Cape Farewell Youth Expedition 2007

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hey guys, it’s just a quick hello today. yesterday we went around Trygghamna and spotted two reindeers and when back at the ship we saw a polar bear, he was amazing! don’t worry, i’m fine!

miss you guys all so much and i wish you were here with me to see the sun set, to feel the breeze to wake up in the morning to the sound of nothingness, the whole thing is just incredible! i was on night duty last night from 4:00 til 6:00 am, i was in charge of driving the ship, and luckily the ship didn’t sink.
am a great sailor now…haha!

hope you’re all well and if you have any questions please blog me, this place is awesome and i want to share it with you all as much as possible! i will blog more during the week so keep checking!
u8232 amy x

We’re Now In Ny Alesund. Saw Some Glaciers, Watched Them Fall, Was Awesome!.
I’m Good, I’m Ok, It’s Getting Colder. Didn’t See Any Other Animals.
Some Of The Others Are Already Doing Their Science Projects. I’m Still Waiting To Talk To A Scientist.
See You All Soon.

B?f0

Our voyagers will be looking at your submitted questions 12 hours earlier than expected due to scheduling conflicts.  Please make sure to put in all your comments and questions ahead of schedule. They are all looking forward to your support and inquiries.

Please note: the time of video posting and the Q & A section will remain as planned.

The Cape Farewell Youth Expedition 2007 is welcomed by Carl Petter Nielson from the Sverdrup Institute for the next few days. The expedition will be assisted by the Polar Institute in carrying out their climate change experiments.

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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Finally On The Ship, After A Week Of Preparation. We left Longyearbyen At Around 6:30 Supper Time. Then Me, Hailey And Jozef Also Students, Had The First Shift Of Look-Outs. So As Usual, I Was First To Steer the Ship,, I’m So Proud Of Myself!, And I Was The First To Go up In Front of The Ship Where There is A Net We Can Stand On, But I Had To Use A Safety Rope, So I A Limited Area To Walk On.. I Couldn’t Go Right to The Tip That Was BORING!!!. Our Look-Out Shifts Are 2-3 Hours Long, And We’re In 4 Groups Of 3 People per Group. So Far We Haven’t Seen Anything, but Sure Enough We’ll See Something Tomorrow! I’m Finally Feeling Excited, Just Because I Know That I’ll Be Asking Some Scientist Questions About The Future And I’ll Be Doing My Research! Can’t Wait..
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Yesterday was a really awesome, cool, busy day. We met up with the kids in Longyearbyen, then we went souvenir shopping, and we started on our way to Ny Alesund, where we will be performing our scientific procedures. We stopped at Trygghamna. The sea was come and sweet until morning came. The waves shifted a bit. The following day we went for a long hike on an island next to Trygghamna. We walked for 2 hours and went back to shore. While on our walk we saw a few reindeer, some live, other dead. I was surprised to see that the whole shore was covered in rocks. A little further up the mountain we saw moss and plants growing. It takes approx. 20 years for a small cover of moss to appear. Finally when we went back to the boat and we saw 1 polar bear, from a reasonable distance. When we rang the bell everyone was rushing to the deck. Too funny. But when we finally got on deck we had to go back to our rooms to get our life jackets. I never imagined in my whole that I would be starring at a polar bear. Now I’ve seen everything, a black bear, a grizzly bear and last but not least a polar bear. Amazing.
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Saturday. 15th Sept 2007.
Up at about 7.45. Josef (one of the students) knocking at my cabin door telling me there’s an arctic fox on shore and I should film it. Turned out to be a Reindeer. This place is seemingly so empty and devoid of life. So little to feed on I wonder how an animal as big as a Reindeer can find enough to eat.

The Noorderlicht anchored overnight in Trygghamna (Safe Harbour), near the mouth of Isfjord. All the glaciers snaking down from the mountains end way before they reach the waters edge, dumping their load of shattered rock in massive piles on the shingle beaches. We went ashore by Zodiac, across the transparent, steely blue water, for a walk with our Danish guide Christian, armed with a rifle and pistol.
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Akash takes tips from Gert, the Captain, on how to sail.

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Liam and Amelie haul the sails, as the Noorderlicht sails up to Ny-Alesund.