“I suffocate on the shore”: Sergey Morozov will go to a new round the world

Sergey Morozov is a professional sailor, long-distance captain, yachtsman, traveler. From 2011 to 2014, he traveled around the world on a yacht alone. He described his voyage in a book."When the Horizon Screams", published in 2020.

He lives in Canada in a small village on the ocean. In addition to Sergey, there are 3 cats in the house: the oldest cat Cil became a member of the family in Canada in 2006. She walked around the world with Sergey on the yacht HIKARI with her daughter Miami. When Sergey goes to sea for a long time, he takes the cats with him.

As a teenager, you dreamed of becoming a captain. Tell me how this idea came about.

At that time, the boys read the book of the navigator Joshua Slocham, who went around the world. Slokam began sailing in 1893. He traveled solo and wrote a book that became a bestseller of the time and was called “Alone Around the World.” The book was reprinted and translated into dozens of languages.

In addition to Slokam, people like Leonid Teliga, or the Papazov couple, who walked the world so “temperamentally” at the time that people applauded the news about them.

But even before I read Slocam’s book, I fell ill with the “sail bacillus” and began the “movement to sails”: since childhood I dreamed of circumnavigating the world. I wanted to be the captain of a sailing ship. In order to become a captain, he completed the sailor.

In Rostov (I was born in Rostov-on-Don) there were the Nautical School of the Ministry of Fisheries and the Nautical School of the Ministry of the Navy.

Picked Fish. First, because the Kruzenstern, the “charismatic” sailboat I admired at the time, belonged to the Ministry of Fisheries. Just like the “Sedov”, also “powerful”, by parameters, “assigned” to the Ministry of the Navy.

As a result, he went and finished the sailor, the department “Shipping on the Sea Routes”.

 

Teenagers often choose a role model whose opinion is a “weighty argument.” Please tell me if you met such a person in your youth. And tell us about how the meeting influenced the choice of profession.

This example was my first captain Mikhail Ganzha: I write about this man as a teacher in the book When the Horizon Screams, you will see a photo of Mikhail Pavlovich on the pages. Then I turned 12, 14. Mikhail Pavlovich offered me the place of a young man on a homemade yacht, and of course I gladly agreed.

We often and for a long time went to sea with him, became friends and our communication continued for many years. Mikhail Pavlovich once told me: “Sergei, if you want to become a sailing ship captain, go study and become a sailor,” and added: “Life is too short to do something unloved.”

The alternative was to become a sailor or go into professional sports. The boxing coach offered to study at the university, where he headed the department of physical education. He said: During your studies, we will prepare you for the Olympics. Five years of study will pass, you will not notice how!

 

How right you didn't do that!

Yeah. I've been thinking about this proposal for a long time. I have to give credit to the coach - he did not push, on the contrary, suggested options.

He once said, Sergei, I would like to train you and prepare for the Olympics. But let’s think: when you’re ready for a big sport, they’ll send you to Moscow for the Russian national team, and we won’t see each other again. This is one. Secondly, a boxing career ends at 35, and after that only coaching work until retirement shines. Think! I thought and chose the sea.

How do you determine the age limit in yachting?

This is not boxing, there is no age limit in yachting. Limit - if there is no knowledge: because in this case you will not end well and quickly.

Today divorced too many YouTube - navigators who from the position of "experienced" teach walking in the sea. Such people think: watched a couple – three videos on YouTube – and – “well done!”, ready to go to sea.

I'm an old-school sailor and I don't think so. In reflection, I warn you: soon we will start collecting the “harvest” of ridiculous accidents and deaths of yachtsmen, and this is not only a problem for the Russian-speaking segment of yachting.

Young people are trying to go to sea, for God’s sake! But the number of “captains” of today’s spill has reached a critical mass. By the way, the number of accidents has increased.

 

It's a dangerous sport, of course.

This is not a sport, it is a lifestyle. Sport, when athletes "chase" during the day - "in the morning left, in the evening - came."

Big water yachting is something else. When you leave for two, three weeks, a month, or a few years around the world. With the team. Or one.

One -- that's scary, I guess.

Sometimes it gets really scary. It depends on how you treat fear. Some fear paralyzes, others motivate. You know, I've seen a lot of people react to fear differently.

I would advise some to go to the sea alone: there is no one to “ski” in front of the sea, and then you will see with your own eyes what you are really worth.

When I'm afraid, I think through every step, count every move. Because I know that a mistake can be fatal, in solo swimming, no one will throw you a lifeline and no one to pick up if I fly overboard on insurance. When the boat goes 6-8 knots, I can't get back. There's no one to reach out from the boat.

 

And how do animals feel on board: do they feel fear?

Animals have no such thing as fear. Cila, when she felt anxious, would come, sit on her arms or beside her. So we sat together, thinking about our...

That is why I am talking about the importance of experience: young people go to sea without enough experience and hope for “crusts”, and in other situations no “crusts” will help.

 

Speaking of “crusts”: is it difficult to get permission to circumnavigate the world or to swim in neutral waters?

Some novice navigators think that you need special papers in order to go around the world, for example, the captain's "crust".

Certificates confirming qualifications will only be required if you take the boat on charter. In 30 years of practice on the shore, I have never been asked to present documents confirming the qualification of the captain to manage a yacht: I have never taken a boat charter in my life.

 

Please tell me if you can’t enter the marina.

No, no one can forbid a yacht to enter or leave the marina. First of all, knowledge, not paper, as some people think. With a brain pandemic, the situation has changed. But I hope that these are temporary measures to restrict the entrance to the port and exit.

 

What basic knowledge is needed to manage a yacht?

I talk about this in the materials: “Yachting: where to start?”, followed by the material “Theory and practice”, and, finally, “Yachting: the choice of a boat”.

First, I post materials on websites, on other sites of my own and possible sites, and after that I make a video, I pour it on YouTube. This is an unshakable order that my students value. I answered this question in detail in my book When the Horizon Screams, and I tried to give this minimum in the lessons of Maritime Affairs.

Sergey, you live in Canada. Tell me why you chose Canada, what you like here, what you don’t like?

Canada was chosen by fate. We lived in England for 4 years, my daughter came to me: at that moment we were separated from my wife, my wife left the family and my daughter did not want to stay with her mother. Suddenly, his wife wanted to come back, behaved aggressively, sprinkled blunders. Fleeing the persecution of my ex, my daughter and I decided to run away. The situation became complicated: if the wife came to England, the daughter would be forcibly taken away, and it was legal in England in 2003. There were no English documents yet: we just got a residence permit.

The situation was tense: I had to make a quick decision. I consulted my daughter and asked her what she thought about going to Australia on a yacht for at least a year. The daughter agreed.

 

There were no documents to cross the border. The yacht was bought at the expense of the old Westerly Longbow 32. It happened in 2003. They left England undocumented for North America with the prospect of reaching Australia. Of course, I was hoping they wouldn't find us.

The police searched the ocean over the Internet, cellular communication?

Then, in 2003, as now, in 2020, it is impossible to find a person on the Internet in neutral waters without special equipment.

Now they use an antenna that receives the Internet: equipment and traffic are expensive, “mere mortals” can not afford such luxury, and then almost no one had Internet in the ocean, except on large commercial ships. My daughter and I decided to hide in Australia until Sashkiny's 16th birthday and then let her decide who she wants to live with.

Of course, the plan was crazy. But eventually left on an old English yacht, 32 feet. We went across Europe, Spain, the Canary Islands, the Azores, and then across the Atlantic to Bermuda.

When we arrived in Bermuda, the money ran out again. I thought it was impossible to go to the left, to the Panama Canal, there you need to pay $2,000-2,500 for the passage of the Canal, which we did not have.

If you go through the Strait of Magellan, we will not reach - the boat is not ready: the sails are old, and we steered by hand. So we turned right, towards Canada. So the decision was reasonable.

Why didn’t they go to America like the others: the Russians in those days sought Florida, Miami.

I didn’t like America then as much as I do now. I respect Americans, but America is a country of aggressive foreign policy and tough legislation. Canada was friendly and democratic. Then he and his daughter hoped to find happiness in a peaceful country. We almost succeeded.

What is Alexandra doing now, daughter? Living with you in Canada?

Sasha now lives a separate life in Halifax. The girl grew up and chose a path that I respect. This is her life and she has the right to spend it as she wants.

So the daughter didn't follow in her father's footsteps.

Sometimes Sasha earns by sea. From time to time, I return to the conversation about education: I suggest taking courses and becoming a captain. While Sasha thinks about it.

It is strange to hear that sailor is an unfeminine profession.

Agreed. But Alexandra is unusual, she is an experienced sailor since childhood. Sasha has this character: as a father, I gave her complete freedom.

 

Tell us how COVID has affected your plans and your life in general.

Home mode is convenient for me: I can do creativity, write articles, create materials for those interested in yachting, go to sea, go fishing. I live in a small village 40 km from Halifax on the coast of the ocean, and always happy to come home from the big city to the cats. I don’t go to the city often, only for urgent business and food.

Regarding the “brain pandemic”, called “COVID-19”, I have my own opinion, which, I admit, many will not understand. I will not hide it: I am tired of human stupidity, self-interest, excessive vanity and greed.

It is hard for me to see the world collapsing under the onslaught of lying politicians and families of self-serving bankers. I prefer to be at sea more often, because outside the two-hundred-mile economic zone of any state, the neutral waters of the World Ocean open up, which covers, as we know, more than 70% of the Earth. Where, to great joy, no one’s laws and human rights violations do not work. I'm happy there!

It's good that there is such an opportunity.

I'm more in demand than ever. I was recently contacted by a man who needs to get to the Caribbean. There are no planes there: there are no flights. He asked if I could take him to the Caribbean.

I agreed. We took care of the boat. The boat will soon be ready to leave, the final touches of preparation are coming. When such requests are made to me, I am always happy to help.

 

Do you think the pandemic will affect the ability to move around the world in the future? How do you get into a marina during a pandemic?

Many countries are closed and restrictions are in place. But some marinas can already be entered, it is legal. You just need to go through a certain procedure: first sit on board for two weeks in quarantine, then take tests, and released ashore. These are standard requirements in many countries. I think there will be relief, but there is no deadline. You can buy what you need and leave again.

 

What are your plans for the near future: planning something, maybe a round the world?

The longer the pandemic hysteria continues, the harder it is for me to be involved. I am waiting for huge territories of neutral waters with their uninhabited islands, endless deserted territories of continents and new adventures. There are already people who want to go with me on this exciting voyage.

I also invite those who want to leave clean not only their body, but, most importantly, their consciousness. Join us, there is enough neutral water for everyone!

I plan to go around the world, but on a different yacht and not alone: I can take passengers. Then I will be able to show people the beauty that I saw in one face.

The beggars of a solitary circumnavigation with the beauties that I could enjoy alone I no longer want, it will be completely different in spirit and along the route of the circumnavigation!

Probably, you need physical strength, training to withstand circumnavigation.

Physical strength as well as health are important, but this is not the main thing.
A dream, a plan, a belief in success, perseverance and dedication. From this “kebana” I will grow new adventures, which I will also write about for those who follow.

 

Please tell us what criteria you will take to the project, to the neutral waters and to the uninhabited islands.

You're probably taking cats with you?

Of course, cats are my main crew! Chicken, Miami and Red. Chicken and Maika are already experienced sailors, they have 47,000 miles behind them. The redhead will have to learn, but my guy is smart, he will cope.

We all look to the ocean with hope and smile, because we know that very soon we will be truly free.

Interviewed: Valeria Fialkova
Photo: Sergey Morozov

P.S. YouTube channel of Sergey Morozovhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeax9fT2VFEoG52B5L011wA

P.P.S. The book by Sergey Morozov"When the Horizon Screams"