The famous Russian traveler, 75-year-old Evgeny Gvozdev, died, presumably, on December 2 during a strong storm near Naples. The Italian authorities officially informed the yachtsman's relatives about this. On December 2, his body was discovered on the presidential beach near Naples, and a few days later the yacht Getan II, on which Gvozdev made the third solo voyage in his life circumnavigation, was found a few miles further on at Amerigo Vespucci Beach.
The body of a man with a long white beard, about 50 years old, with a deep wound on the head was found on the presidential beach in the Castelporziano area (the country residence of the head of state is located there. - Note), the Italian newspaper Il Messagero reported on December 2. The body was discovered by Italian carabinieri during an inspection of the coast.
And on December 8, a few miles from the site of the first discovery, on a beach named after Amerigo Vespucci, a small yacht with the inscription “Getan II” on its side was discovered washed ashore. On it, the carabinieri found many personal items, travel notes and a list of names written in Russian.
The deceased, who was found on the presidential beach, turned out to be the famous 75-year-old Russian traveler Evgeny Gvozdev, who had already sailed around the globe twice alone, and in September 2008, from Novorossiysk, set off on his third solo voyage around the world on the yacht Getan II.
The death of Gvozdev was reported on the forum of the magazine “Boats and Yachts” by a user with the nickname Davud, who had been in contact with the Russian consulate in Rome and the Italian coast guard since the beginning of December.
Apparently, events developed as follows: on November 29, during a storm off the coast of Naples, a 5-meter yacht capsized and broke its mast. After repairs, Gvozdev restored the yacht’s seaworthiness and on December 1 reported this on the radio. There was no SOS signal. But after that the traveler did not contact him again.
“For me, Gvozdev is the great and brightest Soviet/Russian yachtsman-traveler of the last 20 years. It is a symbol of the fact that an ordinary poor person, having retired (or earlier), can fulfill the dream of his life - to make a “round the world” - even with a minimum of money and without much yachting experience, but with a great desire, writes a user on the yachting forum Vladimir. – Few people believed in the success of Gvozdev’s first “around the world”, but he not only successfully completed it, but also made a second “around the world”. Throughout his life, he showed that if you really want and make every effort to make it happen, then you can make any dream come true.
And although I communicated with Gvozdev only by phone and via e-mail, he is so close to me in spirit that I perceive his departure as the loss of a close relative.”
Evgeny Gvozdev can confidently be called a legend of the Russian sailing. After retirement, the full member of the Geographical Society of the USSR crossed the Caspian Sea on solo and collective trips more than 50 times. On the yacht “Getan” (the first letters of the traveler’s family names: Evgeniy Gvozdev, wife Tatyana, son Alexander, daughter Natalya), he visited all Soviet ports of the Caspian Sea, covering about 4 thousand miles.
On July 7, 1992, Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Gvozdev set off on his first solo circumnavigation of the world on the yacht “Lena” (only 5.5 meters long) from Makhachkala. On August 5, 1995, Gvozdev’s yacht was attacked by Somali pirates and almost killed the traveler. Only by a miracle did he manage to escape. 13 days after the incident, practically without water and food, Gvozdev safely arrived at the port of Djibouti.
From May 1999 to August 2003, Evgeny Gvozdev conducted his second circumnavigation of the world on the ultra-small yacht Said, only 3.7 meters long, which he built himself on the balcony of his Makhachkala apartment.
After Gvozdev’s second “around the world”, the city administration of Makhachkala decided to build Russia’s first monument in honor of the legendary yacht and its captain on the seaside Rhodope Boulevard. Now “Said” is temporarily located in the local history museum of Makhachkala school-lyceum No. 39.
Evgeny Gvozdev set off on his last trip from Novorossiysk on September 19 on a specially built yacht “Getan II”.
The editors of the newspaper VZGLYAD express their condolences to the family and friends of the traveler.
Evgeny Aleksandrovich Gvozdev was born in 1934 in the Belarusian city of Pinsk. The boy's father was taken away in 1937, and he never returned from Stalin's dungeons. Evgeniy grew up with his mother, but during the Great Patriotic War She also died during the bombing, and he lived with a distant relative. After graduating from the nautical school in Astrakhan, Gvozdev began working on ships, and he spent more than three decades as a ship mechanic.
Gvozdyov became a yachtsman in the late 1970s; his first yacht was a homemade single-deck yacht, which Evgeniy built from an old whaleboat decommissioned ashore.
He named his ship "Getan", the name was made up of the names of Evgeniy himself and his family - Gvozdev Evgeniy (GE), his wife Tatyana (T), son Alexander (A) and daughter Natalya (N). So, on his yacht, he first crossed the Caspian Sea, and later, according to estimates, he crossed the Caspian about 50 times.
On July 7, 1992, Evgeny Gvozdev set off on his first circumnavigation of the world on his new yacht called Lena. It was a small ship, 5.5 meters in length, and its circumnavigation of the world became a record in its own way, since Gvozdyov became the first to accomplish this on such a small ship. The journey turned out to be quite dangerous - in August 1995, in the waters of Somalia, he was attacked by local pirates, robbed and almost killed.
For the second time, Gvozdyov set off on a circumnavigation of the world on May 17, 1999, he sailed from Makhachkala, where he lived with his family. His vessel was the 3.7-meter yacht Said, and later it was called the smallest sailing yacht that sailed through the Strait of Magellan. By the way, for the last three years he has been preparing and repairing his yacht, sewing sails, gluing and preparing for the next trip. This time the traveler was already 65 years old. Gvozdyov also met the new millennium at sea, this was just before entering the Strait of Magellan. The second circumnavigation ended 50 months later, on July 10, 2003.
However, Gvozdev did not stop there. So, on his new 5.5-meter yacht called “Getan-2”, 74-year-old Gvozdev set off on another round-the-world swim on September 19, 2008, starting in Novorossiysk. Alas, this journey was not destined to end well. In October, Gvozdyov reported that he had safely crossed the Black Sea, and at the end of November he was caught in a severe storm off the coast of Italy. Communication with the captain was interrupted on December 1, and a day later, on December 2, 2008, Italian sailors found the body of Evgeniy Gvozdev on the beach. His yacht Getan-2 was found not far from its captain a few days later.
Thus ended the life of the brave Russian navigator, who brought worldwide fame to Russian yachting. In memory of Evgeny Gvozdev, his yacht "Lena" is exhibited in the Moscow yacht club "Admiral", and in one of the schools in Makhachkala, where he lived, his yacht "Said" is exhibited.
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Surprisingly, even during his lifetime, Eugene himself admitted that he was always afraid of the sea, and it was this fear that forced him to go to sea over and over again, overcoming himself and his fear. If the last circumnavigation of the world had ended successfully, then Evgeny Gvozdev probably would not have stopped there. Alas, this was not destined to come true. By the way, Gvozdyov’s friends know that he, a sailor to the core, was always afraid of dying on land. So, fate gave him his last chance - Evgeny Gvozdev, as befits a sailor, died at sea.
