Teodor Rezvoi dedicated his passage across the Atlantic to the rescuers who died under the World Trade Center wreckage in New York
There are people for whom the sensation of risk and danger are akin to complacency and a sedentary lifestyle of the overwhelming majority of other mortals. Such people once were the first to climb Mount Everest, rise in the air on clumsy cardboard wings, and sail the Atlantic in search of the alluring and mythical India. They are pioneers and romantics, sometimes grownup children who never abandoned their childhood dreams evoked by the books of Mayne Reid and Jules Verne.
One of them is Teodor Rezvoi, a man who has already wrought a small wonder: he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a frail rowboat. This Odesa resident made his unbelievable voyage last year, covering the distance of almost 5,000 kilometers from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 67 days. Incidentally, he became representative of only the fifth country whose citizen managed to do so on his own, our country! There are very few such people. They are considered the true pride and treasure of any given nation. For example, the Englishmen who performed a similar exploit was knighted by the Queen. Teodor calls himself patriot — not because he cries it out from housetops, ardently beating his breast, but because he is really a man of action. He wishes more people knew Ukraine, her magnificent flag and courageous people. This is why he will go on his next ocean voyage in a boat called Ukrayina. The previous one, Odesa, served him in good stead on his way to America. The new vessel will take him in the opposite direction from New York’s Statue of Liberty to the French port of Brest. This is considered one of the most difficult and dangerous Atlantic routes. The voyage is scheduled to start in May. Although the ocean-crossing season is confined to a short summertime period between the vernal icebergs and the early autumnal storms, these two things do not always meet the seasonal time limits. If the passage is to be successful, Ukraine will be the world’s third (!) country to have set this record, for just a few weeks ago a Frenchman put his country in second place. Rezvoi intends to dedicate his passage to the rescuers who died under the World Trade Center ruins in New York.
Statistics are stubborn. They says that out of the 23 people who tried to cross the ocean from west to east 16 failed to reach dry land, while three rowers, unable to handle their makeshift boats, found their last resting place at sea. But this does not frighten Rezvoi. “I know how to overcome fear,” he says in such a firm voice that you involuntarily believe in the endeavor’s happy ending. The impression is that if he suddenly said, equally seriously, that he was setting off to Mars, everybody would immediately believe him and begin waiting for the good news from there: that everything is OK with getting ready for the return flight to earth. Yet, on the high seas he also can behold — and photograph — plenty of stars. A gospel truth says: a talented man is talented in more than one field. Kyiv has recently hosted a photo exhibition of Rezvoi’s that showed what the traveler had seen on his maiden voyage.
The Ukrayina, to be bought in Britain, is seven meters long. Unfortunately, this country does not produce such hi-tech vessels as his. Compared to the Odesa, the boat is of a new design that makes it practically unsinkable. But the lion’s share of success depends, of course, on the boat’s captain. About 80% of all the ill-fated passages occurred for psychological reasons. It is simply too difficult to stay very long face-to-face with such an uncontrollable element as the ocean. Even the captains of huge liners, let alone those traveling in a boat seven meters long boat, dread its waves. On the other hand, Rezvoi is not slated to be left alone. The boat will carry a built-in radio beacon to maintain a linkup with the mainland. Rezvoi also hopes to put in such telecommunication facilities as a mobile phone and the Internet, something he badly needed during the last passage, for it was technically impossible.
The main risk that solo seafarers run is being capsized. The Frenchman’s vessel, for instance, capsized more than a dozen times during its voyage. Moreover, the water is cold and various less than friendly representatives of the fauna bustle about. Another problem is that the frail boat can be rammed by a large ship whose radar might miss a collision-course vessel, especially in the dark. This is why seafarers stay awake practically all night long.
It is very symbolic that Rezvoi should have chosen Manhattan as his starting point. It is from there that a rowboat with two Norwegian-born Americans, Harbo and Samuelson, cast off 107 years ago for the first time to conquer the ocean. They accepted the challenge of a New York newspaper to cross the Atlantic in a boat for a prize of $10,000, a stratospheric sum at the time. Although the passage was successful, no one else ever put to sea from Manhattan thereafter.
Then why is Rezvoi undertaking such a risky business? He himself explains it quite simply, “I want to prove to myself that I am able. For if you do something once, it could be pure chance, but doing it twice makes it a rule.”
Still, something suggests that he will not stop here. “Once you have seen the ocean, you fall in love with it forever,” the hero of one well-known film said. Such is the rule.
