Meeting a New Year in the Ocean
December 31st. The last day of the year. There on land, the preparations for the celebrations are in full steam. Here, in the South Pacific Ocean, everything is the same as far as my daily routine goes. The wind is 25 knots and today it is more southerly. I@@apos@@m waiting for it to change so I can proceed more westerly. The Humboldt Current is astonishing in its power. It@@apos@@s a gigantic and powerful river. My experience in rowing across the Atlantic ocean so far is nothing compare to the conditions of rowing in the Pacific. There is no way I could row straight across the Humboldt from east to west. The only way is to continue diagonally from south-east to north-west. To accomplish that I need extra distance longitudinally which gives me room to stay north-west without being completely swept and taken up north. It@@apos@@s a good thing I used Concon as a starting point. I remember considering port Antofogasta in northern Chile for the start. It had its own advantages such as warmer weather, minimal risk of storms, but the main disadvantage was to be carried away north, beyond the Equator. This happened to Andrew Halsey when he set out from Peru to Australia, he was gripped by the winds and currents, and ended up in the Northern Hemisphere from which he couldn@@apos@@t get back on course.
Right now the most important thing for me is to keep my course west; the more west the better. With the strong south-west wind I can@@apos@@t put Tourgoyak across the wave, it would simply capsize the boat. During the night I release the sea anchor at 50 meters overboard to stabilize the boat. Since the start I haven@@apos@@t slept in the aft cabin. I haven@@apos@@t slept laying down. Resting and catching some naps in a sitting or semi-laying position in nav station cabin is all I can afford right now. Still waiting for calmer weather to dry off the clothes and tidy up the boat. Tried to use the water maker but decided to quit: the boat is rocking too much. My cooking is limited, mostly adding hot water to packages of freeze-dried soups. According to Simon Chalk I should be using 6500 k.calories each day eating expedition dry food. However, I@@apos@@m hardly using half of that amount.
Fedor Konyukhov took freeze dry food for 200 days from 2 suppliers:
– http://www.expeditionfoods.com/ (UK)
– http://drytech.no/index.php/en/ (Norway)
Last night parted with a ship without any stress. The AIS equipment is very convenient to have on board. It sends alarm signal and shows on display what type of vessel, as well as its course and speed. I can@@apos@@t imagine now to do the ocean crossing without AIS. How did I manage before the AIS?!
I@@apos@@m thankful for the year 2013. I@@apos@@m glad to meet the New 2014 year on board of Tourgoyak experiencing the greatness of the South Pacific Ocean. Let@@apos@@s pray and ask God to grant us a year of peace without calamities and troubles.
Map of Tourgoyak@@apos@@s course: http://yb.tl/konyukhov2
More detailed map provided by the Ocean Rowing Society International: www.oceanrowing.com/Konyukhov/Pacific2013/dist_map.htm
Translated by Tatiana Koreski