Russian traveller says shark following his rowboat not make him worry

VLADIVOSTOK, March 24 (Itar-Tass) - Russian traveller Fyodor Konyukhov who is crossing the Pacific solo in a rowboat said during a communication session that a shark following his rowboat Turgoyak “does not make him worry”, as some media outlets tried to describe this. “A shark does not make me worry at all, this is its habitat, I am a guest for it. I did not say a word that it attacks me or my rowboat,” the captain said. The shark joined the rowboat near atoll Bellingshausen, one of uninhabited islets in French Polynesia, after, in his words, Fyodor “has made a mistake throwing to it a piece of sheep skin that he has put on his seat.” Since then the shark has been following Turgoyak continuously. On Sunday, Captain Konyukhov learnt with regret during a communication session with the Russian capital of Moscow that his report about the shark “was distorted and spread in media.” In his words, he realises that “the press wants some hot facts.” He said that he “set out in the ocean to pray for six months and his rowboat is his cell.” Fyodor noted that Turgoyak does not have Internet, TV set or a radio receiver. He calls up Moscow expedition headquarters daily by satellite phone and says how he spent the day and discusses a weather forecast. “The life onboard the rowboat is storms, cyclones, high waves, a danger to be drifted on riffs, a risk to get an injury or be waved away overboard - all this makes part of voyage,” Captain Konyukhov said. “This is turned in some kind of reality show on the shore,” the traveller added. “If not for relatives and loved ones I would have switched off satellite navigation device and would have been isolated from the world for six or seven months,” Fyodor said at the end of his communication session. On December 22, 2013, Konyukhov set out from the Chilean port of Concon and headed for the eastern coast of Australia. A difficult voyage is meant to last 200 days. Turgoyak has already sailed around 10,000 kilometres (around 5,399 nautical miles) for the past three months. Captain Konyukhov has to row more than 5,000 kilometres (around 2,699 nautical miles) to the Australian city of Sydney, where he intends to drop anchor.