Batkivschyna prepares for next leg of around-the-globe voyage

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Increasingly looking like the little sailboat that not only could, but did, the cement-bottomed schooner Batkivschyna continues to make muck of detractors and doubters who believed it had no chance of completing an around-the-world voyage. In late October the Ukrainian sailing vessel completed the third leg of a five-stage journey that should have it back in Kyiv near the end of 2004.

Currently housed in dry dock in southern California for winter repairs, the 28-meter-long schooner, which gained international attention and a front-page story in The New York Times in July 2000, is set to begin its trans-Pacific journey in May. It should dock in Australia sometime in August if it sticks to schedule.

Staying on schedule, however, has not always been simple for this Ukrainian sailing vessel, which set off in April 2000 from its home port of Kyiv to "let the world know about Ukraine," as its skipper, Dmytro Biriukovich, explained at the time. The Batkivschyna drew international attention after a harried trans-Atlantic crossing, which left it lost at sea at one point and well behind in its plans to join Operation Sail, an international gathering of sailing vessels on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States in celebration of the Millennium - the largest such event in maritime history before it was over.

Captain Biriukovich decided on the trans-global journey after stops at various ports of call in Europe and the Middle East in the early and mid-1990s during which fellow sailors often asked him the identity of the blue-yellow flag under which he sailed. He decided to develop a project he named "Discover Ukraine," which would inform people about Ukraine and also allow him to travel the world.

"I believe we have done a lot for Ukraine," said Captain Biriukovich during an interview in late November 2002 back in Kyiv at his home not far from the banks of the Dnipro River. Mr. Biriukovich explained that over the past three years he had received scores of letters from people acknowledging his commitment to Ukraine.

"In one letter I received it simply said, you are so small and have done so much," explained the captain.

Today the Discover Ukraine project includes a bevy of informational displays on the culture, history and economic potential of Ukraine, which the Batkivschyna crew presents along with traditional Ukrainian folk music and souvenirs from Kyiv for sale at each port of call. The project has remained afloat even with crew problems and financial uncertainty following it like the wind the Batkivschyna needs to keep moving forward.

During the first stage of its journey - which took the schooner from Kyiv to Connecticut, with stops from Norfolk, Va., to Nova Scotia en route - obtaining fuel was a major problem, because money was a scarce resource. Benefactors and payments from host cities of Operation Sail helped fill the ship's till and set the stage for the second leg of the Batkivschyna's voyage, which took it into the Great Lakes, then down the mighty Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico to St. Petersburg, Fla., during 2001. The schooner spent the winter there with the help of local benefactors. The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund of Short Hills, N.J., co-sponsored the Great Lakes portion of the second leg.

Money still remained in short supply, but crew members became an even scarcer commodity during the second leg of the journey. Most of the original crew had returned to Ukraine after Operation Sail was completed. Captain Biriukovich attempted to pick up sailors and even simple "wannabes" along the Great Lakes route, but often the crew consisted only of his wife, the cook and the mechanic. They made it to their winter destination all the same.

This past spring the Batkivschyna began the third leg of its trans-global journey by heading south from Florida into the Caribbean and towards Central America. Their first stop was Cuba, where the members of the Discover Ukraine expedition paid a visit to the children's hospital for Chornobyl victims, which is co-sponsored by the governments of Ukraine and Cuba.

They brought toys and candy for the children, courtesy of a collection effort by Ukrainian Americans Luba Misyk, Yevhenia Lyktyj and Anatoly Lysyj.

"Ukrainian Ambassador Viktor Paschuk was amazed and delighted when he saw what we had brought," explained Mr. Biriukovich.

After that the Batkivschyna took on the warm water ports of the Cayman Islands, Montego Bay and Curacao, with their white sand beaches and cocktail-sipping tourist crowds, as part of the Americas Sail Festival. The fees the expedition received for its participation paid for its further journey, which took the vessel across the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean.

By the time the Batkivschyna reached the Panama Canal, a crew of six had dwindled to two. Undaunted and determined to proceed, Captain Biriukovich took the ship through the locks with his cook and three-year partner, Leonid Deriugin, and then sailed up the Mexican and U.S. coasts to Seattle to begin a series of Pacific Coast sailing events under the auspices of the American Sail Training Association (ASTA) that would bring the schooner back down to San Diego by the fall.

At the various stops, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, the Ukrainian sailing vessel and its crew met with representatives of the Ukrainian American communities in those locales. Captain Biriukovich said that many people went out of their way to help the expedition in any way they could. He specifically mentioned Luba Kyhychak and her husband, a sea pilot who helped them navigate around Seattle, as well as Anna Shalauta of

the Los Angeles-based California Association to Aid Ukraine and Ihor Hankiw of the Ukrainian Cultural Center there.

But it was in San Diego that the captain met Ken Kling, a non-Ukrainian American whom he called his "guardian angel."

"He took care of us beyond our wildest expectations," explained the captain of the Batkivschyna.

Mr. Kling, a sailing enthusiast, was a volunteer member of the crew of the tall ship, the Pilgrim, who took a liking to the Ukrainian schooner and offered to find money and a place to dry dock the boat for the winter. He convinced the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, Calif., the Batkivschyna's last scheduled stop in 2002, to offer needed financial support and found a winter harbor in Long Beach.

"I really believe God helped us here because we had no place to put the ship and no money to proceed," explained Mr. Biriukovich.

Today, the Batkivschyna captain explained, his duty is to make sure the expedition finishes the journey it began nearly three years ago. To do so, Mr. Biriukovich must assure himself two necessities that remain scarce: a crew and financing.

He is counting on the Maritime Museum in Honolulu, where the Batkivschyna has scheduled a stop next June on its way to Australia, as well as the San Pedro Museum in Los Angeles for financial support. He believes he has found an answer to crew problems at the Maritime Merchant Academy in Kyiv, where he hopes to pick up five young and able sea cadets willing to gain real-time experience.

Captain Biriukovich was scheduled to leave Kyiv and return to Long Beach in the first part of January and is set to begin the 3,200-mile trek to Hawaii in May, when Pacific waters are calmest. Then it is on to New Zealand and Australia in the fall (which is spring in the southern hemisphere) via the Polynesian Islands.

Captain Biriukovich hopes to dock in New Zealand by December. He has already received an invitation to a sailing festival on the Australian island of Tasmania scheduled for early 2004. He also would like to meet with Ukrainians living in Australia and is currently looking for contacts there.

"After that we will be homeward bound," explained the captain.

He said his initial plan for the final stage is to stop in India before moving into the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and finally up the Dardanelles into the Black Sea.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 12, 2003, No. 2, Vol. LXXI

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