site.btaMission Accomplished, We Have Proven Ourselves as Seafaring Nation, Prof Pimpirev Says

The 40-day polar mission of the Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) is fully accomplished, said Prof Christo Pimpirev, leader of the 32nd Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition after a group of participants in the expedition embarked on board RSV 421, which has set sail from the Bulgarian base on Livingston Island. Pimpirev was quoted by the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna on Friday.

Basically, the scientific laboratory is complete. The field work of almost all the 12 research projects being carried out under the national polar research programme has also been completed, Pimpirev noted.

According to him, the expedition was extremely successful. "As the leader of the expedition, I am extremely pleased that the targets were overachieved in very difficult conditions - adverse weather, ice conditions," he said.

Pimpirev stressed that the 32nd Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition supported many foreign expeditions. According to him, with its research vessel, Bulgaria has been very successfully involved in the whole international Antarctic programme.

"We proved that we can be a seafaring nation, we can be sailors in these harsh conditions with ice, icebergs, stormy waves, and crossing the Drake Passage. We can safely boast of having successfully accomplished the 32nd Bulgarian Antarctic expedition," Pimpirev added.