Russian sailing ship Nadezhda en route round the world to cast anchor at London port

The Russian sailing vessel Nadezhda which is making a voyage round the world will cast anchor at London port on Friday.

As Russia's permanent representative in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Igor Ponomarev said, during their five-day stay in London the Nadezhda crew and cadets will visit the headquarters of the International Maritime Organisation and the Greenwich Maritime Museum.

The IMO secretary-general and heads of directorates will pay a return visit to the sailing ship. Furthermore, a meeting of the captain and the crew with the Ambassador of Russia in London and with the Russian Federation's permanent representative in the IMO are planned.

The second stage of the round-the-world voyage of the Nadezhda sailing ship which belongs to Admiral Nevelskoi Maritime State University (Vladivostok, the Far East) began from Kaliningrad (a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea) last Sunday.

London is the first port of call, and already on October 8 the sailing vessel will head to Santa-Cruz-de-Tenerife (Canary Islands). Then it will go by the following route: Rio de Janeiro - Stanley (Falkland Islands) - Cape Horn - Easter Island - Taiti Island - Samoa Island - Solomon Islands - Haiphong (Vietnam) - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Nagasaki (Japan) - Pusan (Korea) - Vladivostok. The Nadezhda is to return to its native port, Vladivostok, in March 2004.

The first stage of the voyage round the world ended in St. Petersburg where the sailing ship came in late June. The Nadezhda participated in the celebration of the city's 300th anniversary. The sailing ship left St. Petersburg for the Netherlands for the Delfsail international Festival of Sailing, and in August for the first ever time participated in the Katty Sark Baltic Sailing Regatta held on the Baltic Sea.