Last evening, the President wrote to the yacht ''Lennuk'', which is sailing around the world under the Estonian flag. The yacht started its voyage a year ago. The letter of President Lennart Meri, who is also the patron of the project, was forwarded by Eduard Vanamölder, leader of the Navigator project, through the Inmarsat C satellite channel this morning.

The President wrote to the Master Mart Saarso and the crew that he has followed the progress of the Estonian flag throughout the year, and also read the sailors' writings in the papers and in the logbook. ''It is good you have a homepage, so we know the direction of the wind and the whereabouts of our flag and your boat at any moment in time,'' the President wrote. He wished everybody three feet of water under the keel and nice meetings with all the discovered and especially the as yet undiscovered seafaring peoples.

The President repeated his promise given a year ago that from April, he would be keenly looking out of the window of his Rohumneeme home to see the ''Lennuk'' and the Estonian flag returning from the the longest voyage of every seafarer.

As Eduard Vanamölder, manager of the Project Navigator said, the yacht's regular Navilon-systems communication through the Inmarsat Mini-M channel is not functioning at the moment, as the yacht has exited the coverage area of the Pacific Ocean satellite, and the coverage area of the next, the Indian Ocean satellite, starts near the eastern coast of Madagaskar, where the ''Lennuk'' should be in November.

Through Project Navigator, everybody can follow the ''Lennuk's'' voyage around the world; so far, the yacht has travelled 26,000 nautical miles and called in 33 ports, at the adress www.navigator.ecomatic.ee; the yacht's logbook is available at the address www.lennuk.xxl.ee.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, October 16, 2000

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