Moscow: US man accidently sails to Russia from Alaska

MOSCOW – A U.S. citizen has been detained in Russia’s Far East after accidently sailing there from Alaska on a small boat, officials said Friday.

John Martin had been travelling down the Yukon River across Alaska on a one-person boat when he ended up in the open Bering Sea, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. He spent several days at sea in bad weather and eventually washed up on Russian shores.

Martin, who lives in Anchorage, was detained Wednesday by Russian officials in the Far Eastern region of Chukotka. The U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok was informed about the incident.

Zakharova told reporters Friday in Moscow that Martin’s condition was “satisfactory.”

Mathew Hagengruber, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, said it was working with local authorities to provide assistance to Martin.

___

This story corrects that Martin was detained Wednesday, not Thursday.