PHOTO OF THE DAY

The end of loneliness

Share on social media

A week after the completion of the first leg of Fyodor Konyukhov' s solo circumnavigation of the globe in a nine-meter paddle boat«AKROS» expedition headquarters published photos of meeting the Russian near the Diego-Ramirez Islands. This photo, taken by Steven Freitag, shows him already aboard the Australis support yacht.

The yacht Australis took «AKROS» in tow on her third attempt. Luckily, a truly serious problem was avoided.

«Emotions over the edge, 154 days in the Southern Ocean, and only a couple of minutes ago he was in a freezing, damp boat, on five-meter waves, and now on board of the expedition yacht with friends. Everyone knew that we had a window of a few hours to carry out the operation, and we succeeded!Meanwhile Fedor came down to the cabin of the yacht and we looked at him as at a man from another planet, while he looked at us and everyone could not believe that we had snatched him from the strong embrace of the harsh Southern Ocean. The cruel Drake's strait slammed its gates, and Fedor is aboard us»," described the encounter by the voyager's son.

It took Konyukhov154 days, 13 hours and 37 minutes to walk 11,525 kilometers from New Zealand across the Southern Ocean. He became the first person, who managed to make such a crossing on a rowboat.

The expedition staff, which included the traveler's son, Oskar Konyukhov, met in difficult weather conditions and could have ended in an emergency if the crew made a mistake. There were only three hours for the operation.

«The wind picked up and went north, the bay stopped protecting us from the wind (the largest island, Bartolomeo , only sheltered us from the west wind), but we had no choice but to transfer Fedor in these conditions. Further on the weather only worsened»,"says Oskar .
Share on social media