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Academician Fyodorov on way back from Antarctic expedition

On Tuesday the vessel was drifting in the Bransfield Strait waiting for the storm to subside

ST. PETERSBURG, May 2 (Itar-Tass) —— The flagship of the Russian Polar flotilla, the research expedition ship Academician Fyodorov has completed an expedition in the Antarctic and headed for St. Petersburg, Deputy Director of the Arctic and Antarctic Scientific-Research Institute of the Russian Federal Meteorological Service Valery Lukin, who heads the Russian Antarctic expedition, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

“On Tuesday the vessel was drifting in the Bransfield Strait waiting for the storm to subside,” Lukin noted. Then the vessel returned to the Ardley Cove and pumped 300 tonnes of fuel to the oil terminal of the Bellingshausen station. The scheduled unloading could not be done due to the coast blocked by drifting heavy ice floes. The ship came under the threat of blocking in the Maxwell Bay. So, the unloading of two tanks for the oil terminal was delayed to the next navigation season.

The Academician Fyodorov is heading for the port Rio-de-Janeiro, where the ship is expected to arrive on May 2.

Meanwhile, at the average air temperature of minus 68 degrees Celsius the Arctic station Vostok “is doing drilling works to make some component parts and mount the equipment for the experiments to estimate the resistance limits of the walls of the wells,” the head of the Russian Antarctic expedition said.