A Solo circumnavigation of the Southern Hemisphere on the Rowboat “AKROS”

On 6 December 2018, Fedor Konyukhov began a voyage on course to Cape Horn from New Zealand’s Port Chalmers (near Dunedin) aboard the rowboat AKROS. Port Chalmers is part of Greater Dunedin, which is the second largest city in New Zealand’s South Island and one of the deepest-water ports in New Zealand. The expedition team […]

The last days were filled with a kaleidoscope of events and meetings.  It was just a week ago, on Sunday, 12 May, I moored at Ushuaia’s yacht club and immediately began preparing the boat for shipment to Europe. On May 15 we rolled her into a container to transport her to England for repairs and […]

On 9 May 2019, Russian citizen Fedor Konyukhov crossed the longitude of the Chilean Diego Ramirez Islands and became the first person in history to complete a solo voyage on a row boat across the Southern Ocean, from New Zealand to the Drake Passage in the “roaring forties” and “furious fifties” latitudes. Starting from the […]

  Ocean Rowing Society: “18:00UTC on May 09, 2019, being within vicinity of land, Fedor crossed the finish line of Diego Ramirez Longitude 68.68W, and with this has officially completed his row across the South Pacific Ocean from west to east. 154 days 13 hours 13 minutes” Fedor Konyukhov’s expeditionary support team aboard the “Australis” yacht managed […]

Oscar Konyukhov reporting from the yacht Australis: On May 9th, at 3 o’clock in the morning, Fedor Konyukhov’s support team reached the Diego Ramirez Islands.  As expected, the storm encountered between Puerto Williams and the Diego Ramirez Island has met us with 5-6 meter waves and winds up to 45 knots/hr.  Sailing through a storm […]

The rowboat “AKROS” has crossed the latitude of Cape Horn!  It is a significant event for Fedor Konyukhov and for the whole project.  The boat has crossed 56 degrees South.  It is 170 nautical miles to the legendary Cape, and only 90 nautical miles to the Diego Ramirez Islands, the first islands on the course. […]

The entire week ahead is expected to be stormy.  It is a very difficult task, rowing along the edge of the continental shelf.  To my right, I have depths of more than 3000 meters, and to my left, the depth is just 300 meters and there is a coast nearby.  Last night I survived the […]

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 […]

It is 300 km as the crow flies to Chile, and 600 km to Cape Horn. The expedition team met today with the captains of the chartered yachts at the port of Ushuaia.  We discussed various scenarios for meeting Fedor Konyukhov at Cape Horn. Plan A is that we approach Cape Horn from the East […]

Christ is Risen! Happy Easter to all Orthodox Christians!  Thank God for letting us live to see this day. I wanted to be on dry land that day, but I could not get there.  Cape Horn is still 400 nautical miles away as the crow flies (730 km).  When I rowed the first 500 miles […]

An aircraft of the Chilean Naval Aviation (Search and Rescue Squadron, Armada de Chile) made contact with the rowing boat “AKROS” 460 miles from Cape Horn at the following coordinates: 53’45 south and 80’00 west.  The airplane took off from the military base of Punta Arenas (Chile). The flight was carried out as part of […]

The first group of the project team has arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The group is comprised of 6 people: Oskar Konyukhov, Arkady Konyukhov (grandson of Fyodor Konyukhov), and experienced travellers and yachtsmen: Semyon Deyak, Petr Isachenko, Mikhail Tarasov, Pavel Bogachev. Today, the team meets with the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Argentina. On […]

The wind has reached storm intensity, but remains favourable tailwind.  It is a little too Northerly, but that’s ok, I need to go South. I have reached the latitude of the western entrance to the Strait of Magellan.  It is just 450 kilometres as the crow flies to the Strait.  I haven’t been this close […]

It is night here, and there is a light drizzle.  The ocean’s noise has taken on a different form, not like all those days past.  You can feel the current.  I can sense the boat being funnelled into the Drake Passage.  The wind has also changed and become favourable. I am holding a course for […]

FAQ. One of the frequently asked questions is: “why doesn’t Fedor see commercial or passenger ships on this journey?”  The project team monitors the area of the Southern Ocean from New Zealand to Cape Horn daily, in order to notify Fedor of any approaching ships.  A boat made of composite materials is not very noticeable […]

According to the forecast, the south-westerly wind will persist, and it has already been blowing from this direction for 4 days.  I lost one and a half degrees in latitude: from 53’30 came back north to 52 degrees.  And a full degree is 60 miles, which will be hard to regain when the wind turns […]

So today we have a nice, big round number – Fedor have rowed for 10,000 kilometres in total since the starting point at the New Zealand port city of Dunedin.  This distance would cover the whole of Russia from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok. The area is now under the influence of a stable and powerful […]

A message from Fedor Konyukhov: “All is well with me.  It was a difficult week.  The Ocean gave me a serious beating.  All week storm after storm passed over the boat, though it would be more accurate to say that the boat entered their territory.  Here, at 1,000 miles to the Drake Passage, there won’t […]

The north-westerly wind has turned to westerly of 30 – 35 knots, gusts of 45 knots. According to the forecast, the wind will calm down in a day’s time and then a new wave of stormy weather will arrive. There was no voice communication with Fedor today, only text messages via Bysky: “I go it […]

A few hours from now a new storm will hit the rowboat “AKROS”.  The storm will bring with it North-westerly winds of 40+ knots and gusts of 55 knots.  Fedor Konyukhov has been warned of the impending weather.  According to the forecast, the whole week will be stormy: for the first few days the wind […]

On the occasion of this important holiday – the Annunciation – the ocean has decided to give me respite.  On Sunday, the wind calmed to 10 knots, but the waves are still large and oceanic, of course.  The sky is clear and the air is frosty.  It is a beautiful Autumn day. An albatross passed […]

With God’s help and St. Nicholas’ prayers, I have survived aboard a rowing boat in the Southern Ocean for 120 days.  It’s very cold today.  The wind turned southerly, that is blowing from Antarctica.  The boat is going to the northeast and I am currently not able to maintain the correct course.  It is snowing. […]

I am recovering after the events of the previous day.  On the one hand, I am glad that our theoretical calculations in the design of the “AKROS” rowboat were correct, as it does return to an even keel when capsized.  Last summer, we carried out roll over tests in UK, but we did it in […]

After a day of good weather, the boat was hit by another storm.  The forecast didn’t worry us too much, although you wouldn’t think of 40-knot winds as being comfortable for a rowboat.  By now, we are used to Fedor having to deal with stormy weather, and the fact that the storm originated locally meant […]

Yesterday the Ocean treated me with good weather.  The words “good weather” are not applicable, really, to these high latitudes, but the wind dropped to 10 knots, the wave height was about 3 meters, the sun peeped through the clouds and I was finally able to put the boat in order.  Calibrated the new wind […]

A message from Fedor Konyukhov: “I have crossed the 52 degrees South latitude.  No-one has ever come this far South solo in a rowboat.  The last 48 hours were difficult.  The wind kept the boat and me under pressure, while it stormed and snowed.  The boat is coated in wet snow, and it is bitterly […]

A message from Fedor Konyukhov: “Thank God, I am alive and well, it is my 110th day in the ocean.  Every single day in the Southern Ocean should count for about three days, I feel like I’ve been here for a year.  The ocean is still stormy, this is its usual state, no winds of […]

The storm continues.  Data from the global weather forecasting model GFS indicate 40-knot winds, with some gusts reaching 50 knots (90 km an hour) at the location of Fedor Konyukhov’s rowboat (50.51 degrees South and 105.25 degrees West).  However, the greatest danger Fedor Konyukhov faces right now is the Southern Ocean’s powerful and destructive waves. […]

The rowboat “AKROS” has encountered the first wave of a powerful storm in the Southern Ocean.  At 11 am Moscow time, the wind speed was 35 knots with gusts of up to 45 knots. Over the next few hours the wind will grow progressively stronger, with gusts reaching 65 knots.  Frequent sleet and hail squalls. […]

An SMS message from Fedor Konyukhov: “The ocean has merged with the sky.  The horizon is gone.  There is no ocean, no sky.  Solid flying water”. Fedor Konyukhov’s boat is on the way of a whole series of storms that originated off the coast of Antarctica, on the traverse of New Zealand and moving from […]

Yesterday I passed the waypoint of 50 degrees South and 110 degrees West.  It is the first time I have descended (though technically I’ve ascended) to 50 degrees South.  I will have to spend the remaining 1,400 kilometres to Cape Horn in these “furious fifties”. The ocean has spoiled me with a week of good […]

Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov continues his solo circumnavigation aboard the rowboat “AKROS”.  Starting on 6 December 2018 from the New Zealand port city of Dunedin, Fedor Konyukhov has travelled more than 8,000 kilometres (4 450 nautical miles), thereby covering the distance from Moscow to Khabarovsk (across Russia).  His voyage East continues.  Ahead is the most difficult […]

The weather is good, the ocean calmed down, the wind is westerly at 20 knots.  Hopefully, mother nature will give the boat and I a break.  As always in good conditions, you need to conduct an inspection of all compartments, check everything, sort things through.  In the Southern Ocean, good weather is a luxury, and […]

It is 1,799 nautical miles to Cape Horn.  The Southern Ocean is in a reverie; the wind is changeable and the waves are coming from different directions.  One moment it rains, the next moment there is damp snow, and sometimes hailstones shoot from the clouds.  They thrum against the deck like peas.  I get the […]

It’s a nice round date – 90 days on my journey.  For 90 days, my home has been a rowboat 9-metres long along the waterline.  The bow compartment is 3 metres, while the cockpit is 2 metres long.  The aft section, with the navigational compartment on one side and kitchen on the other, and a […]

By God’s grace I am alive and well.   Today I greeted my 88th  dawn in the Southern Ocean.   I am very glad that the sun rose ahead, as my course dictates, and not astern as it has been in the last couple of days.   For more than a day there has been a headwind which swept me […]

A message from Fedor Konyukhov. “There is no significant news, except that today is the 85th day in the ocean or more than 2 thousand hours on board the “AKROS” rowing boat.  Thank God, I am alive and well, the boat is also in order, although overgrown strongly: starting from the waterline and down below the […]

The wind is favourable, it changed to North-Westerly for a day and I am trying to move South. This morning I was at 46’30 degrees latitude, and Cape Horn is at 56’00.  It is almost 10 degrees to the South, or 600 nautical miles.  The difficulty lies in that with the approach of Autumn, there […]

As in the famous Russian song “Closing the Circle”, the “AKROS” and I are closing a circle measuring 200 kilometres in circumference.  This very minute, we are cutting across the path we covered on 17 February at 17:00 Moscow time.  6 days of lost time; thrown to the wind in the purest sense.  A pointless […]

Hello everyone, how is your work week going? My progress can be seen on the boat track on the map. The gale-force headwind continues to drive the “AKROS” rowboat in the opposite direction. I am already at a longitude, where I was on 17 February, 4 days ago, only 55 km to the south. The […]

Good weather was replaced by a headwind. The wind is now from the northeast, while the current is from due south, exactly from 180° direction. Therefore, the wind is pushing the boat to the south, while the current is dragging it to the north. I am caught up in between and trying to break through […]

At last, as they say, there is sunshine down my street, too, or more precisely, down my latitude, the weather is gorgeous, the ocean is calm, a small wave gently lifts and lowers the boat.  The sun is shining.  At dawn I caught a squid with a bait and this morning I will cook it. […]

Third day of stormy weather in the Southern Ocean.  Since the transition to the Chilean sector, the weather has not been favourable to me.  This storm is the most difficult and exhausting from the day of the start, and it would not abate.  Each new storm will be more powerful than the previous one, as […]

“Today the “AKROS” and I crossed the 131st degree of Western longitude, meaning we are in the so-called Eastern sector of the South Pacific Ocean.  We have left 5,800 kilometres behind us (in total), as well as the “search and rescue” zone for which New Zealand is responsible.  From today I will find myself in […]

My dear friends, I have reached an important milestone in my journey.  The “AKROS” and I have passed the halfway point from New Zealand to Cape Horn in the Southern Ocean. According to the onboard computer, I have travelled (logged) 5,555 kilometres.  That’s in total.  If you were to draw a straight line from the […]

Fedor Konyukhov’s rowboat, the “AKROS” is approaching an important milestone – halfway.  Having embarked on his journey on 6 December 2018 from the New Zealand city of Dunedin, the Russian explorer has rowed as far as the distance between Moscow and Lake Baikal – 5,400 kilometres.  In this time, the Russian rower has set a […]

Hello my dear friends, I am grateful for your support and prayers.  I’ve weathered the storm.  The boat and I really had it handed to us.  The storm started in January and only ended in the morning on 3 February, New Zealand time.  It’s created gigantic waves which make the ocean look like it’s covered […]

A message from Fedor Konyukhov. “The storm has continued into its third day, the wind isn’t changing direction, and blows from the South-West (240°).  The waves are gigantic.  It either hails or snows, and the hail and waves are smashing against the boat.  To somehow drown out the noise I’ve been listening to Vladimir Vysotsky […]

For the past few days Fedor Konyukhov has had to deal with a headwind.  The difficulty lay in keeping the “AKROS” boat at its current coordinates and not lose the hard won miles travelled East.  Fedor changed course a few times and attempted to minimise drift in the opposite direction.  As a result, the boat […]

All day today there is a headwind, as I’ve ended up in the centre of a developing cyclone inside of which the wind blows clockwise.  It is impossible to keep the boat in the same place.  Large head waves have been buffeting the boat, and I’ve had to turn it around and steer in the […]

Hello dear friends. I know that there hasn’t been any news from me for a little while, but the weather was difficult, and it wasn’t until yesterday that the sun peaked out and I was able to bring the cabin and boat into order. I weathered the storm without any breakdowns. The wind was strong, […]

The rowboat “AKROS” is at the Northern edge of a powerful cyclone.  The eye of the cyclone is 10 degrees to the South. There, the wind is 60 knots and the waves are 11-12 metres. Nearer to Fedor, the wind is 35 knots, gusting to 45 knots (80km per hour), and the waves are 5-6 […]

This is an important number for me.  In 2002, I crossed the Atlantic Ocean aboard the rowboat “URALAZ” from the Canary Island of La Gomera to the island of Barbados in 46 days. It is the 46th  day of my current journey, and I still have the whole Atlantic Ocean stretching before me.  As of […]

This week will be difficult and stressful.  The weather in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean has sharply deteriorated.  Right now the entire area from Australia’s island state of Tasmania to Cape Horn is beset by three cyclones.  I am wedged between them.  There is a cyclone ahead of me and South of me, […]

Day 41 It is 3,000 nautical miles to Cape Horn. A conversation with Fedor Konyukhov on the Iridium satellite telephone system. All is well with me.  The stormy weather has gone past me, into the East. I have a couple of days’ breather.  The ocean is calming, and I am no longer seeing those mountains […]

A conversation with Fedor Konyukhov using the satellite telephone system Iridium. “Everything is well with me, there have been no extraordinary incidents, thank God. Today is Groundhog Day.  It has been a week of grey sky and sea, with the rain, wind and waves.  Nothing changes besides the time and calendar date.  I know that […]

A conversation with Fedor Konyukhov using the satellite telephone system Iridium. “Greetings friends. It is night here. The sky is clear and I see the stars. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas. Thank God we have survived to 2019. As of the night of 6 to 7 January, I have spent a month in the […]

4 January 2019 A conversation with Fedor Konyukhov using the Iridium satellite telephone system. “Everything is good with me. For the first days of the New Year, I have made reasonable progress to the South-East in the direction of Cape Horn. After three days of favourable weather, today has been a challenge; the wind has […]

It is the night of the 30th to the 31st of December. It is the beginning of the last day of 2018. Thank God I am alive and well. The wind is stable at 30+ knots and the boat is gliding over the enormous waves at an average speed of 3-4 knots, but sometimes the […]

A message from Fedor Konyukhov sent on the satellite phone Iridium: “In the last few days, the weather in my location has changed drastically several times.  Several days in a row saw a Southerly wind which blew the boat toward the Chatham Islands.  At one moment I began to worry that if that Southerly wind […]

As of today, I have spent two weeks on the water.  I have crossed the 180th meridian, or the International Dateline, and entered the Western Hemisphere.  This happened on the 19th of December, and as a result, I was able to live the 19th of December – St. Nicholas the Wonderworker’s saint’s day – twice […]

Ahead me on my route lie the Bounty Islands, which I plan to traverse at Portside and leave to the north of me.  What is referred to as ‘Bounty Islands’ is in fact a series of uninhabitable cliffs found at 47 degrees latitude in the Southern Ocean, beaten by enormous waves.  I will have to […]

Today marks exactly a week since I set out on a solo journey to Cape Horn on the rowboat “AKROS”.  I have travelled 500 km, and I am only 270 km closer to my destination. Half of the distance covered has been in vain, but that’s how the weather worked out. An Easterly wind (headwind) […]

Today, 12 December, marks Fedor Konyukhov’s 67th birthday, which he will be celebrating on board his rowboat “AKROS” in the Southern Ocean’s Roaring Forties. The weather is less than ideal; there is a headwind, and Fedor struggles to maintain the boat’s 180° course (due south). Moving east right now is impossible. The ocean will continue […]

Visitors to the website will have noticed the wavelike course plotted by the rowboat “AKROS”.  This is due to the wind direction in the boat’s navigation zone.  Oceanic rowboat journeys rely on favourable currents and winds, and Fedor Konyukhov has so far been unable to reach a favourable current, as New Zealand acts as a […]

So far Fedor is coping reasonably well with the task of moving away from the coast of New Zealand. The conditions are difficult: changeable winds, sometimes head on and large ocean swell. Boat rises up to 5 meters on wave-crests and then lowers into the troughs. It is hard to row in such conditions. Regular […]

On December 6, at 8:08 pm New Zealand time, Fedor Konyukhov crossed the starting line, and set off on a solo voyage on his rowing boat “AKROS” from New Zealand (South Island, Port Chalmers) to Cape Horn. The distance is 5 500 nautical miles. Ahead of Fedor Konyukhov is the huge Southern Ocean with its […]

The month of November has flown by, and summer has arrived in New Zealand. The weather gradually begins to change, although here, at 45 degrees south latitude, the cold breath of Antarctica is still felt. I had a plan to launch the boat into the ocean in the middle of November, but everything went according […]

The second week of preparation of the “AKROS” rowing boat has been completed in Port Chalmers, New Zealand.  Simon Chalk, a famous British rower and our manager during the Pacific Ocean rowboat crossing project in 2013-2014, has joined us during this week.  Simon could not remain home and stay away from such an event.  It […]

A week has passed since our team arrived in Port Chalmers in New Zealand. A lot of good things have happened during this week. At the beginning of last week we received our boat “AKROS” safe and sound.  This is a very important milestone for the project, as the boat travelled by a container ship […]

Any big journey starts with a flight to the starting point. My crossover on the rowing boat “AKROS” will start from the coast of New Zealand. Back in September we sent our rowing boat to New Zealand onboard container ship, in the beginning of November it arrives to the port of Dunedin and we are […]

Moscow, 30 October 2018.  Fedor Konyukhov held a press conference at the TASS press-centre, dedicated to the upcoming circumnavigation of the globe on the rowboat “Akros”.  A few Russian companies that developed a number of innovative systems to ensure energy efficiency and travel safety became partners of the world expedition; some equipment will be tested […]

The equipment installation works for the rowboat “AKROS” have been completed at the British shipbuilding yard Rannoch Adventure.  The process of installation of all navigation, communication and life support equipment took 6 months (from March to September 2018).  The entire project, starting from developing the Technical Design Specifications for the rowboat until this moment, took […]

This week was marked by two important events in the project schedule of Fedor Konyukhov’s voyage headquarters. At the Rannoch Adventure shipyard, the manufacturing of the rowboat “AKROS” hull has been completed. The hull is coloured bright orange. This colour is used for the vessels operating at ‘high’ Arctic and Antarctic latitudes. In six months’ […]