Do we need heroes?

On March 11, 2013, Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Gvozdev, the famous traveler and yacht captain, would have turned 79 years old.

A photograph of a yacht hanging on a balcony became famous. I thought it was funny - a yacht on the balcony. Gvozdev lived in the neighboring yard, that is, he lived there when he was on land. He came to dad in a funny old hat, they talked about preparing for the next voyage. About who else you can turn to for help, about who has already refused, about who gave a hundred dollars... And this also seemed funny. It was clear that Gvozdev was not very comfortable among a bunch of people. And he’s also very uninterested in being with them. And he can’t wait to find himself alone on the surface of the water.

I paced his yacht and realized that I would go crazy on it in three hours. That this is not a yacht, it is a large plywood bed with a sail and a motor. Moreover, the bed is cramped and cold.

Then Gvozdev “left”. And dad was brought thick envelopes with a huge number of stamps and stamps. There were handwritten letters inside. When he saw the envelope, dad first sighed with relief, not yet reading it. Then I read, re-read, laughed and quoted, repeated: “Antananarivo, can you imagine where this is?”... I tried, but I didn’t have enough imagination to imagine Gvozdev in a beard and a funny hat - in Antananarivo. There was a block on the table - compressed porridge from army rations. We looked at the brick-hard block, twisted it in our hands, sniffed it and thought - but Gvozdev is eating something like this somewhere now.

News that he had been robbed by pirates off the coast of Africa, that newspapers all over the world were writing about him (color newspapers were enclosed in letters), that food had run out and he had to beg. In general, it all seemed funny too. Abstract.

Then he died on his third trip around the world. Yachtsmen from all countries went into hysteria and mourning. Dad hasn't dealt with this information until now.

And I saw all these numbers and facts. And I realized that I had accidentally come into contact with someone completely extraordinary. Absolutely unique. Somewhat superhuman. Who wanted to swim and swim. But for some reason, sail under the Russian flag.

I’ll just list all these mind-boggling things. Maybe someone along with me will stop finding it funny that few people know such a person as Evgeniy GVOZDEV in his homeland in Dagestan. And at home in Russia. We have other official travelers.

“He went on his first circumnavigation at the age of 58, the second at 65, and the third, unfinished and last, at 74, and returned Russia to the club of countries whose yachtsmen completed solo circumnavigations.

— Until 1991, he, an electromechanic of the Dagrybkholodflot, spent his holidays on endless trips around the Caspian Sea - along and across, clockwise and counterclockwise, in summer and winter. — The yachts were homemade, and the training was strictly professional. With severe restrictions on food and drinking water. In total, in single and collective campaigns, Evgeniy Aleksandrovich crossed the unpredictable Caspian Sea more than fifty times.

— E. Gvozdev made his first trip (1992-96) on a micro-class dinghy with a length of 5.5 meters; second 1999-03) on his tiny yacht, 3.7 meters long, which cannot be classified at all from a safety point of view. It is only suitable for children's training swimming in quiet ponds and enclosed reservoirs, but not in the ocean. By the way, this is the smallest yacht that sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Magellan. There are no people in the world who have done something like this.

“As a pensioner, he walked around the world alone, without any international legal, tangible financial, or even basic moral support. He walked with the expectation that fellow yachtsmen from other countries or captains of oncoming Russian ships would help him. And I was not mistaken!

“But the main achievement that elevates the name of Evgeny Gvozdev to the rank of a true hero of Russia is that he is the first Russian circumnavigator who started from Russian territory and finished on the territory of his homeland. No one before Gvozdev alone, either in the USSR or in the new Russia, had ever done this. It is known that the first Russian to sail around the world on a yacht was Fedor Konyukhov. But he started from Australia, sailed on a luxury foreign-made yacht and finished in the port of the same foreign country, far from Russia.

Britain's highest award went to Australian Serge Testa, who circumnavigated the world solo on a tiny 3.6-metre-long aluminum yacht (just 10cm shorter than Gvozdev's). When presenting the award, the Queen noted that it was intended not only for Serge, but also for all children who dream of such travels.

In Bulgaria, Georgiy Georgiev was the first to circumnavigate the world alone and immediately became a national hero of his country. Now in Varna, the country’s main yacht club bears his name, and honored guests of the city are given a portrait of Georgiev.

Gvozdev himself now “doesn’t care” the level of the award he deserves. We should decide for ourselves whether we need heroes?