FESCO Transportation Group’s (“FESCO”) diesel motor vessel Vasiliy Golovnin successfully finished the Antarctic expedition of 2021 delivering cargo to the Indian research stations.
The vessel came back to the destination point in Cape Town (South Africa) on 10 April. 1 138 tons of various cargo were delivered to the Indian stations Bharati and Maitri, including equipment, fuel and food, along with a new shift of polar explorers. The vessel was also used for removing domestic and technical waste from the stations.
“This year the Antarctic summer was extremely cold. In the first part of the expedition, FESCO’s seamen had to spend 2 weeks to get through the ice in Prydz Bay to reach the Bharati station. In the second part of the expedition, the crew had to weather a storm in Leningradsky Bay to complete all unloading operations at the Maitri station. But despite all the difficulties, we did everything we had to do,” said Igor Sharkov, the director of the FESCO branch in Vladivostok.
The contract between FESCO and the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) of the Ministry of Geography of India for the supply of Antarctic stations was signed in October 2018.
FESCO has extensive experience working in Antarctica and has repeatedly participated in government projects aimed at supplying research stations in the USA, Australia, Great Britain, Chile and Argentina.