February 17, 2025

According to weather reports, the weather is stabilizing in the area where Fedor Konyukhov’s boat is located. The storm is moving east. Fedor has not yet made voice contact, but he has sent several SMS messages via satellite terminal: “Alive and well.” We are waiting for him to be able to call the headquarters and report on the status of the boat, what is functioning and what has been damaged as a result of a series of storms.

By the way, satellite SMS messages contain information about the sender’s location linked to a map. Even an empty message is enough for us to know two things: Fedor is alive and in touch (SMS is not sent automatically) and the coordinates of the boat.

For those who have recently joined the channel: Fedor Konyukhov is making the first-ever solo circumnavigation in the Southern Hemisphere on a rowing boat. The circumnavigation is divided into several stages.

The first stage was across the South Pacific Ocean. Started on December 6, 2018 and finished on May 9, 2019. The route went from New Zealand (Port Dunedin) to Cape Horn (Drake Passage). He spent 154 days at sea on the boat AKROS.

The second stage launched on December 5, 2024 in the Drake Passage (the passage separating South America and Antarctica) and continues eastward towards Australia. The goal is to cross two oceans in one season: the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The same boat, with minor modifications.

In 67 days he crossed the South Atlantic (from the Drake Passage to the longitude of Cape Agulhas, South Africa), setting a new world record.

On February 6, 2025, in the South Atlantic at 45 degrees south, a historic meeting with the Russian research vessel “Akademik Fedorov” took place (the ship left Cape Town on February 3 and approached the boat on February 6. He is currently operating off the coast of Antarctica). The ship’s crew took unique photo and video footage and shared this material with Fedor Konyukhov’s team.

For the past three weeks, Fedor Konyukhov’s boat has been in stormy conditions, with 8–10 force storms passing through the area every three days.

Amidst these intense events, we missed an important milestone in the coordinates – half of the route by degrees. From the starting point in the Drake Passage to the port of Albany (Western Australia), the route covers 180 degrees – half of the globe when measured by meridians (360 degrees in total). On February 15, the AKROS boat passed 91 degrees from the moment of launch.

In terms of distance (nautical miles), this is not yet halfway (the number of miles in 1 degree at latitude 50 and latitude 40 is different), but if we look at the meridian grid, most of them are already behind.

The current coordinates are 44°11′ south latitude, 27°29′ east longitude.

The route map is here.