March 25, 2010
Day 22. A Salty Swim
You have to love the Arctic Ocean - its never boring. The minute you think things are one way, they change and become something else. The rapidly varying conditions keep us on our toes if nothing else.
The good news: we did NOT drift south of 85 last night. Camped securely (?) at 85 degrees 11 minutes, we are 12 statue miles north of that thorn in our polar sides. Yipee! Unfortunately, we did still drift south, but this time only a half of a mile. Still, we were pleased were with our progress considering...
We went swimming in the Arctic Ocean for nearly an hour!?! It all started simply enough, I was navigating and managed to find a diagnol slab of ice. (Imagine some gigantic puzzle with about 30% of the pieces missing - you just try to connect touching corners.) Right about the same time I was congratulating myself on my ice spotting skills, the slab dead-ended with 50 meters of thin ice separating AJ, Darcy and I and North. We scouted to the west but nothing looked promising. To the east, thin ice as far as we could see.
'Drysuits?' Darcy asked although it really wasn't a question.
As Darcy and AJ catamaraned the sleds, I got in my drysuit and started the ice breaking process - physically breaking ice with my hands, arms, legs and body. Once across, the open water path needed to be widened, so we all set about the task of breaking a three sled width path. Next, gently lower the sleds into the water. So far so good. About one-third the distance across, a small solid piece of ice offered a stable point to pull the sleds with a long 100 foot rope we brought specially for this purpose.
Getting the sleds the rest of the way across - well, that's another story. We struggled for 40 minutes in the water pulling, pushing away small slabs of ice, grabbing and clawing our way across. It was physically exhausting. Worse, Darcy and AJ's Brenig suits sprung leaks and both had icey Arctic Ocean water seeping into their boots.
Finally, Darcy managed to climb out safely on the other side and pull everything relatively easy. But we still had wet feet and pants to deal with - a potentially deadly situation. AJ was worse off and already chilled extensively, so we got his drysuit off, his SD down jacket on and set him off running around to warm up. Darcy, although wet too, was warmer from his extreme efforts getting the sleds through the last 30' of the lead.
Finally, with everything sorted and stowed, we started off again - the best option to keep Darcy and AJ warm at this point. All told, we worked for nearly two hours to cross one simple lead.
We hope tomorrow brings sun, dry boots and flat ice!
Image: Darcy and AJ in their drysuits breaking ice.
The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by Bing with major support from the University of Plymouth, Terramar, Seventh Generation, Goal0, Atlas, Sierra Designs and Optic Nerve.
Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.
For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com
For information about guided Antarctic expeditions, please visit http://www.antarctic-logistics.com/
For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com
For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net
The good news: we did NOT drift south of 85 last night. Camped securely (?) at 85 degrees 11 minutes, we are 12 statue miles north of that thorn in our polar sides. Yipee! Unfortunately, we did still drift south, but this time only a half of a mile. Still, we were pleased were with our progress considering...
We went swimming in the Arctic Ocean for nearly an hour!?! It all started simply enough, I was navigating and managed to find a diagnol slab of ice. (Imagine some gigantic puzzle with about 30% of the pieces missing - you just try to connect touching corners.) Right about the same time I was congratulating myself on my ice spotting skills, the slab dead-ended with 50 meters of thin ice separating AJ, Darcy and I and North. We scouted to the west but nothing looked promising. To the east, thin ice as far as we could see.
'Drysuits?' Darcy asked although it really wasn't a question.
As Darcy and AJ catamaraned the sleds, I got in my drysuit and started the ice breaking process - physically breaking ice with my hands, arms, legs and body. Once across, the open water path needed to be widened, so we all set about the task of breaking a three sled width path. Next, gently lower the sleds into the water. So far so good. About one-third the distance across, a small solid piece of ice offered a stable point to pull the sleds with a long 100 foot rope we brought specially for this purpose.
Getting the sleds the rest of the way across - well, that's another story. We struggled for 40 minutes in the water pulling, pushing away small slabs of ice, grabbing and clawing our way across. It was physically exhausting. Worse, Darcy and AJ's Brenig suits sprung leaks and both had icey Arctic Ocean water seeping into their boots.
Finally, Darcy managed to climb out safely on the other side and pull everything relatively easy. But we still had wet feet and pants to deal with - a potentially deadly situation. AJ was worse off and already chilled extensively, so we got his drysuit off, his SD down jacket on and set him off running around to warm up. Darcy, although wet too, was warmer from his extreme efforts getting the sleds through the last 30' of the lead.
Finally, with everything sorted and stowed, we started off again - the best option to keep Darcy and AJ warm at this point. All told, we worked for nearly two hours to cross one simple lead.
We hope tomorrow brings sun, dry boots and flat ice!
Image: Darcy and AJ in their drysuits breaking ice.
The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by Bing with major support from the University of Plymouth, Terramar, Seventh Generation, Goal0, Atlas, Sierra Designs and Optic Nerve.
Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.
For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com
For information about guided Antarctic expeditions, please visit http://www.antarctic-logistics.com/
For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com
For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net