Day 127

The stormy weather in the Southern Ocean continues and keeps Fedor Konyukhov and the rowboat “AKROS” on tenterhooks.

The wind changed direction, but not force, and instead of being favourable backwind, turned south-westerly, blowing from Antarctica and pushing the boat to the northeast.  According to data received from the tracking buoy Iridium360  in the automatic mode, the air temperature dropped from + 8 degrees to + 4 degrees and it is snowing.  Fedor has confirmed precipitation in the form of snow in his SMS messages.

The expedition headquarters in Moscow is in constant contact with the Chilean Navy.  The Chilean authorities are also closely monitoring the situation in the Southern Ocean and regularly send us weather reports for the area where the boat is currently located.

METEOROLOGICAL APPRECIATION

AKROS (LOCATED IN 53 ° 18´S / 91 ° 18´W)

THURSDAY, APRIL 11:

UNSTABLE, WIND NW / W 40/30 KNOTS, SEA STATE HIGH (6.0 TO 8.0 METERS) FROM NW / W.

FRIDAY, APRIL 12:

UNSTABLE, WIND W / SW 30/40 KNOTS GUSTY 50 KNOTS, SEA STATE VERY HIGH (8.0 TO 10.0 METERS) FROM W / SW.

SATURDAY, APRIL 13:

UNSTABLE, WIND SW / W 40/35 KNOTS, SEA STATE VERY HIGH TO HIGH (10.0 TO 7.0 METERS) FROM W / SW.

SUNDAY, APRIL 14:

UNSTABLE, WIND W / SW 35/30 KNOTS, SEA STATE HIGH TO VERY ROUGE (7.0 / 6.0 METERS) SW / W.

It is clear from the weather forecast that the storm strength will peak on Saturday, 13 April.  The height of the waves is 8-10 meters, the west-south-west wind is 30-40 knots, gusts are 50 knots.

The communication with Fedor is possible via SMS messages through the satellite terminal.  He reports that for now he is coping and keeping the boat under control.

The coordinates of the boat at 17-00 MSK were:

53’16 south and

90’36 of west

Cape Horn is 830 nautical miles or 1,495 kilometres away.