A nightmare at sea. The crew of the inflatable catamaran TION - Russian Ocean Way, owned by the Russian Geographical Society, withstood shark assaults in the middle of the Coral Sea. On board, two Russians, Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Beryozkin, originally from Siberia, and a Frenchman, Vincent Thomas Garate. The first attack took place on September 4, the second the next day, while they were passing through an area known to be a real shark den.
Fortunately, the three sailors had a distress beacon used this Wednesday morning, around 1am. And their call was heard: the cargo ship Dugong Ace was able to intervene quickly before the 9 m long catamaran sank.
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Images taken from a helicopter were shared by Australia's Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) on social media. The survivors had left the Vanuatu archipelago on 28 August and planned to reach the coastal city of Cairns, Australia, in the state of Queensland.
The two Russians were in the middle of a world tour, a journey of several years of which they had already spent half. The Frenchman, meanwhile, had only been on board for a few days.
The three sailors are expected to be on land in Brisbane by Thursday.