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
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
DaveF (09:45:23) : said
“The last time the Thames froze was in January 1963 on the Western side of London. Somebody drove a Mini across.”
You are being London centric Dave.
I have walked across the Thames a number of times-the last one around 2000 at Pangbourne in Berkshire. The river is very wide here.
Tonyb
Sending a bill for their rescue might make the Fiona and Catlin folks think twice: click
Phil. (05:37:59) :
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”.
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.
Phil you are obviously an armchair traveller who belittles the dangers ahead. The way west is not clear as per the Ice cover map. I dont know what chart you are referring to – have a look at the IJIS site.
The way upto Gjoa Havn shows no ice whatsoever. To the west it shows it spotty but there.
Here is what he has written in his blog
“..never have I been so glad to hear the engine shut down. Two days ago we powered into thick, impenetrable ice which just as quickly closed in around us. WHAT WAS SUGGESTED WOULD BE 2/10THS COVERAGE WAS ACTUALLY 9/10THS COVERAGE. At one in the morning we completely ran out of options. We would find a lead, then force our way down to it at 1-2 kts, sometimes over and through the ice, only to find that what we thought was a lead had completely frozen over, thus forcing us to find a new lead.
Making our way through this solid ice barrier was beyond nerve-wracking in that the protestations from the ice were heard in the forms of shrieks, screeches, explosions and deep powerful shudders. If any of the ice bits found their way to our exposed stabilizers, propellor or rudder the potential damage could have bordered on the unthinkable. Time and again we’d fight for 500 yards, only to have it taken from us at the last minute, finding that the lead ahead had closed in the 10 minutes we’d been trying to get to it. Bagan had taken a complete battering all day long and when we found she was inexorably trapped. Not being able to move forward or backward we shut down the engine and anchored onto a floe, 1 ½ miles from shore.
In 17 hours we had traveled 18 miles. We tried to sleep. THE ICE WAS FIRM ENOUGH TO WALK ON ..We received an email from a boat 60 miles north of us. SHE WAS SO SOLIDLY PACKED IN AND WAS BEING DRIVEN TO SHORE. SHE HAD TO CALL THE CANADIAN COAST GUARD TO SEND AN ICE BREAKER TO FREE THEM UP. ..”
In my view a “theory” is simply a description of the behavior of a fictitious model; that describes the rules for manipulating the variables of that model to predict (maybe exactly) how the model will behave; in any situation governed by the defining set of rules for that “theory”.
If there is going to be any hypothesizing going on, it will simply be to hypothesize that some aspects of the real universe appear to behave in a similar fashion to the fictitious model.
What is so hard about that ? The real universe itself, is far to complex, and chaotic to ever hope to write a theory about.
George
Phil you are obviously an armchair traveller who belittles the dangers ahead. The way west is not clear as per the Ice cover map. I dont know what chart you are referring to – have a look at the IJIS site.
Yes IJIS, ice Canada and Modis all show what I said, clear from GH to Dolphin& Union then the remnants of last week’s ice around Lambert Island (as Fleur Australe has found coupled with rough water and fog).
I don’t know why you found it relevant to quote what the ice was like north of King William Land a couple of days ago, Bagan isn’t going back that way!
Modis image below:
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?2009232/crefl1_143.A2009232193500-2009232194000.250m.jpg
Yipee!!!!!! No need to be embarrassed this time, no Brits were involved!
Although it has to be said, “other” things in life have embarrassed many of us recently! So on behalf of those, I apologise, but our hands were tied.
AtB
TonyB (11 19 46)
I’m sure you’re right, Tony – in fact I have seen a frozen Thames in the upper reaches myself since 1963. It was your earlier post mentioning Henry VIII and Elizabeth 1 that prompted me to correct the impression that someone might have got that such events haven’t happened since. I think 63 was the last time anyone drove cars on the Thames, though – some even towing skiiers at Windsor!
DaveF
I remember seeing a car being driven across Windsor great park lake in 1963. I also remember walking across it some time in the early 90’s.
It will be interesting to see if those days return-I remain an agnostic on the significance of the current lack of sun spots.
Tonyb
Phil. (21:30:24) :
You maybe right. I was looking to the north of Gjoa Haven. Didnt see the narrow passage along the Canadian coast.
However the Fleur Australe seems to be blocked at the moment by ice in the Dolphin straight.
“Blocked by ice
By Geraldine on 20 August 2009, 21:14 – News from the Fleur Australe – 20 August Yesterday 17:00. We are in the strangulation of Dolphin Strait. Wind south-east is positive, excluding the ice of the earth. If we manage to reach the peak, it should relax. We look for the flaw in this impenetrable ice.”
A couple notes:
http://www.theoceans.net/ may be a good site to see reports on the various NW passage attempts this year.
In New Hampshire, the state’s Fish & Game Division is in charge of helping lost and injured hikers out of the woods. Their primary funding is from the sale of fishing and hunting licenses, so they charge the people they rescue based on the expense and stupidity of the people getting themselves into needing rescue. This can be pretty expensive when the helicopters are called out.
I’m not sure how successful the collection attempts are, but I know that some people do pay.
Just an observation about the Fleur Australe attempt.
This French couple are attempting the passage with their 4 children aged 12, 9, 2 and 9 months and their “mascot”, a dog that looks like a terrier.
Marion the mother in her last post writes “…We followed the coast as closely as possible”, “..we slalom in the ice, becoming thicker old ice”, “rocks starboard, ice to port”, “..Cape Bexley was completely blocked, we retrace our steps to find a channel that would allow us to move seaward.Severe shaking, Laura and Marion are awake, too noisy. Philou requires concentration must calm the children, avoid coming and going in the wheelhouse.”, (Laura is 2 and Marion 9 months)
“..We pray. ..We must advance at all costs before night falls.”, “We try the great escape.”, “..Our mind is concentrated on one point, pass and move forward, to overcome this tangled maze of ice.”,
“.. night has fallen, are hitting an iceberg. This becomes dangerous…” With a grappling hook they manage to anchor onto a large floe. Then lose the hook later. There are large swells in the morning. “Nina and Wolf are sick, they are lying in their bunk..” (Nina is 12 and Wolf? Loup? is 9).
The last entry “Always the heavy swell. Philou” (the husband and master sailor), “said he had never seen a sea so hard together with so little wind, he adds: “(have?)faith sailor!”
This couple need to be arrested for child abuse. They have no right to put the children through such danger.
Apparently Capt. Philippe Poupon, (Philou), is a famous master sailor and has designed his 60 foot Fleur Australe himself with 15 millimetres of steel. With that he has managed to push his way through a lot of ice in in Cambridge Bay, which claimed other boats attempting it. Still I dont think he has the right to put his family through the clear danger that they are in. The ice could crush 15 millimetres of steel if they got trapped in it.
Richard (12:33:35) :
Apparently Capt. Philippe Poupon, (Philou), is a famous master sailor and has designed his 60 foot Fleur Australe himself with 15 millimetres of steel. With that he has managed to push his way through a lot of ice in in Cambridge Bay, which claimed other boats attempting it. Still I dont think he has the right to put his family through the clear danger that they are in. The ice could crush 15 millimetres of steel if they got trapped in it.
He certainly is famous I recall him sailing with Tabarly in the dim and distant past. It wasn’t Cambridge Bay though, I think he’s more qualified to judge how much danger he’s putting his family in than you or I.
“I think he’s more qualified to judge how much danger he’s putting his family in than you or I.”
That’s what Michael Jackson’s supporters said after he held his baby over the balcony.
Phil. (15:52:28) :
He certainly is famous I recall him sailing with Tabarly in the dim and distant past. It wasn’t Cambridge Bay though, I think he’s more qualified to judge how much danger he’s putting his family in than you or I.
Oh yeah? This is from his wife’s blog – who is right there with him, unlike you. “..we slalom in the ice, becoming thicker old ice”, “rocks starboard, ice to port”, “..we retrace our steps to find a channel that would allow us to move seaward. Severe shaking, … ”
“..We pray. ..We must advance at all costs before night falls.”, “We try the great escape.”, “..Our mind is concentrated on one point, pass and move forward, to overcome this tangled maze of ice.”,
“.. night has fallen, are hitting an iceberg. This becomes dangerous…”
We must advance at all costs, escape, danger these are the words she uses. If the boat can withstand any amount of ice, why that desperation to “escape”? 15 millimetres doesnt sound like an awful amount to me. A little more than 1/2 an inch for you americans. I dont know how thick the Titanic was but I think it was more than 15 mm.
He sounds like the Captain of the Hesperus
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/Wreck.htm
Well, he (and his wife) can put themselves (their family) in whatever situation “they feel is proper” (Note: “Safe” will not necessarily be “proper”) but I’d not ever want to trust a boat deliberately run into ice-filled polar waters with only a thin 15 mm of steel between me and death.
So does this mean that the NW Passage was open and navigable in ’09? Does it get an asterisk because it took an ice breaker to get through? If the goal has moved that much, maybe next year they can take an ice breaker themselves.
I can see the adventure end of it, and the Arctic is pretty amazing. There is also this thing called self rescue. What if the ice breaker couldn’t get there? What if he died? Could you imagine the scene after they crashed and sunk as Mom drags the young kids from ice flow to ice flow while dodging starving polar bears ? Yowza. I don’t think that taking two kids two and under into the obvious dangers there is within the bounds of what most people would call good judgment.
Capt. Poupon has got through thank goodness. They are at Pearce Point in the Amundsen Gulf. Blue skies, blue sea and ice free from now on. Nice picture of them on the shore and Geraldine swimming in the 3 degree water. She is an actress apparently.
http://www.fleuraustrale.fr/
Yacht Fiona Causes Canadian Coast Guard to Burn $25000 in Fuel During Rescue from Ice, Then Gives Them the Finger
Ironically, Capt. Forsyth is the founder of the Green Ocean Race. He called the CG for a rescue when his sailboat got caught in the ice while navigating the Northwest Passage.
http://www.aroundtheamericas.org/story/Crew+Log+71+-+Oscar+Bay%2C+Boothia+Peninsula
“…one of the Laurier crew, in an aside, mentioned that the ship had burned $25,000 of fuel last week when it went to the aid of a 42-foot sailboat called Fiona, skippered by Eric Forsyth.
“That one perked up our ears.
“We met Eric and his crew the other day in Cambridge Bay and had breakfast together. They were headed west; we were headed east. Eric mentioned that Fiona had become lodged in ice, a situation he described as “anxious-making.” He continued: “The thing about sailing in the Arctic is that you can do everything right and something might happen out of your control and you might lose your boat.” After two months up here ourselves, we couldn’t agree more. And we did know the Laurier had headed toward Peel Sound when Fiona and another boat, a motoryacht called Bagan, were more or less stuck in the vicinity. But this was the first we’d heard that they were responding to a distress call issued by Fiona.”
“…some of the crew aboard the Laurier apparently experienced similar misgivings after burning massive amounts of fuel, and then watching in surprise, en route to Fiona, as the 42-footer suddenly approached them, having extricated herself successfully from the ice. They were relieved for the crew, but it was pretty clear they would’ve appreciated a call.”