site.btaAntarctic Expedition Support Ship Sets Sail for Home After Cartagena Stop

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) set sail for Bulgaria after a short stop at the Spanish port of Cartagena during its return voyage from Antarctica, said the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy (NVNA) in Varna on Thursday.

During its stay in port, the vessel's supplies of food and fresh water were replenished to the required levels, and equipment belonging to the Spanish Antarctic programme was unloaded from the ship.

In Cartagena, cadets from NVNA and from naval academies in Romania, Poland and Norway boarded the vessel to take part in a short-term sea training exercise from the Spanish city to Varna. The cadets specialize in navigation, marine engineering, and vessel traffic management and control systems. A safety briefing on the use of individual and collective life-saving equipment was conducted on board.

Further on, the route of RSV 421 runs through the western Mediterranean, the Strait of Messina, the Ionian Sea, south of the Peloponnese peninsula and on through the Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Black Sea.

The ship is expected to return to Varna, on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, on April 9, marking the end of this year's overseas mission to provide logistical support for the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition. The vessel departed from Antarctica on February 17.