Cape Farewell Youth Expedition 2007

Yep. that’s right…we all went swimming in the nordic sea last night….the temp was around 3 degrees celcius. our toes were frozen by the time we got out…and we were only in there for a few seconds!

today is our last day in Ny Alesund. The weather is incredibly nice again…just a few clouds. A group went up to the weather station this morning….hopefully they got a nice view of the landscape.

 We sail today for Longyearbyen at noon….we will be doing night watches in 2-hr sessions again to help the captain sail the boat. this will be tirying but exciting at the same time.

We collected climate data yesterday all day from 7am until 9pm. the students drew out this data with chaulk on the dock…and i plan to climb up the crow’s nest to take a photo and film it. should be fun!

This is my last blog until we reach Longyearbyen. It has been an adventure….I don’t want to leave this beautiful place but I guess all things must come to an end.

ciao!

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Suba’s dance inspired by the Kongsvagenbreen glacier.

Suba Subramaniam worked with the students to create a group dance/movement piece this afternoon. See the images below of the students practicing the dance piece and an image of the final piece. More soon…

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We have finally arrived in Ny Alesund! 

It was quite a lot of work to get here. The kids and the adults spent the entire night taking turns on night duty in 2-hour sessions. This involved waking up in the middle of the night, putting all their warm gear on, and standing on deck with the captain to help sail the boat, pull up sails and watch out for icebergs in the ocean around us. The kids worked really hard all night, and as a result, are very tired today.  However, arriving in Ny Alesund made all that hard work worth the while. It is absolutely breathtaking! 

Today, the weather is beautiful…warm and sunny…blue skies all around us.

News flash: the weather forecast is predicting snow and sleet as of tomorrow (17 September 2007) and possibly the rest of the week, which means our internet connection may be slow or affected by the weather.   We expect that our blogging and videos will be posted as scheduled, however it may changed slightly if we are not able to properly connect.

We have arrived at the Sverdrup Institute. We were greeted by Carl Petter Nielsen, an optical engineer, who has gratiously allowed us to use this facility as a basecamp for scientific analysis and art composition.

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Going ashore at Trygghamna.

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Suba ashore at Trygghamna, in front of the Noorderlicht.

Hear from Suba, on a mooring mast for the airship used by Amundsen in 1926, as she traces the rich history of polar explorations in Ny-Alesund. (Duration: 32secs)

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Subathra Subramaniam  (Project Director)
As both choreographer and science teacher Suba believes strongly in combining science and the arts as an effective way into climate change for young people. Suba was part of the first Cape Farewell Voyage as presenter of North To Svalbard. She is artistic co-director of Angika, a leading South Asian dance company in the UK.