UPDATE: kayakers already “stuck” in ice at 80.52397 degrees N
I had this post up for all of an hour before this news rolled in from PolarDefense. Hat tips to Tom Nelson, who’s report is presented below, and to Brian Koochel in comments. – Anthony
“We’re stuck”
I have slept poorly. The floating ice, while thin, is so prevalent that, throughout the night, it grinds noisily against the side of the boat in a slightly alarming fashion – imagine someone scraping their nails across an old-fashioned blackboard.The then begins earlier than normal and, unusually, I am not woken by Robbie bounding into my room. Instead the ship’s engine roars to life earlier than normal – at around 5.30 – and the MV ‘Havsel’ begins to judder ominously. I clamber out of bed and scramble up to the bridge – all the ship’s crew are there, and they look serious. I look outside and I can see why. The sea is almost entirely congested with ice floes – I would estimate 80% plus of the sea is covered by them. There is a real risk that we could get stuck up here. We have drifted in the night into a much icier area than where we stopped last night. I wake up the team, and everyone groggily makes their way to the bridge. There’s a mixed reaction in the team to the prospect of getting stuck up here.
See the location on Google Maps, 80.52397, 12.21224
After awaking to find their vessel frozen in ice the team are steaming around looking for a path that’s navigable by kayak.
No paddling today.
At about 69 miles per degree of latitude, it would seem that they’re still 600+ miles from the North Pole.
My original post follows:
Place your bets now folks. If only Robert Peary could have had CNN tag along. – Anthony
Entries from Sam Branson’s Arctic diary – In the mirror.co.uk
My split feelings about this news remind me of another paradox of my expedition up here – the fact that I am spending my days paddling in ice-cold water, with a frozen, painful backside, trying to bring to the attention of the world and its leaders the necessity of stopping the world heating up.
[Sept 1:] Travel this morning was tough. The temperature has dropped dramatically and each time the guys get in the water in is a notch harder. We are starting to see larger chunks of ice, which instead of weaving through, they have to paddle around. The occasional chunk hits the bow of the ship sending small pieces out to the side into the route of travel for our paddlers. One nearly knocked Lewis of his kayak. The water is now below zero and a spill could be quite painful. The moving water by the feet of the guys has started to freeze and this could take a toll on their much needed warmth. I know that Robbie has been struggling with his toes.
…
[Aug 31:] The ship is noticeably colder and we are all wearing an extra layer. I have been on deck loading the kayaks and boats back onto the ship. The water soaked ropes seep moisture into your gloves and it saps the heat from my hands fast. I can only imagine what it is like for Lewis and Robbie holding on to a cold paddle with waves crashing over them. The first thing Lewis said when he got back in was ‘I can’t feel my backside!’
…
[Aug 28:] Some may know this place from the book ‘The northern lights’ by Phillip Pullman, where he calls it, ‘The land of the ice bears’. From what I’ve heard, this name could not be closer to the truth. The boat we are on has just returned from a trip in the ice and along the way they encountered eighty eight bears.
Gosh, that’s a lot of bears.
Just in case you might be thinking the two kayakers are doing this all alone, on a shoe-string budget, with only strength and determination….
Here is the support vessel: 300-ton fossil-fueled MV Havsel
Polar Defense writes: The support boat we loaded our kit onto is not the QE2. She is an old fishing boat called MV ‘Havsel’ – this means ‘ocean seal’ in Norwegian. She is a tough, grubby, working boat with a strengthened hull and a big engine for a boat of her size – she will perform very well up in the pack ice.
Thanks to Tom Nelson for references in this story
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Russ Steele says it the best: “Darwinism at work!”
This ridiculous voyage in icebreaker kayak reminded me this story:
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/south-pole-tragedy.htm
Deepslope, I think this is an appropriate application of the very British word “Eccentric”.
Any data on August’s relative temps yet?
The Polar Defense blog claims that both the Northwest and Northeast passages are open.
http://polardefenseproject.org/blog/?p=142
Is this true?
Captain Obviousness (12:42:16) :
The Polar Defense blog claims that both the Northwest and Northeast passages are open. Is this true?
Looking at the AMSR-E Sea Ice Maps site it looks like it could be true
http://iup.physik.uni-bremen.de:8084/amsr/arctic_AMSRE_visual.png
How you obtain the position of kayaking in the artic, let me guess, it’s tax payer money and a science project?
Haha you know these people really crack me up…
Where is the logic in this trip?? Oh wait…there is none at all! If they wanted to make a big deal about it they should have gone kayaking when the ice was in the middle of melting, not at the end!
Clearly, common sense isn’t so common!
Yes when are the August temps coming out? There’s an article on CO2 sceptics talking about the current temperature being the same as it was in 1900…How is this possible? 1900 appears to be at a lower level than 2008 on the charts…
@anna v
The article you link to is written to make it sound like a sudden and recent catastrophic event has caused an ice shelf to suddenly and unexpectedly collapse.
It then goes on to say (much nearer the end) that in actual fact the ice shelf has been gradually shrinking for 100 years and 90% of it had already gone by the time of the recent shrinkage.
In other words the article has been written to trick people into thinking “oh my god the sky is falling the ice suddenly melted its unprecedented” and its that type of spin that gets people who read this blog annoyed.
Dummies. You stay out of the Arctic in Sept unless you are a sub or an icebreaker.
This ridiculous voyage in icebreaker kayak reminded me this story:
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/south-pole-tragedy.htm
I must be a horrible person because I could not stop laughing at this story.
REPLY: At the same website, ecoenquirer, try this story. Don’t drink any milk while you read.
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/levitating-islands.htm
This is so beyond absurd I’m wondering if this “eco” site isn’t actually designed to be like “The Onion” Ah…answered by own question:
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/Terms-Conditions.htm
-Anthony
M White (11:17:52) :
I’ve been wondering who is bankrolling this boondoggle. Perhaps this is a big clue. Gore has a thick skin, but “financers” tend to want something in return. It’s tempting to get us all in a big virtual circle and laugh at them.
A lot of the land down there might have been grassland 600 years ago, as before 1492 the natives were using fire in ways similar to how they burned north america from coast to coast. Look up “terra preta” for the rich soil which they created. How much of south america was grassland is unknown; a lot of trees can grow in 600 years.
http://motls.blogspot.com/2008/09/agw-activists-stuck-in-arctic-ice.html notes “Sam Branson, son of Sir Richard Branson, is sending his travel log to Mirror.co.uk.”
That may answer my financing question. Would Sir Richard notice the world laughing at him or is that just normal?
Manfred: I linked the debate, which I found very interesting. When warmers actually submit to such debate, it can be very illuminating. I share many of your impressions, including your reaction to the very arrogant gentleman near the end, who embodies the dogmatic adherence to AGW theory, and denigrates anyone holding beliefs other than his own.
A member of the audience made a strong case for “insuring” ourselves against catastrophe, however low the risk, by taking action now. Bob Carter, evidently from much practice, struck the right tone in response to such calls to “take action”, the need for which was echoed by several panelists. Carter points out that there is undeniably, a cooling trend occurring, a point never refuted by the others, and stated forcefully that we simply do not and cannot know what the climate is going to do well enough to “protect ourselves” against its exigencies.
To the extent that the surface and satellite records can support a statement that it is cooling, we can be thankful. That we must constantly question the degree of their accuracy is a continual irritation, especially when their problems are noticeable and fixable.
is it me, or the kayakers report “80% plus of the sea” covered by ice floes in an area that, according to Cryosphere Today, is empty of ice?
The east and west passages open?
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/deetest/deetmp.14319.png
West: As far as i can see, it was open perhaps 2 days up to around 28/8, thereafter it closed.
East: I opened around 29/8. And today it seems that it might soon close again.
So there may have been a very short overlap. But if the ice was studied as today in the 1930´ies and 40´ies which opening would have been found when??
But most important: To me 28/8 seems to be a turning point on the pictures. Allthough there has been some melting far east, northern Soviet, the overall new ice areas are definetely bigger!!
If you compare 28/8 with any day after 28/8 i think you see that 28/8 was the artic ice minumum.
Places og new ice: island north of Canada. Artic se North of Canada. in the 28/8 – 3/9 compare
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/deetest/deetmp.14319.png
you see that the entire iceline northeast of Svalbard/Spitsbergen has moved south. And many places along shorelines has icedevelopment begun over most of the artic area.
Unless there is some new story that “Ice extend 28/8 was shown too low”, then 28/8 appears to be a minimum on the pictures. I know this does not show on graphs, but i just tell what i see anyway 🙂
Am i right or do i need glasses??
Anthony: this is my favorite from ecoenquirer:
Click here for “His Excellency, Al Gore”
Great site, BTW. I try to read yours first, before getting depressed at BBC and CBC.
Manfred (09:54:37) :
“Offtopic:
1 hour of climate change debate at the geologists’ congress in norway:
http://www.33igc.org/coco/EntryPage.aspx?guid=1&PageID=5100&ContainerID=11823&ObjectID=12520
”
Astonishing. Loved it.
I just got to the 51 minutes mark…wow that is one oleaginous performance. We should all know who he is – as in know your enemy. I cannot place him.
Another brown nosed, blinkered, pompous bounder. And him.
We need a hard copy of this.
I would love to have a tinnie with Bob Carter and Henrik Svensmark.
As for the kayak kid and his little icecapade?
British farce. An ITV crew are with him and they can make a drama out of a crisis.
It will be a best seller.
Thank you, Mike. It looks like the NW passage is mostly all open, but a choke point may still be clogged. Hard to say.
jonk (13:58:50) :
“This ridiculous voyage in icebreaker kayak reminded me this story:
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/south-pole-tragedy.htm ”
Here’s another important story from that site:
EPA Seeks To Have Water Vapor Classified As A Pollutant
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/EPA-water-vapor.htm
Eco-Enquiring minds want to know
Greenpeace argues criminal damage protest was in the public interest
James Hansen is in Britain acting for the defence of 6 greenpeace activists who vandalised a power station.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics/greenpeace+argues+criminal+damage+protest+was+in+the+public+interest/2441812
The BBC did a television series in 2006 called IF. One of the programs was called “If the lights go out.” It was set in 2020, the pipeline bringing gas from Russia had been destroyed by terrorists. The program indicated that by that time Britain will have only one nuclear and one coalfired power station fully operational in this country, the rest of our electricity coming from gas fired power stations and renewables.
If we do have a number of cold and snowy winters this country will probably come to a stand still. Chaos on the roads and power cuts due to one snow fall breaking power lines are not uncommon.
Britains electricity supply supposedly has a capacity of 130%, but only last year several of our nuclear sites shut down for maintainance
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file_on_4/6205908.stm
Given the ‘consensus on global warming’ we may have a rude awakening much sooner than 2020.
James Hansen go home.
Vadim, thanks for introducing me to ecoenquirer,
i’ve been giggling for ages.
And well done for researching it Anthony. Respect, as usual.
Second time lucky
Greenpeace argues criminal damage protest was in the public interest
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics/greenpeace+argues+criminal+damage+protest+was+in+the+public+interest/2441812
None other than James Hansen is in Britain acting as a witness for the defence.
Captain Obviousness (12:42:16) and Mike Westrich (13:12:27
regarding the NW and NE passages being open simultaneously, there is a surprisingly balanced assessment at dot earth, saying ‘not quite’:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/open-water-circling-north-pole-not-quite/
The story of the fully navigable circumpolar seas appears to be one main argument for the upcoming UN resolution on sea level change put forward by small island states:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/sos_small_islands/98.php/?cl_tf_sign=1
Has there been any recent threat on the sea level change topic?