Day 147
The wind turned southerly, and currently it is even coming from the southeast as a true headwind. Today, unfortunately, I will not be able to make any progress towards my destination. The distance between the rowboat “AKROS” and Cape Horn will remain at around 300 miles mark and will not be reduced. It is almost calm with the wind of about 10 knots, and it is very cold as the wind comes directly from Antarctica, but the sun came out and it was very timely, as I have not seen the sun for the last week. The remaining solar panels started working and the batteries went into charge. The batteries are located at the very bottom of the boat and the cold waters of the Southern Ocean discharge them quickly. The carbon fibre hull of the boat does not properly isolate the battery compartment from the coldness. I turned off all devices, except for the electronic map and AIS.
There was practically no sunlight for weeks, only the diffused light coming down through the clouds, the water and air are getting colder and colder every day and as half of my solar panels were ripped off by a storm, the energy supply issue became very pressing. As they say – it was hard at the beginning of the journey, but then it got harder and harder.
It is 50 nautical miles to the sea shelf, the depth is still about 4,000 meters (according to the map), but the water began to change colour – it already looks coastal. I sense the presence of land. 75 degrees west longitude goes along the west coast of Chile and only in southern latitudes, from the Strait of Magellan, does the coast turn east. If I rowed 10 degrees to the north, I would have landed on the shores of Chile by now.
I am waiting for the wind to turn to the west-north-west and when it does, I will begin to go down towards the Drake Passage. I hope, with God’s help and with the prayers of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, I will be able to row along the coast and will not be thrown on the rocks of Tierra del Fuego. I am too close to the coast for comfort, but I did not manage to get further south. I would like to be at 55 degrees south at the present moment, but there is nothing I can do about it now, I will try my best to get out of this situation.
Regards to everyone.
Fedor Konyukhov
54’15 south and 75’33 west