September 14, 2004
The Third circumnavigation has started!

On September 14, 2004 to the sounds of the Navy orchestra and the shots of fireworks, the yacht "Apostol Andrey" left the harbour of the River Yacht Club of St. Petersburg, starting its third circumnavigation.

Nikolay Litau, Alexander Kireev, Anatoly Semenov and Sergey Zhukov headed for the Baltic so that after passing Europe to sail over the Atlantic Ocean to the Antarctic and to circumnavigate the continent inside the 60-th parallel, which is considered to be the international border of the Antarctic region. And the crew will try to improve its own record of penetrating of the sailing vessels to the south – to reach the 70-th parallel of the south latitude.

Warm sunny weather in St. Petersburg turned out for the yachtsmen as a fresh and unfavourable counter wind. Under such conditions it is very difficult to cope with the yacht when there are only four crewmembers. Mikhail Indereikin, the fifth member of the crew – a doctor and a cook, stayed at the shore. In two days before the start of the yacht has put him to the hospital. Nikolay Litau and his companions have to go through a very difficult month before they arrive to the Madeira Island, where a new participant will join them.

At 5:00 p.m. the yacht passed the customs and the frontier guards control at the See Port of St. Petersburg. Nikolay Litau sent a short message completing the first sailing day:

"About three hours we sailed to Kronshtadt, then we raised our sails and traversed the whole night.

We have discovered a very unpleasant thing – a leak has opened somewhere on the deck and water is pouring at the navigation table and devices. We can repair this damage only when the weather and the deck are dry. And now we are making the course, wrapping in polyethylene.

We have sailed 80 miles from St. Petersburg".

ATLAS MONITORING SYSTEM
Find below coordinates of "Apostol Andrey" vessel.

Latitude: 60, 6.52' N
Longitude: 27, 26.00' E
Date: 9/15/2004 12:08:29 PM (GMT)
Speed: 6
Course: 252