Day 24

Fedor briefly, on the satphone: “It’s been a good day for rowing. I’m in the north of 17° South latitude. Tourgoyak is staying on course. The wind rose to 20 knots, the waves increased as well. The boat is going fast – dizzyingly fast- I must say. I am constantly controlling the angle of the hull in relation to waves. The wind is from the east but the waves are continually from the south-east.

My apologies for calling only once and only to the office in Moscow.  I’m looking forward to a calmer ocean and being able to make more phone calls to friends and sponsors.”

Many of us were curious about Fedor’s daily food intake and if there is a set meal schedule on board.

Fedor reports: “I turn on a propane single-burner stove four times a day. Coffee at dawn is a must. Close to lunch time I boil some water to reconstitute a package of freeze-dried food. I’ve got two brands: one by a British company (Expedition Food) and the other by a Norwegian company (Dry Tech). I’m alternating between these two brands. By the end of the day I have another round of hot coffee or chocolate and pour some into a thermos for a night shift. I haven’t had any tea yet. My eating habits depend on the weather and my general mood. There are times that the boat is tipping so hard that it becomes dangerous to deal with boiled water. In that case, I sustain on snacks and cold water.”

Today the expedition HQ received a notification from DIRECTERMAR, one of the organizations of the Armada de Chile. They report that rowing boat Tourgoyak has left Chile’s designated Zone of Responsibility for Search and Rescue. This means DIRECTERMAR is no longer responsible for monitoring Tourgoyak’s course however, they added, they will continue to watch Tourgoyak progress until French Polynesia. 

The map of the Tourgoyak’s course: http://yb.tl/konyukhov2

The detailed map of the course: www.oceanrowing.com/Konyukhov/Pacific2013/dist_map.htm

Translated by Tatiana Koreski