The Russian-Ukrainian sailing expedition on the ancient Slavic boat "Rusich" crossed the equator in the Java Sea of Indian Ocean at 105 degrees east longitude, and passed into the southern hemisphere.
Sailing on ancient Slavic "Rusich" across the Indian Ocean – is an international Russian-Ukrainian sailing project, as Boris FILATOV, Organizing Committee Chairman of expedition, told UNIAN. The initiators of the project are twin brothers, distinguished travelers of the Russian Federation Alexander and Sergei SINELNYKOVY.
As commander of the expedition S. Sinelnikov told, "crossing the equator occurred at night in terrible weather conditions - rain, strong wind, with a steep wave in 2-3 meters." He noted that from the seven-man squad only two have already crossed the equator in expeditionary conditions: he himself and a mechanical engineer Sergei MURAVITSKY. The other five (boatswain Ilya PODGORNY from Togliatti and four Ukrainian sailors: cook Alexander BUYVALYUK and steering men Vadim GALICKY, Alex ROMANEEV and Vylen DEREVIANKO) first crossed the equator.
Speaking about the forthcoming sections of sailing S. Sinelnikov said that "the weather is deteriorating, and when the transition to the southern hemisphere totally went bad: rain, thunderstorms, strong headwind of 15 knots, waves of 3 feet tall."
Soon a boat is to go along Sumatra island going the south-east to the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta port. But because of weather conditions - a strong head wind and waves - the boat got stuck on the island of Bangka , trying to reach the port Toboali.
A partial change of guards boat "Rusich" is scheduled on Bali island.
As project organizers reported, boat "Rusich" was built in 2006 in Petrozavodsk, in the shipyard "Varyag", specializing in the design and construction of wooden vessels for various purposes. Boat "Rusich" is a duplicate of the ships of the ancient Slavs and Vikings of IX-XI centuries of pre-Mongol period.
August 10, 2010 Boat "Rusich" went on the first stage of the expedition from Togliatti, on the Volga and Don rivers, the Black, Marmara, Mediterranean, Red Seas, into the Indian Ocean, to the shores of India going on the route of the great Russian pioneer of Athanasius Nikitin. Because of early autumn monsoon season, the first sailing phase ended on the Arabian Peninsula, where the boat was temporarily raised from the water and placed on land in the Sultanate of Oman.
In May 2011 the boat went to the second stage of the expedition, dedicated to the great explorer of the XIX century, the researcher N.Mikluho-Maclay. The boat went on the route: Port Salalah (Oman) - India - Sri Lanka - Nicobar Islands - Malaysia, and June 1, entered the Malaysian port of Langkawi.
October 3, 2011 the third phase of circumnavigation was launched from port the Sapun (Thailand) across the Indian Ocean to Sydney (Australia).
Alexander and Sergey Sinelnikovy plan in the future to make a series of northern voyages, to show that in IX-XII centuries, the ancient Slavs boats via the White Sea around Scandinavia reached the Nord European countries, and further across Greenland - to America.
