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On the 16th of October, 2002, at 2:00 p.m. Moscow time (11:00 a.m. Canary Island time), the rowboat “URALAZ” set off to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The start occurred with a huge crowd of Russian tourists actively taking part on all seven of the Canary Islands. The official start of the expedition was given by a captain from the Port of La Gomera and the director of the yacht club. The start was documented on film by journalists from the Russian television company NTV.
The first telephone call over the cell-phone from Fedor Konyukhov came at 6:00 p.m. and he stated that over the first seven hours he was able to make 15 miles, which on the average is 2.2 knots. The weather is unstable, which foresees a huge storm nearing and that should hit the Canary Islands on Friday. The first ocean dwellers also appeared: at noon Fedor noticed a huge sea turtle swimming by. Generally, the crossing on the boat will be characterized by a large number of ocean creatures swimming near the surface. In answer to a local journalist’s question of which journey was the most dangerous, Fedor stated that this crossing would be as the others, though they were extremely difficult expeditions (climbing Mt. Everest, the round-the-world trip along the “roaring 40s,” and the solo treks to the North and South poles), are all in the past.
Before setting off, Fedor read a book by Frenchman Gerard de Aboville, who crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans alone). The book is called just that: “Alone.”
Quotation from the book: “In my opinion, the absolute realization of your own freedom consists in understanding that, in case you are not successful, you will have to undergo the greatest punishment as your life will be at stake. That is enough in itself in order to feel the full measure of responsibility on your shoulders. It is probably impossible to reach this feeling unless you are left one-on-one with an ocean and environment which is foreign to you.”
These lines characterize this crossing best of all.
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