The story involving three family members began in the summer. Ilya Pichugin decided to spend part of the vacation with his father. His parents are divorced, but his mother did not interfere. In July, my son flew to Ulan-Ude. A month later, Ilya called his mother in Krasnoyarsk and told her that he and his father were going to the Far East to see the beauty of the Shantar Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk. The boy was dreaming about whales.
Mikhail Pichugin, Sergei’s brother, shift worker. He worked in Sakhalin and in his free time went to sea to fish, so he invited his brother and nephew to the ends of the Earth. The men are experienced fishermen and hunters. They prepared thoroughly for the trip: they bought in advance a five-meter inflatable boat “Baykat 470”, designed for six people. The catamaran was driven by Mikhail, who had a boat captain’s license.
On August 4, from the port of Moskalvo on Sakhalin, the travelers set out for the Shantar Islands and then to the mainland in the area of Cape Perovsky, returning to northern Sakhalin on August 9. They carried warm clothing and a small supply of food and water. The ship was to cover the distance from Cape Perovsky in the Nikolaevsky district of the Khabarovsk Territory to the port of Moskalvo in the Okha district of the Sakhalin region in a few hours. But the travelers never reached their final destination.
The search was extensive. Lifeguards from three regions worked. Aviation was involved: a Mi-8 helicopter and an Emergencies Ministry plane. The search operation yielded no results. According to the General Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Khabarovsk Territory, during the entire period, about 184 thousand square kilometers of water surface and about nine thousand kilometers of coastline were inspected, including bays and bays on both sides of it. Tatar Strait. There were hopes that the ship would reach land, but there were also reports that the ship capsized and sank. As it turned out, it was not necessary to look near the shore.
On the afternoon of October 14, the catamaran was discovered in the Sea of Okhotsk, 20 kilometers from the village of Ust-Khairyuzovo in the Kamchatka Territory, almost 1,000 kilometers from northern Sakhalin, where the tourists were heading. The catamaran was spotted by fishermen in the dark. By a fortunate coincidence, the seiner passed alongside the ship. At first, the Angel’s crew decided that there was a mark on the radar screen from a buoy or small debris. On the boat was a bearded, emaciated and exhausted man, dressed in warm clothing and a life jacket, as well as two lifeless bodies. Of the three, only Mikhail Pichugin survived.
By a lucky coincidence, the seiner “Angel” passed next to the ship. There was a bearded man, emaciated and exhausted, dressed in warm clothes.
In the video recorded by the fishermen, the boat is full of things and a red “flag” from a backpack hangs from a small mast. The outboard motor is in the raised position. The Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office told RG that, according to Pichugin, the ship lost speed due to a breakdown of the outboard motor. For more than two months he was at the mercy of the wind, waves and currents. And in the end it turned out to be very northeast.
“At the time of evacuation, the rescued person was in a state of shock, but his mind was clear, he thought logically and expressed his thoughts,” the supervisory body clarified. During the trip, the man lost almost double his weight: he lost 50 kilograms. The “angel” delivered him, as well as the bodies of the victims, to Magadan. There Mikhail was hospitalized in a regional hospital.
Infographic “RG” / from open sources
Comment
Igor Olkhovsky, famous Far Eastern traveler:
– I see the main mistake of the Pichugins in the fact that they did not have a satellite phone with them. They would have been found and evacuated quickly.
When the engine broke down, they had to row. I remember that during my first expedition we rowed 750 kilometers, despite the current. In general, the catamaran case is strange all around. How could I get to Kamchatka if the northwest wind (headwind) prevails in the Sea of Okhotsk and the current in this area is tidal: four hours in one direction and the same in the opposite direction? It is also interesting to know what helped a person survive without food and water. They say they only had 20 liters. And in the Sea of Okhotsk, even in the height of summer, the conditions are very harsh.
Dossier
65 years ago
This quartet was more popular than the Liverpool quartet. Boys from the Far East have been written about and talked about all over the world. In January 1960, during a storm, a self-propelled barge T-36, which was unloading on the Kuril Islands, fell into the center of a powerful cyclone. They took her to the sea.
On board were Junior Sergeant Askhat Ziganshin and soldiers Filipp Poplavsky, Anatoly Kryuchkovsky and Ivan Fedotov. They spent 49 days in the open sea. They had with them a loaf of bread, a can of stew, some cereal and potatoes, and several packages of Belomor. “Their epic courage shocked the world. These four guys are not just soldiers of the Soviet army. They are also soldiers of humanity,” said American writer Albert Kahn.
Prepared by Andrey Polynsky
