Gosh, this is becoming a theme. Intrepid sailors/hikers/tourists/scientists/ecologists head for the Arctic with intent to show the world how the Arctic is melting, get stuck in/on the ice, or hopelessly battered, and end up needing rescue by those evil fossil fuel belching rescue ships, helicopters, and planes.
Our latest episode: Yatch Fiona
Last night, 16 Aug, we got hopelessly trapped by the ice. Despite a favorable ice report we encountered 8/10ths ice, with many old, i.e. large, bergs. We spent the night tied to one of them but had to leave this morning when another ‘berg collided with us and tipped Fiona over. We got away but the space around us is shrinking. I called the Canadian Coast Guard at noon and they are sending an icebreaker, due here tomorrow. We are NOT in immediate danger.
I hate it when that happens.
Reading this guy’s website http://www.yachtfiona.com/
I’m not really sure what his mission is, except perhaps publicity, boat funding, and selling DVD’s.
His current shtick does seem to be connected to the Green Ocean Race. They write:
The purpose of the GOR is to publicize two things:
1. Within a generation or two the world will have to learn how to get by without fossil fuels.
2. The result need not be the social and political chaos predicted by some thinkers and writers, technical solutions are in sight.
The means to achieve the publicity will be a transoceanic race for sailboats, possibly power boats, in which all energy consumed on board will be generated on board. The publicity surrounding the race will emphasize that the boats are alone in the vastness of the ocean, rather like the earth sailing through space in a few decades. The crew will enjoy all the comforts of home by utilizing the energy available from the ocean and the sun. The preparation for the race will require ingenuity to harvest the energy most efficiently and design the most energy-miserly ways to cook, communicate and operate the boat. These preparatory stages will also be a rich area for pre-race publicity.
GOR, heh.
Check out Al Gore’s houseboat. Ben-Hur couldn’t row this thing:
Well, I think publicizing that the Arctic has beaten one of the GOR participants is probably unintentional.
h/t to WUWT reader Mike Odin
Gary Hladik (17:41:35) :
“Ice, shmice. What I want to know is how the sea lion in the lead photo is clinging to the side of that rock. Since when do sea lions have spider powers?”
Good spot Gary! The obvious answer is that it is moving its habitat upwards in response to global sea level rise…
I am happy that he is safe in the arms of industrial civilization and warm in the fossil-fueled heat of a Canadian ship. However, these Bozos (Bozo was a clown) should have to PAY for the cost of their rescues whenever they attempt stunts against the advice of the Coast Guard.
I am expected to pay more for insurance if my life choices (diet, exercise, driving habits) are not correct.
for our Canucks , One Beers for this table.
“Check out Al Gore’s houseboat. Ben-Hur couldn’t row this thing.”
I think Al Gore was being unfairly criticised when someone said he doesn’t believe his own lies of a 20 ft sea rise, as immediately after releasing his “inconvenient” … what was it? truth?, he bought a multimillion beachside mansion in San Francisco.
That he has bought this Noah’s Ark obviously means he intends to save as many polar bears and other animals as possible.
Phil. (19:33:47) :
Rick Sharp (10:59:00) :
Got an e-mail from Sprague Theobald this morning. Not going much better for him.
Actually it’s gone much better for him, he’s clear of ice and entered Gjoa Havn last night and has clear sailing through the rest of the passage.
I checked where Gjoa Havn was on Google and then the ice picture on IJIS. I don’t think he has clear sailing as yet. There is a little more ice for him to negotiate. But he has almost a month more of ice melt to go. He could wait for a bit.
George E. Smith (17:08:30) :
“Mallory was one of my boyhood heroes,” Mine too and Hillary. Not so sure about Captain Scott though. But the point about them was that they were genuine adventurers exploring the unknown using only their own resources. There were no cuddly, carbon-powered rescue services to rescue them from their adventures.
The most admirable failure was surely Ernest Shackleton who self-rescued his whole Antarctic expedition without losing a man after his ship had been destroyed by ice. That story, as told in ‘South’, is a true and inspirational epic.
Regards
Justin Sane (20:11:14) :
“Who issued the forecast, Greenpeace?”
I bet it was the Canadien Ice Service.
There was no sudden “expansion” of ice. Wind pushed ice towards coastline where these boats were travelling. The Bagan with radar and strong engine fared much better and seems to be free now.
Rick Sharp (10:59:00) :
Got an e-mail from Sprague Theobald this morning. Not going much better for him.
Actually it’s gone much better for him, he’s clear of ice and entered Gjoa Havn last night and has clear sailing through the rest of the passage.
I checked where Gjoa Havn was on Google and then the ice picture on IJIS. I don’t think he has clear sailing as yet. There is a little more ice for him to negotiate. But he has almost a month more of ice melt to go. He could wait for a bit.
Unless of course he has come from the Alaskan side? In which case he is clear
Just checked it he is coming down greenland way. It doesnt show any sea ice upto Gjoa Havn. The ice starts from there. So I dont know how you say “clear sailing through the rest of the passage”.
What he has written on his blog is “we have a clear shot down Ross Strait to Gjoa Haven!
Menu: The last three days: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Tonight: Steak!”
the Clear shot was upto Gjoa Haven, not beyond.
Richard (03:30:13) :
“Just checked it he is coming down greenland way. It doesnt show any sea ice upto Gjoa Havn. The ice starts from there. So I dont know how you say “clear sailing through the rest of the passage”.”
They sailed the strait from north to south, so ice is behind. Have you ever used a compass and map?
Latest ice chart for Queen Maud:
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/WIS138C/20090820000500_WIS138C_0004529124.gif
Richard (03:30:13) :
Just checked it he is coming down greenland way. It doesnt show any sea ice upto Gjoa Havn. The ice starts from there. So I dont know how you say “clear sailing through the rest of the passage”.
What he has written on his blog is “we have a clear shot down Ross Strait to Gjoa Haven!
Which it was and he reached Gjoa Havn without further problems, the way west is clear if you look at the charts and also the reports of the other boats that have come that way. Fleur Australe has already headed that way ahead of him and had clear water all the way to Dolphin & Union Strait where they’ll have the remnants of last week’s ice and that should be it.
Stoic (00:39:01)
I agree, Shackleton was the man. His 1914 expedition set out to be the first to cross Antarctica. Here is their advertisement: “Men wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” 5000 men and 3 women applied.
They set out from the United Kingdom in August 1914, just as the First World War was beginning. Soon after arriving in Antarctic waters, their ship, Endurance, gets trapped by the ice in Jan 1915. After heroically trying to save it, they abandon it in Nov 1915 as the pressure of the compacting ice crushed the hull. They established camp on an ice floe hoping to drift towards the open sea or an island, and when their ice broke apart in April 1916, they went into their lifeboats and sailed to Elephant Island (about 600 miles SSE of Cape Horn).
Leaving 22 men behind, many sick and malnourished, Shackleton and five crewman set sail immediately from Elephant Isl in a 20 foot open life boat to South Georgia Isl (of Falkland War fame). They sailed through a hurricane, enduring 50 foot seas, and navigated precisely to S.G. Isl by 8-9 May. They landed on the southern coast, which was unpopulated. Rather than risk going to sea again, Shackleton and two men set out on foot and hiked over a mountain range to a Norwegian whaling station – a feat not replicated until 1954. Immediately, he set about organizing a rescue of the men at Elephant Isl and those men were evacuated in August without a loss of life. Shackleton then returned to Britain to fight in the war.
His account, as noted by Stoic is “South.” I recommend reading it and having your teenage children read it. It can get a little dry, the photography excellent, the heroics between the lines, but it defines toughness.
“jlc (09:24:41) :
Sorry, but “the yacht fiasco” is not Canadian registered. It’s crew is not Canadian.
I. however, am Canadian and I pay taxes – lots and lots of taxes.
The last thing I want is Canadian taxes being expended to save these losers from their appropriate and Darwinian fate.”
Me too. I hope they get a bill from the Canadian Coast Gard!!
Lance 13 13 40):
Thankyou for your information; you’d think, though, that there’d be some way of insisting on rescue insurance, wouldn’t you?
RichG (09:30:03) :
I like this from the link you provided:
“Remember, nothing is constant but change”
No…really.
I did not realize the Al Gore had bought himself a pleasure craft boat. I looked it up online, what a hoot! A luxury item that screams(!) “Hey, look at me! I’m rich (and you’re not)!” And the picture of himself he plastered on the side of this tub! I will be laughing about it for days. I can’t post the photo since it is copywrited, but here is the linK:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tennysonhayes/3416394866/
He looks like some sort of Hindu priest! I guess he likes that image of himself. People, this guy is dangerous. He cares nothing for the planet, only for himself. His actions aimed at personal enrichment speak for themselves. If you live in the US now is the time to get in the ear of your US Senator and start screaming against the Cap and Trade extortion. And don’t let up.
Just for the record, today the sun has been spotless for forty days in a row and counting.
Recent peer reviewed scientific reports have indicated that our oceans are currently losing more energy than receiving.
I am extremely curious what the next NH winter will bring.
There have been times when entire armies walked the ice between the European Continent and Britain, where ships were caught in the ice unable to leave the harbor, rivers froze up and markets and fairs were held on the ice that covered the river Thames.
I know the Thames is deeper now and flowing faster, so a repeat of such a condition is hardly possible, even during a long period of severe frost, but I often think about the romantic winter landscapes painted by Dutch masters with people skating on the Dutch Canals from October to early May.
Ron de Haan (08:20:39) :
“There have been times when entire armies walked the ice between the European Continent and Britain.”
When was that then? Thames, yes. English Channel, surely not.
Then it is not a theory, it is a hypothesis. Calling your hypothesis theory is as bad as calling AGW theory; neither pass the criteria to have such a label.
Ron
Ships froze in harbours, ice stretched five miles into the channel but I have not heard of armies walking across during the LIA.
“In Lorna Doone, R D Blackmore records the “Great Winter” of 1683-4 – the coldest of all – when the soil of south-west England froze a yard deep and ice covered the English Channel five miles out from each coast. Those were the times when Henry VIII could drive a carriage on the Thames, and Elizabeth I could take a daily constitutional on it in 1564-65. A century later an enterprising publisher made a tidy haul by selling punters – including Charles II – slips of paper emblazoned with their names and the words “printed on the Thames”.
Best regards
Tonyb
Stoic (08:40:35) :
TonyB (09:14:41) :
Sorry, you are right.
It was the Swedish Army invading Denmark:
http://www.climate4you.com/ClimateAndHistory%201600-1699.htm#1658:%20Swedish%20ice-bourne%20invasion%20of%20Denmark;%20the%20Treaty%20of%20Roskilde
The last time the Thames froze was in January 1963 on the Western side of London. Somebody drove a Mini across.
An interesting PDF file about historic ice bound army crossings can be found here:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/k60lkk031q4516n7/
It has happened more often than I could imagine.
Abstract Seven more-or-less well documentated cases of the use made of icebound sea areas in winter for the purposes of warfare are reviewed. The sea-ice crossings took place in 1495, 1577, 1581, 1658, 1809, 1940, and 1943, i.e. the first five occurred during the Little Ice Age. A book authored by a prominent Swedish personality (Archbishop Olaus Magnus) and published in 1555 says that warfare on frozen sea areas in winter by the Muscovites (Russians) and Swedes was as common as warfare by ships on the open seas in summer. There are indications of some crossings of ice-bound seas prior to 1495 and not necessarily for warlike activities. It seems that the Vikings too did some sea-ice crossings.
The crossings of 1495, 1577, 1581, and 1940 involved the Gulf of Finland, that of 1809 the Gulf of Bothnia and the Aaland Islands area of the Baltic, that of 1658 the Danish Belts, and that of 1943 the Gulf of Taganrog in the Sea of Azov. In the first three cases the powers concerned were Muscovy (Russia) and Sweden which for centuries were fighting for supremacy in the Baltic and over the routes from the inner Baltic (Gulf of Finland and Bay of Riga) to western Europe. The case of 1809 involved, again, Russia and Sweden, though in the background of the conflict between the two were wider European issues of the Napoleonic wars. The 1658 crossing of the frozen-over Danish Belts was accomplished by the Swedes, forcing the Danes into submission: In the ensuing Peace Treaty Sweden for the first time in her history achieved her present territorial extent in the Scandinavian Peninsula. The case of 1940 was connected with the 1939–40 Winter War of Soviet Russia against Finland. The crossing of 1943 was made by German forces retreating from the Caucasus under the pressure of Soviet forces in World War II.
The crossings of 1577, 1581, 1658, 1809, 1940, and 1943 took place between late in January and late in March; the case of 1495 appears to have taken place early in the winter season: probably late in November. Since in the period 1931–60 no part of the Gulf of Finland froze over before about the middle of December, the early date of the crossing of 1495 is possibly one of the many indications of cold winters during the Little Ice Age.
OT, Blizzard to hit Chili on Friday:
http://www.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=rss&article=8
REPLY: looks like a case of “Chili tonight, hot tamale”. – A
“”” Brian Epps (08:50:52) :
George E. Smith (16:26:04) :
Just a theory though; never tried it out in a lab; but that would result in the assymmetrical curve that we see from NSIDC
Then it is not a theory, it is a hypothesis. Calling your hypothesis theory is as bad as calling AGW theory; neither pass the criteria to have such a label. “””
You use your words and i’ll use mine. My “theory” was a description of a possible model that would behave as I proposed. If you want to hypothesizew that my model reasonably represents what the real world does; you may do that. To me it was just an idea.
These high school science class labels that people want to put on everything; to create the illusion that they are doing science, are just that; high school science class labels; like “anthropogenic” for example instead of man-made, or “diurnal” for daily.
I belong to the AAAS, and get both the dead tree and on-line versions of SCIENCE.
Almost any paper abstract in that journal, would qualify for the Bullwer Lytton BS Prize.