Early in the morning of December 6, the trimaran of the circumnavigation expedition of the Tomsk Branch of the Russian Geographical Society entered the Argentine Port of Ushuaia. This is the southernmost city of the planet, which is located on the island of Tierra del Fuego. The passage here from the Rio Grande harbor turned out to be very difficult due to severe weather conditions. Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Berezkin covered the last 50 miles of the next stage of the voyage in 12 hours.
“It's incredibly cold. Zero degrees, the wind is frigid. We sailed for 12 hours at an average speed of 4.5 knots," admitted Evgeny Kovalevsky.
The southernmost city of the Earth got its name from the Indians who once lived here. In their language, Ushuaia means "bay facing west." The channel itself is named after the famous ship "Beagle", on which traveled Charles Darwin. Ships enter the Port of Ushuaia on their way to Antarctica.
The region has a harsh climate. Even in summer, daytime temperatures here rarely exceed +15°C. Further south, of the human settlements there are only the city of Puerto Williams and the fishing hamlet of Puerto Toro, in which about 50 people live.
The passage from Rio Grande to Ushuaia the circumnavigators began on December 1. They had to first sail to the southeast, then during the high tide, in a very short time, they had to quickly go through the dangerous section from the Bay of Bahia Tethys to Cape San Diego and turn south. After that, the trimaran had to change course to the southwest and sail until reaching the oncoming current, then enter the Beagle Channel. Depending on the weather, the crew expected to spend three to five days on this. Sailing was complicated by the cold of up to 0°C, strong headwind of up to 40-60 knots, high waves flooding the deck with water.
“The watchman is wet all the time; if you need to work outside the tent, you are guaranteed to get wet through. Oncoming currents, hard, crushing waves, few shelters on the shore in case of impossibility of movement. All sailors consider this area extremely difficult. And for us it is doubly difficult, because there are only two of us, and it is better to keep watch in such conditions together. There is simply no time for sleep," Kovalevsky said.
It's funny that on the eve of sailing from Rio Grande, a boy and a girl of about ten years old approached the trimaran. They gifted drawings to the Russian navigators wishing them a happy journey. The talisman turned out to be a lucky one. We will tell about the adventures of the circumnavigation on the way to Ushuaia in the next report.
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On July 1, 2021, Siberian travelers Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Berezkin set off along the route of the first Russian round-the-world expeditions of the 19th century: Ivan Kruzenshtern’s (1803-1806), Yuri Lisyansky’s (1803-1806), Otto Kotzebue’s (1815-1818, 1823-1826), Vasily Golovnin’s (1817-1819), Fedor Litke’s (1826-1829), Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev’s (1819-1921). The international project of the Tomsk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society "Following the paths of Russian explorers" is dedicated to the 250th birthday anniversary of Krusenstern and the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica by Russian sailors. These events for a long time determined Russia's leadership in the development of the oceans and the discovery of new lands. You can learn more about the project and provide all possible assistance in its implementation on the website of the expedition.
Alexander Zhirnov