ARKHANGELSK, July 30. (Itar-Tass) - The Mikhail Somov research vessel of the Northern Directorate of the Federal Hydro-Meteorological Service (Sevgidromet) Mikhail Somov on Tuesday has departed from Arkhangelsk on a voyage to deliver winter supplies to polar research stations in the Arctic, the Arkhangelsk seaport operations manager told Itar-Tass.
Sevgidromet spokeswoman Yelena Amosova told Itar-Tass that it is the main voyage of Mikhail Somov’s polar navigation. “It will take more than 80 days,” she said. “Tentatively, Somov will return to Arkhangelsk port on October 18.” The diesel-electric vessel will sail throughout the Northern Sea Route to Chukotka and deliver cargoes and specialists to remote polar meteorological stations on the coast and islands of five Arctic seas: the White, Barents, Kara, Laptev and East Siberian Seas. The vessel will deliver 1,740 tons of fuel, 300 tons of food and 80 tons of construction materials to the stations .
The Mikhail Somov vessel is the flagship of Sevgidromet. Every year it ensures life support of polar explorers for the upcoming Arctic winter until the next voyage. The icebreaker vessel carries, in addition to general cargo and equipment, a shift of polar explorers, including 12 hydrometeorologists graduates of Novosibirsk Vocational School No. 7 to work on polar stations of Sevgidromet.
According to Amosova, expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), A.P. Karpinsky All-Russian Institute of Geological Research and other organisations will be working on the Mikhail Somov vessel during the voyage. The vessel also carries specialists of the Northern Directorate of the Federal Hydro-Meteorological Service. “Senior priest of the Temple of Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God (Belgorod Region) Dmitry Lukyanov has for the fourth time taken the voyage to the East in order to provide social and spiritual support to compatriots living and working in the difficult conditions of the North,” said the Sevgidromet representative.