Chief Petty Officer Evgeni Michev Combined His Childhood Dream of Becoming a Military Man with His Love for the Sea

My childhood dream was to become a military man. I combined it with my love for the sea and decided to become a ship navigator, Chief Petty Officer Evgeni Michev, a cadet at the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna, told BTA. He was one of the 23 cadets who had a training practice with the Bulgarian military research/survey vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (NAVAL RSV 421) from Varna to Cartagena (Spain) in the period between December 27 and January 7.

First of all, a Navy officer must be well prepared and physically and mentally stable, Evgeni believes. Challenges in the Navy are not that big, but you can't snap your fingers and go out in your free time like ordinary students - we have evening checks, and everything is under strict order, he also shares about the inherent discipline.

Although he already had a few sailings under his belt before he boarded the Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii, he has not sailed for a longer period than 3-4 days and enjoys the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge from the lecturers from the Naval Academy who accompanied the cadets, as well as from the ship's officers.

I was pleasantly surprised, the captain told us about the modern navigation systems and how to deal with emergencies if these systems go down. He also taught us how to handle the radar to avoid going "blind" and how to read changes in weather conditions to predict if bad weather is coming, Michev said.

BTA's Daily News editor Konstantin Karagyozov is the only member of the media who is travelling on board the ship to Livingston Island and back, and will cover the Bulgarian expedition on site throughout the stay in Antarctica.

All media outlets can use the Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log for free.