The superyacht Nord, belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s oligarch friend, Alexei Mordashov, which was expected to dock in Cape Town on Wednesday, is now believed to be in the Maldives. 

Whether the $500-million, 142m, ultraluxury Nord will still head to Cape Town after the Maldives, an archipelagic state in the Indian Ocean just south of India, is not clear.

But in any case, it seems unlikely to dock in Cape Town in the next few days. Ayanda Mantshongo, a spokesperson for the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), told Daily Maverick that any vessel docking in a South African port had to apply for permission at least 72 hours in advance.

“[The] TNPA has still not received a notification for yacht Nord to call at the Port of Cape Town,” she said on Thursday evening. Other Cape Town port officials said if the Nord did arrive in Cape Town, it would probably dock in the Waterfront East Pier, the cruise ship terminal, or in the commercial port. 

“If I were them, I would tuck it away at the back of the commercial port,” one official said, though agreeing that there was no way the massive and very distinctive vessel could be hidden. 

The website luxuryyachts.com reported that in April, Nord, with a British crew, had “fled from Seychelles to Vladivostok, a port on the east coast of Russia”. 

“At one point, the vessel’s destination was set for Busan in South Korea. However, it must have been a tactic to confuse the authorities trying to…