From the arcticmission reports, where they try to put the best spin on this colossal failure as reported by the BBC:
Pen Hadow sets sail for North Pole as Arctic ice melts
British explorer Pen Hadow and his crew have set sail from Alaska, in an attempt to become the first people ever to sail to the North Pole.
With Arctic ice melting at an unprecedented rate, previously inaccessible waters are opening up, creating the potential for their planned 5,500 km (3,500 mile) journey for the first time in human history.
Um, no. Here is the view of the North pole today, as reported by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC):
From NSIDC:
Cooler conditions, slower melt
A cooler than average first half of the month kept ice loss at a sluggish pace with little change in the ice edge within the eastern Arctic. Retreat was mostly confined to the western Beaufort and northern Chukchi seas. Ice extent remains above that seen in 2012 and 2007.
Here is the photo of the beached sailing vessel at the end-game:
http://www.arcticmission.com/follow-arctic-mission/
by Pen Hadow & Erik de Jong
Arctic Mission’s furthest North was 80 degrees 10 minutes North, 148 degrees 51 minutes West, reached at 22:04:12 (Alaskan Time, GMT-9hours) on 29 August 2017 by yachts, Bagheera and Snow Dragon II.
Arctic Mission moored its yachts to an ice floe on 29 August to conduct one of its 24-hour marine science surveys, while drifting with the sea ice. The strategy for any future northward progress had been to monitor the sea surface currents, sea ice, and weather conditions (both observed from the yachts and through satellites imagery downloaded onto our computers), and decide how to proceed as we approached the end of the 24-hour survey.
A meeting of the four skippers was held led by Erik de Jong, with Pen Hadow present, and it was agreed further northward progress would increase considerably the risks to the expedition, with very limited scientific reward. The decision to head south, back to an area of less concentrated sea ice in the vicinity of 79 degrees 30 minutes North, was made at 18.30 (Alaskan time).
Arctic Mission has demonstrated that commercial fishing and shipping vessels can now access and exploit a new, unexplored and vulnerable ocean region on the planet, the Central Arctic Ocean, due to the melting of its sea-ice cover. Approximately 1 million square kilometres of the Central Arctic Ocean is likely to have been ice-free this summer, having had year-round ice cover throughout human history until the 1980s, and likely has had for many tens of thousands of years.
The commercial activities made possible by this loss of summer sea ice puts at risk the extraordinary wildlife that has evolved to survive in this extreme environment. Polar bears, whales, seals, fishes, seabirds, invertebrates and microbes all contribute to a unique and special ecosystem which is unlike any other on earth.
Arctic Mission has undertaken an extensive oceanographic, wildlife and ecosystem research programme during the voyage, led by Tim Gordon of the University of Exeter (UK). This has included work on acoustic ecology, copepod distributions and physiology, microplastic pollution surveying, inorganic carbon chemistry, seabird range expansion and microbial DNA sequencing. Scientific findings will be released following comprehensive data analysis and formal publication in peer-reviewed journals in 2018/19.
It is believed Arctic Mission has sailed further north from the coastlines surrounding the Arctic Ocean than any vessel in history without icebreaker support.
Its vessels were the first to reach the international waters surrounding the North Pole (aka the Central Arctic Ocean), without icebreaker support and without freezing in.
Its vessels have set the first furthest north within the Central Arctic Ocean without icebreaker support.
Arctic Mission’s northernmost position was 590 nautical miles (678.5 statute miles) from the North Pole.”
Hadow is such a Leftist fool and has become the poster boy for showing how reality always trumps (pun intended) Leftist dogma…
He’s VERY lucky to have escaped death. Ice floes can grow extremely fast and often close in from behind blocking any possible retreat from advancing ice.
This year’s Arctic Ice Extent will not be “unprecedented”, with this year’s Minimum Arctic Ice Extent likely ranked the 6th lowest in the past 38 years (satellite data from 1979) and will likely be well over +1,000,000 KM^2 larger than the 2012 Arctic Minimum (which was caused by longest and strongest Arctic cyclone in 50 years…. not CO2 forcing).
Leftist will soon have some explaining to do once Arctic Ice Extents slowly recover to 1980’s levels once both the PDO and AMO are in their respective 30-yr cool cycles from 2019 and the weakest solar cycle since 1790 starts in 2021…
I can’t wait to hear Leftists’ excuses once Arctic Ice Extents soon show significant recovery.
Griff has already started to explain that for us. It’s only because this summer was colder then 2012, otherwise the ice would have melted even more !
Duh, yes.
So the underlying “trend” is still catastrophic but is being “masked” by unusual cold arctic weather.
Actually this year is not unusually cold, it is typically cold.
Ah, yes, Greg….
It’s that darned CO2 warming that’s causing the Arctic cooling…. because…. we’ll… umm…. “Polar Vortices!!”
That was the hilarious excuse made by Obama’s Science Advisor John Holdren to explain away extremely cold winter events under the Obama administration…
It sounds so sciency (TM).
This shows us only the underlying physics (with the warmonger had not so much ) namely that the ice from a certain thickness acts as a strong isolator and it therefore completely no matter whether it has -20 or – 30 degrees ( Celsius). The polar bears will be looking forward to -20 degrees. The temperature at the melting season was always close to the average, so no conclusions like “Griff” can be drawn. On the contrary, the last El Nino is not so long ago and also the Blob not, so that would expect warmer water with Bottom-Melt in the Arctic. But nothing since, the melt rate is ridiculously small:
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/forecasts/seaice/
I wrote in a comment months ago, that an event with long ice free waters in Fall will lead to more ice in the follow season, because the water has more time to cool out. I was right, to the second lowest ice cover in 2016 follows in 2017 a recovery, like 2012/2013.
Fact is that for the last few years while Arctic winters have been warmer than the mean quite often the temps were still well below freezing. During the same period summer temps have been at or below the mean. Alarmists don’t seem to understand that it will take temps above the mean during the summer months for the Arctic to become “virtually ice free”.
@SAMURAI – the explanation for why it’s getting cooler is simple: they elected President Obama in 2008 and that is when the Earth started healing. Right? Right?
Chris Turney, who led the faithful from the Guardian amongst others, on that ship of fools expedition to the Antarctic a couple of years ago has recently published a book on his exploits. I wonder if he will be donating the proceeds to repay the Australian government and others the costs of rescuing him.
They should have gone by submarine. The USS Skate surfaced at the North Pole on 17 March 1959 (see link below).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Skate_(SSN-578)
Yes, but look at the thickness of the ice on deck and continuous surrounding ice pack, hardly “ice free” conditions.#/media/File:USS_Skate_(SSN-578)_surfaced_in_Arctic_-_1959.jpg)
But it is definitely first-year ice, and very thin first-year at that, so that area was clearly open water in 1958 (though it was probably not situated exactly at the Pole).
Maybe Capt Hadow should have joined these folks in the 80’s when it was MUCH colder……
I don’t think Greg’s photo is from March, it may be from an August surfacing. This is from March:
The whole record of what surfaced where and when is totally confused, at least it was when I wrote https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/17/submarines-in-the-winter-twilight/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/04/26/ice-at-the-north-pole-in-1958-not-so-thick/
1970 was equally as cold as 57/58/87…… check out the term “rising through open water”….
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/science/18arctic.html
“It arrived at the North Pole on Aug. 5, 1970, rising through open water. On the ice, an impromptu Santa Claus in a red suit frolicked with crew members.
The submarine then sailed for the Siberian continental shelf, where it began its mission of secret reconnaissance.”
Oh. Add to other ‘cold’ years
1991 http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/uwdc/asl/PublishingImages/NorthPole1991.jpg
1992 http://navsource.org/archives/08/668/0866800.jpg
Is it me or does melting ice smell of BS?
They should have gone by Toyota Hilux like Jeremy Clarkson and James May.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear:_Polar_Special
IOW and respectively:
Playing loud music, cleaning slime off things, throwing empties overboard, burning charcoal on a barbie, shooting birds so they’ll go on the barbie and lastly, having mindless sex with each other.
Great innit…..
What, the ice thickness at the North Pole was then only 50 centimeters? How unforeseen!
Sure the arctic region is vulnerable, the worst imaginable manmade ecological disaster ever, Tsar Bomb, ravaged it in 1961. See
Now it serves as a unique laboratory of life for the next millions of years, with occasional oasis like this
‘…. is likely to have been ice free this summer ……’
(but we don’t know for sure)
By golly, these guys must be desperate to put a gloss on the debacle.
Missing ice found.
LOL, you made me think of a new headline. Ice found at North Pole!
Well hell, I just about won the deadpool on the Clown Hadow North Pole Stupidity Tour. Guess they ran out of Mezcal for their Arctic Oceanic Margaritas.
Well at least all the diesel they wasted was made from recyled tires which does sound like quite a good idea.
http://www.euroecofuels.com/about/
From Aug 16: Reaching the North Pole in a sailboat? Pen Hadow got to be kidding!
British explorer Pen Hadow and his crew have set sail from Alaska, in an attempt to become the first people ever to sail to the North Pole.
“With Arctic ice melting at an unprecedented rate, previously inaccessible waters are opening up, creating the potential for their planned 5,500 km (3,500 mile) journey for the first time in human history.”
How is the Arctic ice melting? Let us count the ways
Arctic ice minimum volume will be reached in a couple of weeks at more than 6000 km3, which is 1000 km3 more than 2015 and 1500 km3 more than 2016.
It was very warm in the Arctic above the 80th latitude last winter. Late summer two hurricane strength storms broke up a lot of ice up and transported it south to areas where it was bound to melt. The ice area reached a new low, except for the year 2012, but the ice volume hit a new all time low on Sep 9 2016.
2. Northern Greenland ice has already started growing
3 The ice mass on Greenland has grown more than 150 km3 above normal this season.
4. The average Arctic temperature above 80 degree latitude has already dipped below freezing.
5. The Arctic ice area will still decrease for another month or so since sea ice does not start forming until temperatures are -4 degree C, but the ice volume is near its minimum since snow season in the Arctic has already started, and new snow on ice stays, and fresh snow has a higher albedo than old, tired ice.
The North East Passage choke point Cape Chelyuskin is still blocked. That is one week later than last year and three weeks later than 2015
Pen Hadow and crew set sail out of Nome 0300 GMT Aug 15. My prediction: They will reach the 80 th latitude, a full 600 nautical miles short of their goal. https://lenbilen.com/2017/08/16/reaching-the-north-pole-in-a-sailboat-pen-hadow-got-to-be-kidding/
Re “arctic ice decreasing for another month or so” …. Obuoy 14 started showing the first freezing last week and had more on Wednesday … I’m sure this new ice melted again since it looked to be 2 -3 cm thick in one picture with an edge tipped up in the air. None the less scattered minor freezing is already happening in places. http://obuoy.datatransport.org/monitor#buoy14/camera
The DMI ice temperature product (IST) uses three thermal infrared channels from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on board the Metop-A satellite to calculate the surface temperatures in the Arctic.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/ice_temp/plots/icetemp.arc.d-00.png
I have one question: Is the taxpayer paying for this nonsense?
No but if their silly asses get stuck they will pay for their rescue more than likely if history is any indication.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/explorer-rescued-from-north-pole/
While looking for signs of intelligent life in the Arctic ocean (the area of the Hadow’s Arctic Mission spectacular ‘discovery’ of the Arctic ice existence) and regretfully finding none
astronomers turned to the rest of universe and have detected 15 fast radio bursts from a distant galaxy, reports Canadian CBS
The BBC appear to have “disappeared” the link to Hadow’s “success”.
I asked the BBC news environment comrades to give an update last week….. guess my request got lost along with the melted ice….
Also in the Dutch daily de Volkskrant (peoples daily) they praise the failure as a triumph. The two Dutch team members have now a ‘record’ they rather not had had. So sad.
I was going to follow this, but between the eclipse trip and the useless mission page (I forget what I found), I didn’t bother.
Time to pay attention to the northwest passage visitors this year at http://arcticnorthwestpassage.blogspot.com/?view=classic
Given all the ice retreat around the world 6,000 years ago, I’d put very little faith in this statement. See http://wermenh.com/climate/6000.html
Strange claim: “Approximately 1 million square kilometres of the Central Arctic Ocean is likely to have been ice-free this summer”.
MASIE shows the Central Arctic Sea maxes at ~3.25M km2 each March. The lowest it got in last decade was 2.62M km2 in 2012. Average minimum is 2.91M km2 for the Central Arctic. And it is not an ice cap, it is all drift sea ice.
https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/arctic-heart-beat/
I asked Jim Hunt this very thing,asking if they are lying about it,silence is all I got.
LOL
“Approximately 1 million square kilometres of the Central Arctic Ocean is likely to have been ice-free this summer”
I would dearly like to know where. It is certainly not anwhere between Baffin’s land and Taimyr. In this area there is reasonably good historical data, and there are no areas that have been ice-free in recent summers that haven’t also been occasionally in the past.
When looking how Capt Haddock sorry Hadow was getting on last week I couldn’t remember the daft name of his “mission” so I googled “mission north pole arctic” and came across a group of intrepid boaters heading up into the arctic waters in completely unsuitable vessels and thought these must be the fools…… turns out there are many ship of fools.
http://www,arcticmission.com with Pen Hadow have failed to get further north than 80deg due to “very cold solid water” (ice in old speak).
http://www.missionarctic.com with similar ideas to the above have failed to get further north than 80deg and failed to sail through the northwest passage due “very cold solid water” and “none favourable atmospheric conditions” (bad weather in old speak).
Strange that rather than finding decimated populations of emaciated polar bears both “missions” found live healthy polar bears that basically were doing polar bear type stuff – like lounging about on ice flows, having cubs, swimming, eating, etc.
But don’t worry Pen never said he was sailing to the North Pole as it was always a pre-planned failure. The north pole line was just the media ‘hook’ to get interest. He had to get back by next week as he is getting married….. what a muppet :-)))))
sorry http://www.arcticmission.com
However, Jeremy Clarkson and James May made it in a Toyota Hilux. They were assured they would never survive due to melting ice. It seems the trip is possible if the fools select the right vehicle.
Well, that was a prime example of putting lipstick on a pig. Reads like the good folks who have lived around there forever never used an even smaller boat to go out into the ocean and do a lot more work.
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale
a tale of a fateful trip,
that started from this arctic port,
aboard these tiny ships.
The mate was a mighty sailin’ man,
Four Skippers brave and sure,
five passengers set sail that day,
for a three week tour,
a three week tour.
The weather started getting cold,
the tiny ships were tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
the Bagheera would be lost.
And, The Snow Dragon II would be lost.
+1
Those were the days of nonpartisan, nonpolarizing entertainment……..and the Professor was more trustworthy.
So trustworthy that he could build all kinds of things from a phonograph to an electroencephalograph from coconuts, bamboo, and scraps of metal but could never repair and refloat the Minnow. I think he didn’t want off the island until he had a go at Mary Ann. Can’t say I blame him.
Listening to these maroons, one gets the impression that prior to this year, accessing any portion of the arctic ocean was impossible.
It’s 2 to 3 weeks too early to make the call, but it looks like sea ice levels are already bottoming out. About 2 weeks early.
What are these people smoking?? They’re like a bunch of flat-earthers setting boldly out to sail off the edge of the world – every year – and always confused that they wind up back at the same place. They quite literally and badly need to be recommended for professional psychiatric evaluation. I mean they only have to look at a satellite image to know that there’s no route to the pole at this particular time in history. Stark raving, burbling, honking and quacking at the moon insane.
The question I have is what are the sponsors of these people thinking? After meandering about a bit they are now headed south.
http://www.arcticmission.com/follow-arctic-mission/
Their original mission statement said they would sail the north pole:
Then they said they would sail around the north pole:
Now it looks like they’ve decided to run away, run away!
But surely they go a lot of science work to do!
Jim Hunt keeps telling us that………..
Snicker.
These science types don’t trust satellite pictures, or historical records.
Their voyage was based on wishful thinking… like so much of the alarmists’ views. Nature gave them another reality check. Some people just take longer to learn things.
The Mission of the Geographically Impaired for the education of the geographically challenged was successful. The next educational mission is to the moon by way of a high altitude plane ride. There will be lots of pictures and highest ride milestones since the 1970s moon missions.