A trip around the world on a tiny yacht: pirates, icebergs and a collision with a tanker. Trip around the world on a tiny yacht: pirates, icebergs and a collision with a tanker Kupava logbook

MarineTraffic - what is it?

Marine traffic is a shareware service to track the location of a vessel online. On the world map you can find any ships that are in port or at sea. In the service options you can also track the location of the vessel by its name in real time.
When you select a vessel on the map, a window pops up with information about the vessel online:

  • ship name
  • type of vessel (container, tanker, passenger ship etc.)
  • ship status
  • ship speed
  • ship course
  • ship's draft

Operating principle of Marine traffic and AIS systems

Nowadays, almost all ships are equipped with an automatic identification system, AIS, which allows you to track the ship and avoid collisions between ships. At what maximum distance can a ship be tracked on a map? It all depends on the height of the antenna located on the ship itself and at the nearest station on land. Regular AIS stations cover a range of about 40 nautical miles(about 75 km). In some cases, the location of the ship can be tracked at a distance of 200 miles, which is, not less, 370 km. But this is the case if the AIS station is located high above sea level, for example on a mountain, and the ship itself is equipped with a good antenna. Thus, anyone can track a vessel online using the Marinetraffic service.

How to track a ship on the map?

If you have the name of a ship, the easiest way to find out the ship's location is to enter it in the map search and the system will immediately show the ship's position and information about it. If you know that the ship has not yet left a certain port or it could not have gone far from it, you can try to find the desired port in the same search form. And then use the familiar mouse actions to point at all the vessels and view information about them. Also, to make your search easier, you can filter ships by type. For example, select only passenger, fishing or cargo ships. The service is intuitive and if you have the skills to use a map, then finding out the location of the vessel in real time will not be difficult for you.

Today, on World Sailor's Day, we will tell you how desperate yachtsmen escaped from pirates, broke the mast and came out alive from the “ship graveyard”...

The crew of the yacht "Kupava" are not the first Ukrainians to circumnavigate the world on a sailboat. But they still set their own record: they traveled around the world on a tiny yacht for cruising sailing races - only 9 meters in length. One small cabin where sailors sleep and eat, no shower or toilet (they are replaced by the sea) and many dangers - all this befell the four crew members led by captain Yuri Bondar. Initially, they wanted to go to Antarctica, but then they decided: why waste time on trifles if you can go around the whole world! Moreover, they did it not like everyone else, but on the contrary: “Kupava” circumnavigated the world from east to west.

During the 2.5 years that it took to complete the entire expedition, the lives of the sailors more than once hung in the balance. Thus, a nose-to-nose “meeting” with an iceberg almost sent the boat to the bottom: in the place where the hull was damaged, after entering the warm waters, worms settled in, and they feasted so much on the exposed wood that they ate a hole in the yacht.

The most difficult navigation section for the Kupava was the famous Cape Horn, which is called only the “ship graveyard.” Many desperate crews died there. Fortunately, all Kiev residents made it home alive.

But now they can safely say that they have seen the whole world.

We saw famous island Robinson Crusoe, Easter Island, Cook Island,” one of the expedition members, Gennady Starikov, shared with KP. - Surprised New Zealand and scared the pirates Indian Ocean. We broke the mast in the Red Sea and repaired it in Egypt. But what struck us most was Chilean Patagonia, which today looks the same as described in the book “Children of Captain Grant”. Beautiful natural fjords stretching for thousands of kilometers, wild uninhabited places, just as nature created them...

By the way, it is quite possible that soon the adventures of “Kupava” will be seen on the big screen. During the expedition it was filmed great amount video material. And one of the crew members, the recognized Ukrainian film director Mikhail Ilyenko, known for the film “ToiKhtoProyshovKrizVogon”, is already hard at work on a documentary film.

ABOUT NUTRITION

Ate borscht and lard

It is a myth that participants in a circumnavigation of the world eat only fish. After all, you won’t last long with such a diet. For example, when "Kupava" moved along the coast South America, the yachtsmen did not catch a single fish.

To prevent hunger from interfering with enjoying the trip, a whole ton of food was loaded onto the yacht back in Kyiv. They also replenished food supplies in the ports. So no one lost weight during the expedition. The sailors ate borscht and lard - almost like at home. At the end of the expedition, they even learned to bake bread themselves.

One of the crew members was cooking on a gas stove. But, of course, the cook had a hard time - the small yacht was tossed like a piece of wood on the waves in the storm.

THERE WAS A THING

While escaping sea robbers, the yacht was broken

In the Gulf of Aden, the brave crew of the Kupava had to escape from sea robbers. Seeing how the French catamarans ahead were shot by pirates, the people of Kiev decided to hide in the dark and turned off all the alarm systems. As a result, not only the pirates, but also the oil tanker did not notice them. The radars of the huge ship did not detect the Kupava, and the collision broke the Kiev yacht's mast. I had to stay in Egypt until the breakdown was fixed.

EXPERIENCE ROUTE

BOARD MAGAZINE "KUPAVY"

2. Montevideo (Uruguay). Crew change: M. Ilyenko, V. Deymontovich disembarked, G. Starikov, V. Kopaygorodsky came on board.

3. Cape Horn. The Everest of sailing has been conquered!

4. Robinson Crusoe Island - G. Starikov and V. Kopaygorodsky completed their journey and returned to Kyiv. Then the expedition continued together, Yu. Bondar and A. Zubenko.

5. Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. He is military base, the guys were allowed in only to repair the yacht (worms ate the wooden hull of the yacht) and were offered to spend the night in the prison building.

6. Gulf of Aden - escape from pirates.

7, Red Sea - mast failure, repaired in Egypt.

8. Haifa - yacht wintering, 3 months.

 

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