Yarmouth chaplain aids stricken Russian sailor

Great Yarmouth port chaplain Rev Peter Paine, has come to the aid of a Russian sailor who was twice rescued by lifeboat crews from his yacht while trying to leave the port in rough seas

The Russian seafarer, known as Valerie, was first rescued in his yacht Olivia by a lifeboat crew off the coast at Caister on December 6

On December 12, Valerie again got into difficulty two miles north east of the Great Yarmouth pier heads, close to Scroby Sands and this time the lifeboat crew rescued him but had to leave the stranded yacht

Rev Peter Paine, who also runs the Great Yarmouth Seafarers Centre, was called in to try to help, and put him up in a local hotel

“He didn’t speak any English,” Peter told the EDP. “So I put out an appeal on the radio for emergency toiletries, finances and also a Russian translator, and a woman from Watton came forward

“She and her son spoke Russian and they helped to put him at ease, and we found out that he’d left St Petersburg at the end of the summer to get to Morocco for winter, he never had any intention of stopping in this country

“But the next thing we found out from the Border Agency is that he only had until Monday until he had to leave the country, so we managed to get him to the Russian embassy in London, and we now think he must be at home”
 
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Pictured above is Great Yarmouth Port Chaplain Rev Peter Paine