Russian icebreaker Yamal to pick up French traveler from icefloe

On Tuesday, the Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker Yamal set course from the Spitsbergen archipelago towards an icefloe on which a French Arctic explorer, Jean Louis Etienne, has been drifting since April 14, 2002, this correspondent was told on Wednesday at a press-service of OAO Murmansk Shipping Company.

The icebreaker Yamal, with a group of foreign tourists aboard, has left on its first cruise this year to the North Pole.

On its way the icebreaker will approach the icefloe where the French traveler has spent almost three months alone.

Before tourists' eyes Etienne and his capsule -- a sort of Arctic home -- will be hoisted aboard the cruise vessel.