After 154 days, 13 hours and 13 minutes, Fyodor Konyukhov arrived yesterday at the Diego Ramirez Islands off Chile to complete the first leg of his Southern Ocean row. The prolific Russian adventurer left New Zealand in November.
Konyukhov’s support team intercepted him on the windward side of the islands in dangerous conditions (40-45 knot winds and 6-7 metre waves). With the conditions predicted to worsen, his team decided to tow the rowboat into the Drake Passage.
The longitude of the Diego Ramirez Islands is considered the end of an east-west crossing of the South Pacific Ocean, according to the Ocean Rowing Society.
Konyukhov planned to complete the journey in 120 days but endured several cyclones during his five months in the notorious Roaring Forties. He lost more than 100km during one gale.
The second leg of Konyukhov’s 27,000km journey across the Southern Ocean will take him from Cape Horn to Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia later this year. The final leg, which begins in late 2020, runs from Cape Leeuwin back to Dunedin, New Zealand, where he began.
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