Russian yacht returns home from Arctic voyage

Russian yachtsmen on board the yacht Peter I (Peter the First) returned to St. Petersburg on Sunday (November 15) after setting a new record with a round-the-world voyage through the Arctic Ocean during five months starting from June 2010. This was the first world cruise for a surface ship ever to go the shortest and most dangerous round-the-world route in just one navigation season. Seven yachtsmen aboard Peter I, none aged above 25, looked tired and happy as they moored the yacht in St. Petersburg port where their relatives and fans were waiting for them. It took them 109 days to sail 9023 nautical miles around the Arctic Ocean. They have survived a seven-grade storm in the Barents Sea, and sailed three thousand nautical miles amid heavy ice floes. The navigation season is short in the Arctic, lasting as a rule from July to the end of September. Icebound ships have sometimes to wait days for getting a chance to pass to clear waters. Under the circumstances the crew had a hard job to do. The thirty-ton, 18-meter, steel-hulled yacht named after famous Russian Tzar, arrived to St. Petersburg accompanied by the cannon salute from a sailing vessel replicating the 18-century flagship of Peter the Great. The members of the crew were greeted with a traditional Russian dish - a baked pig, and almost cried while listening to the Russian national anthem. Yacht captain Daniil Gavrilov said the trip was hard, especially when they had to sail through thick ice.When we first saw the ice, we were pointing fingers at it - look, it's ice - but that was a small piece of ice floating in the ocean. And then we had three or four weeks when there were no signs of water around us up to the horizon. We sailed in nine-point or ten-point ice, Gavrilov said.The only woman aboard the yacht, chiefmate Yelena Solovyova, said she still could not believe they had returned back.It is a very strange feeling. We do not believe that we have returned home finally. It was such a long trip. And the expedition was not an easy one, Solovyova said.Peter I trip was unique because the crew managed to sail without any assistance from the icebreakers all the way through the Northeast and the Northwest Passages in the course of a single Northern Hemisphere summer. The Peter I yacht was built in the Ural city of Magnitogorsk in 1992 to take part in the Trans-Atlantic race to honour the 500 years anniversary of discovery of America.