On September 30 at 2:30 pm the trimaran “Russian Ocean Way” left Rabat, the capital city of Morocco. The expedition crew spent a little over 24 hours there. During that time, technical inspection of the vessel was done and food supplies were replenished. Heading for Tenerife, the voyagers are planning to reach the island on October 6.
As previously reported, the round-the-world expedition of RGS approached the coast of Rabat, but the Moroccan authorities prohibited the entry by sea boarders. Bilateral negotiations resulted in the permission for entering the marina of Rabat with proviso that none of the crew would leave the vessel and come ashore. Compatriots helped the crew to replenish food supplies.
Two new participants were to join the expedition in Rabat, but under present circumstances it turned out to be impossible.
When approaching Rabat, the crew came across some difficulties – firstly, the vessel got through the field of buoys at a depth of more than 2000 m, and then ran aground. The captain of the trimaran Stanislav Berezkin noticed that without Alexander Kirikov and Dobrynya Kirikov, who had joined the expedition recently, the crew wouldn’t have been able to cope so easily. For the Kirikov family the stage Rabat-Tenerife is the last in the expedition, after which they will return to Tomsk.
Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Berezkin report the latest update to the Shore-based centre of the expedition.
Elizaveta Shaimbaeva
