Norwegian ‘Ship of Fools’ is still developing into a silly case of poor planning.

From Friends of WUWT from Norway

he Norwegian privately owned expedition vessel «Lance» was used to ‘rescue’ two polar ‘explorers’, the well-known Borge Ousland and Mike Horn, from the arctic floating ice field. They rendezvous’ed with the vessel about 100 km from the ice edge, just north of Svalbard on 8th of December. The two ‘explorers’ had actually planned to be taken on board a sailing vessel, after having entered onto the floating ice, in August, north of Alaska.

The two guys had gone by skis to the North Pole and then continued towards the southern ice edge on the Atlantic side of the floating ice. However, they encountered storms that transported the floating ice against their planned direction, and arrived a couple of weeks later than planned. Therefore they hired «Lance» to pick them up instead of the sailing vessel. The whole idea with the expedition was to prove how thin the ice is in the polar ocean. This means that the objective was actually to underline climatic alarmism.

But, what they may have not known, is that this time of year is the time of most ice accretion in the Arctic ocean, and on their return voyage towards the ice edge and open water, the ice floes froze and became solid. The «Lance» became firmly stuck in the ice, about 80 kilometers from the ice edge and is now completely stuck.

The latest information from the lame vessel, is that the captain on board, Mr. Stig Roaldsand, according to the newspaper VG (see: https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/BR2Wd0/kaptein-paa-lance-vil-evakuere-mann-om-bord-faar-nei-fra-hrs?utm_source=vgfront&utm_content=row-6) has demanded that all ‘passengers’ and un-necessary people on board the vessel shall be lifted off by helicopter as soon as possible (Source journalist: Oda Leraan Skjetne, VG). However, the two ‘explorers’ refuse to leave the vessel by helicopter, probably as it destroys the narrative of their journey. There is a pending snowstorm coming to the area north of Svalbard around Christmas Eve, and this makes heli-transport impossible at that time.

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ScienceABC123
December 19, 2019 7:42 am

Nature has a funny way of throwing a monkey-wrench into the plans of warmists.

John M
December 19, 2019 8:09 am

“The two guys had gone by skis to the North Pole and then continued towards the southern ice edge on the Atlantic side of the floating ice. ”
If they were true believers they would have gone on Jet Skis®.

Perry
December 19, 2019 8:33 am

Have fun tracking the R V Lance. Was expected to arrive Polisen, Norway on Dec 5, 07:00.

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/RV-LANCE-IMO-7638351-MMSI-258236000

tty
Reply to  Perry
December 19, 2019 10:20 am

No such place in Norway

“Polisen” means “the Polar Ice” in Norwegian.

So that tracking data is essentially correct. It has arrived and is still there.

Olen
December 19, 2019 10:18 am

Snap shots, ignorance and amnesia. Even if the polar ice is thinner it will not stay at that measurement. All liberal causes depend on people not knowing or remembering history and do depend on people only looking at the present.

Stunts like this present more danger than benefit especially if life is at stake and all people see is stuck in the ice.

Caligula Jones
Reply to  Olen
December 19, 2019 10:35 am

Every stunt like this shows how bad at math most people are – unfortunately, that seems to include scientists as well.

Like someone who breaks their neck while diving into a pool that is, on average, 15 feet deep…

jorgekafkazar
Reply to  Caligula Jones
December 19, 2019 1:05 pm

Are these scientists? Or Socialist useful idiots and propagandists?

Caligula Jones
Reply to  jorgekafkazar
December 19, 2019 1:49 pm

File that under “distinction without a difference”.

Funny, political science was what the policy wonks who ran for class president in middle and high school went for in college.

Now, political science means a politician with a typically over-hyped science degree that is awarded after a few decades of grade inflation and gold stars for showing up.

Reply to  Caligula Jones
December 20, 2019 9:47 am

And people who didn’t do particularly well in high-school but went to college, majored in “communications/journalism/political science” and were able to somehow graduate. Those are most of the people currently running the goobermint, lame-stream media & Hollywood.

Caligula Jones
Reply to  beng135
December 20, 2019 10:30 am

Well here in Toronto, some are lamenting the death of a liberal newspaper’s free giveaway commuter paper, launched with great fanfare only a year ago. Full of woke 20 something SJWs spewing the usual, it somehow didn’t catch on. Even liberal progressives can’t handle THAT much scolding I guess.

BTW, the parent’ company’s stock has crashed to 40 cents, from a high a few years ago of $28, and will soon be de-listed from our stock exchange.

Hopefully, this is a sign.

Unfortunately, we still have the tax-payer funded CBC which will survive until a real conservative government guts it like deserves to be gutted.

Hugs
December 19, 2019 12:44 pm

To tell you the truth, I would not like to ski nor sail in the polar night with polar bears.

Nor I would like to be at 82N at Christmas. It is like you wait for the morning for months.

This ship is not too small, let’s hope they make it comfortable there until they get loose.

MR166
December 19, 2019 2:00 pm

Gee a whole bunch of concerned climate scientists choose to be on ship in the middle of the arctic winter. Why is this ship powered by fossil instead of H2 or wind or Tesla batteries? I guess when THEIR lives are on the line renewables just won’t do.

kenji
December 19, 2019 3:23 pm

So … THIS is what the HOTTEST !!!! September … EVER … on Record looks like? Followed by the 2nd HOTTEST November EVER in the HISTORY of the PLANET!!!!

https://www.noaa.gov/news/september-2019-tied-as-hottest-on-record-for-planet

Perhaps it’s best to not take travel advice from NOAA. They seem to be, ah, well, ummm, inaccurate.

https://news.yahoo.com/november-2019-second-hottest-record-us-184751019.html
… adding that polar sea ice also shrank to near-record lows.

YOU are being LIED to!! Manipulated, mutilated, data to “prove” their desired “catastrophic” climate change

tty
Reply to  kenji
December 19, 2019 5:20 pm
Steve Z
December 19, 2019 4:40 pm

If Messrs. Ousland and Horn crossed the North Pole on skis, why don’t they ski southward to Svalbard?

Of course, it’s rather dark up there this time of year, so they should take lots of spare batteries for their flashlights. Get them charged up by burning some good ol’ fossil fuel before they leave the ship.

If they’re lucky, they can hitch a ride on Santa’s sleigh. Merry Christmas, and to all a good long night!

tty
Reply to  Steve Z
December 19, 2019 5:16 pm

“why don’t they ski southward to Svalbard?”

There is usually a strip of open water off NW Svalbard even in winter due to a branch of the Gulf Stream. They would have had to make landfall far to the east on Nordostlandet and then cross several hundred kilometers of glaciers, difficult mountainous terrain plus Hinlopenstraedet to get to Nyålesund or Longyearbyen:

https://cryo.met.no/sites/cryo.met.no/files/latest/svalbard_latest.pdf

It is feasible in spring with dog sleds (a friend of mine did about half of it and then back to Longyearbyen a few years ago), but not now in complete darkness.

December 19, 2019 7:04 pm

What explains the obsession of climate science with all aspects of Arctic ice and against all odds?

https://tambonthongchai.com/2019/12/16/global-warming-melting-greenland/

Martin Torvald Hovland
December 19, 2019 10:26 pm

Latest news today, Friday morning, is that a helicopter will go to the rescue of one man (if not more) from the ship, Lance. He is empty of essential pills (blood pressure). This is in accordance with the Captain’s orders two days ago. The helicopter will fly from Svalbard later today. (Source TV2 News). http://www.tv2.no

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Martin Torvald Hovland
December 20, 2019 12:36 am

He must have some serious BP issues if he has run out of the medication and has to be flown out for medical treatment. I wonder if they are beta-blockers, not the best in my experience, but everyone differs in that regard. I stopped taking medication I was given after a heart attack as it was causing too many other issues. I now take aspirin only and my BP is now down too ~138/82, which is very good for me.

StephenP
December 20, 2019 1:01 am

Why can’t they use automated measuring equipment such as used on the Mars Lander?
It could be placed on the ice in a suitable location and would cause much less disturbance to the local environment
Come to think of it, they could afford several sets of equipment placed around the Arctic for the cost of this ship-board jolly.

tty
Reply to  StephenP
December 20, 2019 2:22 am

This is not “research” in any way. It is a pure propaganda stunt. You don’t seriously think that they brought along a mobile drill rig to measure the thickness of the ice do you?

That is already being done by aircraft and satellites by the way:

http://www.cpom.ucl.ac.uk/csopr/seaice.html

Henning Nielsen
December 20, 2019 1:37 am

It’s worse than we thought; although Lance has drifted 3 miles southwards during the night, they still don’t have intrnet access. How they must suffer! However, the heroic ski boys refuse to leave the ship, fearing that a heli-ride might tarnish their climate-saving image. In Norwegian media, the last part of their trip was turned into cheap sit-com, with scary stories about their dangerous situation, almost as if a reader might think they would soon perish. They had a standing offer of being rescued by helicopter from Svalbard, so were never in real danger, unlike explorers of other times. But of course they had to struggle on, these boys have books to sell and lectures to hold and money to make!

EternalOptimist
December 20, 2019 3:21 pm

I guess when the hive is doing well it produces more drones.
Humans are doing very well at the moment , so we are seeing lots of drones

the workers look at the drones and get mad. bl**dy drones.

But , its a good sign really. although they can get a bit noisy and annoying

yarpos
December 21, 2019 10:44 pm

Who needs to plan when you “know” things will be a certain way? Wishfull thinking is a core characteristic of those wanting climate action now!!!

Johann Wundersamer
January 1, 2020 4:01 am

“The two ‘explorers’ refuse to leave the vessel by helicopter, probably as it destroys the narrative of their journey.

There is a pending snowstorm coming to the area north of Svalbard around Christmas Eve, and this makes heli-transport impossible at that time.”

____________________________________

Well done. The two Vikings in the snow storm will challenge Odin in all four cardinal wind corners.

Valkyries will raise them over the Bifröst and in the evening they will dine with the heroes in Walhalla!

https://www.google.com/search?q=bifr%C3%B6st&oq=bifroest&aqs=chrome.