Things are not exactly going to plan…
Published on 21.06.2009 - General Info
In the beginning, the three thrill-seekers thought it would be easy to find a decent piece of sea-ice to drift about on. But thing haven't gone to plan.
Certainly the idea behind their trip is original, to say the least  brilliant even: by drifting hither and thither on a piece of Arctic pack-ice, the three men would enjoy some unforgettable experiences and -as one might expect- they would also gather plenty of first-hand knowledge and experience about some of the immediate effects of climate warming.
But simply drifting where the ice floes, currents and winds take them just off the coast of Greenland is proving to be an adventure like no other.
To start with, the group had to go and find an area where the sea-ice was breaking up and in view of all the information doing the rounds about global warming, these areas should have been much closer to Tassilaq, which is where they went initially. But in fact, they had to take their kayaks and paddle towards the north-east to locate a fjord heading northwards.
Then, once they had reached an area that was less icy, the trio became stuck in the sea-ice close to the coast. But although the ice is breaking up as the season advances, any ice floes have turned out to be far too small to accommodate three men, two kayaks and all their equipment, even for a brief period. In the past few days, though, things seem to be going more their way.
At least that is what the expedition members reported on 16th June: "The expedition is not going to plan at all so far. We are stuck in the sea-ice, very close to the coast. On Sunday (it was, in fact, the 14th June  ed.), the going was really tough because the sea-ice had broken up into lots of little ice floes (5 to 10 metres), which meant we had to keep getting on and off them all the time. We were only covering about 200 metres an hour. On Sunday evening, we were at 65° 54.961 N 36° 06.216 W. We found a large ice floe (a piece of sea-ice) that was safe and habitable enough for us to set up camp and stayed there. Since then, any movement has been slow and dictated by the tides. Yesterday, a north-easterly got up and pushed us towards land. Overall, progress has been very poor: about 500 m in 36 hours. The weather was cold the day before yesterday and yesterday, but it's milder and overcast today. We had planned to head for the small islands in the north-east, but wanted to take as little risk as possible with the sea-ice, because travelling between the ice floes is dangerous. We will probably have to go south to get out of this very dense area of pack-ice. We are really experiencing what it means to drift with the sea-ice. Note: according to the ice map, the area is covered between 7 and 9 tenths by the sea-ice ..."
