VLADIVOSTOK, February 06. /ITAR-TASS/. Giant waves pound on a rowboat of world-famous Russian traveller Fyodor Konyukhov, who continues his solo voyage across the Pacific.
“The situation is tense, the storm tries to turn my Turgoyak over its side. Simply “mountain waves” are striking astern and sweepingly sliding under the boat,” Konyukhov said by a satellite phone late on Wednesday, adding that during the whole day the storm was accompanied by thick clouds and there was no sunshine.
At the moment, the traveller determined the closets point en route, Fatu Hiva, the southernmost island of the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia, in the centre of the Pacific Ocean. In 1937 famous Norwegian traveler and researcher Thor Heyerdahl and his wife lived on the island.
Konyukhov said he planned to leave Fatu Hiva on the right and to start sailing southwest to Australia.
“But it is still so far away, and I still do not look ahead there. But I have to cover 1,400 nautical miles to get to Fatu Hiva, this is quite clear and tangible distance. Let’s hope I reach the island by mid-March, this will be my first land I will see since the start of my trip,” he said.
On December 22, 2013, Konyukhov sailed off in Chile’s Concon in hope to cross the Pacific to Australia’s Brisbane. His Turgoyak has already covered 2,754 miles (5,183 kilomteres). To get to Brisbane the traveller still has to overcome another 5,257 miles (9,736 kilometers).
Under favourable conditions Konyukhov’s voyage from South America to Australia may take approximately 200 days.