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January 29, 2005
We will not go to the Progress station.
185 years ago at this day the Russian ships of the captain F.Bellingshausen and the lieutenant M.Lazarev. At this day they discovered the Antarctica.
The ships "Vostok" and "Mirny" were approaching an unknown icy continent at the point with coordinates 69°21' S and 2°13' W. The captain of Mirny Mikhail Lazarev wrote about this day the following: "We reached the latitude 69°23' S, where we met the continental ice of extreme height. It was stretching so far, as we can see…"
The yacht "Apostol Andrey" at that time was at 70° more to the east of this place. Now we are sailing over open water to the north of the Prudes Bay, on the coast of which there is the Russian scientific station Progress (in 300 km from our yacht). We gave up our original plan to visit this station. The ice conditions in the Bay for the present moment do not guarantee that we would be able to penetrate deeply inside. And a 20 mile zone of the coastal ice does not allow us to approach the station. Though the ice conditions continue to improve and may be in two-three weeks there would be an open passage to Progress, we do not have time to wait so long. There are a lot of miles in front of us to sail, and the Antarctic summer is close to its end – only one month is left.
January 20, 2005
Fishermen or pirates?
When there is light breeze, a sailing is going on smoothly and without incidents. While our moving to the south, the wind goes away to the east, but it allowed us to go by the wind along our general course till today. The roughness of the sea is small. A pressure has come to a standstill five days ago. This sailing to some extent reminds us of our sailing under trade winds. The main difference is only in temperatures, occurrence of icebergs (but now we meet them not so often) and absence of heavenly bodies.
In an hour before supper we had an unexpected meeting: a small ship was moving in opposite course from leeward side. We passed each other at the two cable's length. This ship did not have any name, nor flag or other tokens. They did not show any interest in us and told us that they were fishermen from Peru. May be this is true, but fishermen usually do not like to confess that they are fishing in this area. We wished each other happy journey and a mysterious ship disappeared in a snow squall.
January 14, 2005
The thirteenth...
At last the wind started to blow after two days of light breeze. By night the wind increased up to 15 metres, and we had to reef. The day was over and I decided to take the next watch. I came up to the deck and took a steering wheel from Andrey Balymov and when he disappeared in the hatch, the grotto flapped on a wave and I saw an enormous hole in the sail. At the first minute of the thirteenth January!
In 1997 at the same day during our first circumnavigation we lost our screw, now we have lost our grotto. Only the second circumnavigation this date passed without any problems. Evidently everything was OK as we all left the yacht on this day. At that time the yacht "Apostol Andrey" anchored in Uruguay and we went sightseeing in Puente Del Esto...
January 13, 2005
There are actually no news…
There are actually no news, slow, monotonous sailing. There was almost no wind during the last two days. The speed of the yacht Apostol Andrey was around 2 knots. A fog was replaced by a drizzle, and drizzle – by wet snow. There are no traces of life, sometimes we saw a lonely petrol, passing by.
Semeynov, a painter of sea-scapes, is painting a series of icebergs. He has already the following pictures in his collection: "Titanic", "Horse", "Boot", "Sphinx", "Camel in fog", totally he painted about 20 ice islands of the most fantastical shapes.
January 9, 2005
"Apostol Andrey" has arrived in the Antarctica!
January 9, 2005
The yacht "Apostol Andrey" has arrived in the Antarctica!
On January 8, 2005 at 19:10 Greenwich time, the yacht "Apostol Andrey" crossed the meridian and returned back to its own Eastern Hemisphere. It is interesting to note that Greenwich time has received its name after this meridian. "Stormy fiftieth" were left behind, though they surprised the crew more by its calms, then by severe storms.
Now the yacht will start its sailing in the "violent sixtieth". The crew will spend three months behind this parallel, which is the official border of the Antarctica. Three months in a company of icebergs and wandering albatrosses, in the waters which temperatures never have risen above zero. The yacht will sail almost 10000 miles before a full completion of the Antarctic circuit.
Yours sincerely
Nikolay Litau
02.02.2005
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