850 Miles Of Ocean Sailing
By David // Tuesday 25 Sep // 08:39:38 // 3 Comments // View
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There are 20 of us, eight nationalities of writers, scientists, fine artists, journalists, musicians, film crew and Marcus Brigstocke bring comedy to the tragedy of Climate Change, melting ice and threatened wild life. Ahead, even for hardened sailors, is an epic arctic journey, 850 miles of ocean sailing during which the scientists will make ocean soundings using a CTD and two thirds of the journey is expected to be made close to the ice edge as we track south. We should see whales as this is their feeding ground, maybe even the threatened fabled Greenland whale whose numbers are now thought to be increasing from a point of extinction – these whales can grow to an age of 250 years, a point charted by the age of broken harpoons lodged in there skins.
We are carefully tracking an Atlantic low as it passes westwards just off the Iceland coast – so deep in depression that force 8 to storm 10 is forecast. We should be north of such systems but this years jet stream has been notably unstable which rises concern – we do not want to encounter seas of such magnitude.
Now everyone is waking, Anna’s breakfast, a walk among the glacier and then let the sail commence.
