who teaches at the Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime Academy in Vladivostok, is on a solo expedition begun in July, 1993. In the past, he has made shorter voyages with students for research, but the round-the-world voyage has been the fulfillment of a dream.

“Every year, my vacation is on a yacht,” Lysenko said with the aid of an interpreter. “I have a trip with my students, and we make historical research about Russian explorers. But since the end of the Cold War, there are fewer students and less work, so I’ve liberated some free time. This is my only chance in life to do this.”

His course has taken him to Taiwan and Hong Kong, up to the Aleutian Islands and down to San Francisco, but not without peril.

While sailing to the Aleutian Islands, he tangled with a monsoon. His boat’s electrical system was damaged and his autopilot device broke. He managed to navigate the boat--a 50-foot, single-sail racing craft--manually to San Francisco. A friend at a yacht club in San Francisco contacted Balboa Yacht Club member Gordon Glass and asked if Glass could help him out.

When word got out that Lysenko needed help repairing his boat, members of the Balboa Yacht Club pitched in. They sent his damaged autopilot system to the manufacturers in Florida, found 20 24-volt batteries and rewired the damaged electrical system.

This is his first trip to the U.S. mainland, he said. While resting at the yacht club, he reflected on his voyage.

In his adventures around the Bering Sea, he has found traces of Vitus Bering, the Danish navigator and Russian navy officer who was the first European to set foot on Alaska, Lysenko said.

“Twelve years ago, my students and I uncovered a lot of Bering’s artifacts,” Lysenko said, showing photographs of a gun he and his students dug up. “On this trip, I found more traces of Bering. It’s great luck to find stuff that is of interest to someone in the maritime academy.”

While in San Francisco, Lysenko searched through libraries and archives for information on six Russian sailors who died there on Oct. 23, 1863, while fighting a fire.

“In San Francisco, 130 years ago, arrived a Russian military fleet,” Lysenko said. “In this period, the U.S. was fighting a civil war and Great Britain and France wanted to take sides. The Russian czar didn’t have good relations with Great Britain and France. He felt they should not interfere. The Russian fleet stayed (along the coast) to keep watch.”

At 4 a.m. that autumn day, a fire broke out on California Street, and about 400 seamen came to help put it out, Lysenko said.

“I found the graves of six crewmen who stopped the fire on California Street,” he said. “I had a special ceremony with the U.S. Navy. We put a plaque there saying six crew members died and the people of San Francisco express their gratitude.”

Lysenko hopes to sail on to San Diego this week. His voyage will take him through the Panama Canal, across the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, up through the Philippines and back up to Vladivostok.

When he returns home, Lysenko said he hopes to start a museum commemorating the contributions of Russian immigrants throughout the world.

“I have 10 boxes here with historical documents I’ve found in libraries and archives,” Lysenko said.

Lysenko also has been keeping a journal of his findings and adventures. In all the ports where he has docked, friends have helped him with transportation in the cities and restocking supplies. He said he was amazed at the speed of the repairs in Corona del Mar, marveling that parts could be shipped across the country in just a few days.

He added he was grateful to his new friends, the fellow sailors at the Balboa Yacht Club.

“This is an old-sailor kind of thing,” said Michael Hirsh, a club member who has been acting as Lysenko’s interpreter. “No matter what, you always help a sailor in distress. There’s a bond among sailors that you share what you have, no matter where he’s from.”