Pyotr I arrives to St. Petersburg on 14 November
Russian crew of the Pyotr I yacht has set a new world record, going through both the North East and North West Passages in a single navigation season for the first time ever.
For the first time in the history of global navigation, the Russian crew of the sailing yacht Pyotr I has gone round the Arctic, covering the North East and North West Sea Routes in a single season.
Until now no other vessel in the world was able to do that. The uniqueness of the feat is in the fact the yacht has made it without icebreaker support.
Sailors have been exploring these routes for centuries; however, one should keep in mind that by now the climate has got much warmer. The Arctic ice is retreating; where the yacht passed today, one or even two winter-long stopovers were the norm quite recently. The environment is changing on a very great scale, and the consequences of it are hard to estimate yet.
The expedition set off on 4 June, 2010 from St. Petersburg. We’ve already described the route earlier. The crew performed exemplary throughout the journey, withstanding the force 7 gale in the Barents Sea and sailing nonstop for 35 days from Murmansk to Tiksi (2,300 miles). It took two weeks to get through the impassable ice to the north-east of the Taimyr Peninsula…
The round-the-world journey will end with the red-carpet welcome ceremony at St. Petersburg’s Lieutenant Schmidt Embankment at 12 noon on 14 November.
Russian text by Kirill Kuznetsov, based on materials provided by the expedition headquarters
