Six Irish sailors claimed yesterday to have secretly entered Russian territorial waters in the Arctic to land on a remote island, becoming - they believe - the first to sail a small yacht so far north.
They broke radio silence to reveal how they had spent several hours on the ice-covered Russian Victoria Island. "We broke all the rules in the book, but we essentially achieved what we wanted. We got 47 miles (76km) farther north than we had originally planned," said the skipper, Mr John Gore-Grimes, a Dublin solicitor.
He and his crew had hoped to become the first to reach the archipelago of Franz Josef Land on a small yacht.
Mr Gore-Grimes (58) sailed from Dublin last month on his 44ft yacht, Arctic Fern. He was told at North Cape, in northern Norway, that Russian visas had been refused, but he set sail for Franz Josef Land, hoping for a change of mind.
Mr Gore-Grimes sailed on into Russian waters without permission and landed on Victoria Island. "It was an extraordinary place, like a frozen museum of the Cold War. There were abandoned buildings, transmitters and a large radar which was completely rusted," he said.
The Arctic Fern is now in international waters on its way home.