(AP) Six men aboard a Russian yacht used a cabin door to help steer the
crippled vessel.

It sailed _ limped, really _ into New Zealand's Wellington Harbor on Friday
after a month at sea with the makeshift rudder.

The crew of the Apostol Andrey was relieved to make land after battling high
seas in the storm-tossed Southern Ocean on the disabled 50-foot yacht,
skipper Nikolay Litau said. Owned by a Moscow adventure club, the boat was
going around Antarctica when it lost its rudder about 1,306 miles south of
New Zealand on March 3, he said. The crew decided to replace it with the
cabin door and try to make their way toward New Zealand, the nearest land.
..... "Forty days at sea was a little difficult," Litau said. Rescue center
officer Mike Roberts described the crew's journey to New Zealand as a "fine
piece of seamanship." "They are obviously highly experienced people. They
were in an isolated place and coped very well in extremely difficult
circumstances," he said.

On Friday the men were focused on their immediate plans _ showers and lunch.