Posted by 
The trio who attempted to sail to Cairns from Vanuatu in an inflatable catamaran have spoken to 9News about the moment they realised they were in danger.
Evgeny Kovalevsky, Vincent Baugé and Captain Stanislav Berezkin were rescued 835 kilometres off the Queensland coast after their rescue beacon was detected by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
The inflatable vessel, the Tion, ran into trouble after both hulls were attacked by sharks but Kovalevsky said they didn’t feel the initial bite.
“We actually don’t feel the bump because our weight was two tonnes. That shark is very small,” Kovalevsky told 9News.
“We (saw) that (the) air was less and less, and we (realised we were in) trouble.
“They attacked our backside, and because we have a rudder system on our backside, the rudder system (was) destroyed very quickly.”
Crew member Baugé said the sailors “didn’t have time to be scared” once they started sinking.
“If you are nervous, it just makes it worse so just keep safe and do what we have to do,” he said.
The trio are attempting to circumnavigate the globe in an inflatable vessel on a personal mission to follow in the footsteps of Russian navigators from the 1800s.
“For us, it was very important that we repeat the way that 200 years ago first Russian circumnavigators made,” Kovalevsky said.
“Because nobody has used inflatable boats to go around the world for one expedition.”
Berezkin, captain of the vessel, said they will continue on their mission following the rescue.
“My wife told me, ‘Go home’, I told her, ‘No, we continue’,” he said.
The boat departed from Vanuatu on August 29 and the group rescued one week after their departure.
