The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) sailed 10,000 nautical miles from the time it left Varna (on the Black Sea) on December 27, 2022, until midnight ship's time on March 28, 2023. This is a little over 18,500 kilometres, as the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) reported. RSV 421 is some 170 miles east off the Brazilian town of Salvador on its way back home. RSV 421 is sailing at about 9.5 knots, with a headwind blowing at 7 m/s. The sea state is slight to moderate. The ship is scheduled to reach its next stopover, the Spanish port of Cartagena, mid-April. There it will take on board a group of 24 cadets from Bulgaria's Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy (NVNA), who, like an earlier 23-member group at the beginning of the ship's voyage, will have 10 days of sailing practice. After sailing off Cartagena, the vessel will stop in Piraeus, Greece, where cooperation between NVNA and the Greek Naval Academy will be discussed. The ship is expected to dock in Varna at the end of April.
