Russian circumnavigating training frigate casts anchor at Suva
The Russian frigate Pallada (Pallas) cast anchor in the Royal Bay of Suva, the capital of the Republic of Fiji Islands, a state in the Pacific Ocean, on Monday, Itar-Tass reports.
The training ship of the Far Eastern State Fishery Technology University is circumnavigating the globe, visiting the places discovered by the Russian seamen over the past two centuries.
Nikolai Zorchenko, the captain of the frigate, has told Itar-Tass, "We want to recall Russia's maritime glory and her comeback to the World Ocean".
The Pallas crew dedicates the round-the-globe voyage to the 190th anniversary of the circumnavigation by the Russian ships under the command of Faddei Bellinshausen and Mikhail Lazarev and the 50th anniversary of the start of Russia's exploration of Antarctica.
In the course of the 270-day voyage, more than 400 cadets of maritime higher learning establishments of Russia are to undergo practical training in three shifts. Thousands of people -- residents of various countries, will be able to visit the ship as guests and see an exhibition depicting the history of the exploration of the WorldOcean by Russian seamen.
Upon setting out from Vladivostok on November 2, the world's highest-speed sailship has already visited the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand, and is yet to visit Australia, the Marshall Islands, Easter Isle, Tahiti, Suvorov Atoll, and Samoa. It will proceed on its way across Oceania via the Panama Canal to the Atlantic Ocean.
The training crew is to undergo the first change-over at Havana. The vessel is then to proceed to the Azores, Gibraltar, and the Mediterranean Sea, where it will call at the French port of Cannes during a film festival to be held there in May, and then at Algiers, Naples, and Piraeus.
The second crew changeover is to take place in Novorossiisk, after which the Pallas is to set out on its return voyage to Vladivostok across the Indian Ocean. Along the way, the frigate is to call at Port Said (Egypt), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Penang (Malaysia), Singapore, and Nagasaki. The frigate is to return to the Bay of the Golden Horn at the end of August upon logging a total of 33,000 nautical miles.