Chinese Sailor's Antarctic Voyage Hit by Robbery in Papua New Guinea

Chinese navigator Zhai Mo and his crew were robbed while sailing through Papua New Guinea, forcing adjustments to their planned human-powered circumnavigation of Antarctica, Jiefang Daily reported on Friday.

The team reached Papua New Guinea waters on December 2. At the request of local authorities, all personnel took a police boat to the capital Port Moresby for entry formalities. Local police and villagers had assured the crew that the yacht would be guarded in their absence.

However, on December 4, the crew returned to find Zhai Mo 1 had been illegally boarded and ransacked. Key equipment, including the engine, generator, rigging, sails, lifeboat, and outboard motor, had been stolen or destroyed.

All onboard belongings, including documents, navigation and communication devices, and filming and live-streaming gear, were also taken or destroyed. Flooding caused by tampered hull valves rendered the vessel unseaworthy.

Authorities in Papua New Guinea intercepted a local boat carrying some of the stolen items, but the remaining assailants and equipment remain at large. The incident is under investigation.

All crew members were unharmed, but the extensive damage will require major repairs and force a revision of the Antarctic circumnavigation plan.

Zhai's expedition, the first-ever non-motorized circumnavigation attempt of the Antarctic continent, set sail from Shanghai on October 10 aboard the two-masted schooner Zhai Mo 1 with six crew members.

The team planned a roughly one-year journey of 36,000 nautical miles, passing through the East China Sea and South Pacific before navigating the Southern Ocean, aiming to leverage Antarctic summer winds and sea ice conditions.

Scheduled stops included China's Antarctic stations at Great Wall, Zhongshan, and Qinling before returning to Shanghai.