Achinov assured the participants that the sultan of Tadjoura, Mohammed Loitah, had permanently leased him land in the region.[7] On 10 December 1888, Achinov along with 165 Terek Cossacks boarded Kornilov, a ship heading from Odessa to Alexandria. The expedition then boarded the Russian ship Lazarev which brought them to Port Said. There, Achinov rented the Austrian ship Amfitrida, which entered the Gulf of Tadjoura on 6 January 1889.