site.btaDay 104: RSV 421 Approaching Canary Islands

At 07:00 hrs board time (08:00 Eastern European Time), the location of the Bulgarian Navy research/survey vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii  is approximately 250 nautical miles southwest of the Canary Islands. NAVAL RSV 421 is sailing back home to Varna (on the Black Sea) after her successful participation in the 31st Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition to Livingston Island.

The Head of the Navigational Department, Lieutenant Commander Hristo Hristov, explained for BTA that the vessel is heading north-northeast down the coast of Western Sahara and will pass between the Island of Fuerteventura and Cape Juby in southern Morocco so as to avoid, as far as possible, bad weather conditions in the Atlantic over the next couple of days. In January, on her way to Antarctica, RSV 421 sailed across the same area through the strait between the islands of Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura.

The Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii is averaging a speed of 9.5 knots against a head wind of 10 metres/second and waves ranging from 2 to 3 degrees Douglas.  

NAVAL RSV 421 is steering to its next stopover, Cartagena in Spain, where she is due in mid-April. There, she will take on board a new group of 24 cadets of the Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna who, just like another 23 such cadets at the beginning of the voyage, will undergo a ten-day sailing practice.

After Cartagena, the ship will stop over in Piraeus, Greece, for a discussion on cooperation between the Bulgarian and the Greek naval academies. 

The Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii is expected back home at the end of April, when she will dock at the Varna Sea Terminal.

BTA's Daily News editor Konstantin Karagyozov is the only member of the media who is travelling on board the ship to Livingston Island and back and covered the Bulgarian expedition on site throughout its stay in Antarctica.

All media outlets can use the Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log for free.