Cape Farewell Greenland Voyage 2007

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Sketch made during the 2007 expeditions to Greenland.

Hey Youth Team. How are you? What is it like to be home again after the Spitsbergen experience?

We’ve been thinking of you as we take the Noorderlicht on. We hear lots of stories from the crew – seems you charmed them. They enjoyed having you on the boat a lot. Dan showed me a video of you running into the sea. Ouch, how could you do that? So cold…

We had a rough journey over to Greenland, but Simon, Carol and Emily managed to test salinity and temperature at regular intervals – looking back, I can’t imagine quite how. We encountered huge amounts of sea ice as we approached East Greenland, much more than anticipated. This means that we haven’t been able to get into Scoresby Sund where we had planned to go. Instead, we’ve headed further south into the Denmark Straights and are exploring fjords south of Scoresby and North of Nansen Fjord.

This is one of the least visited areas of Greenland. We sailed into a fjord yesterday that we believe no-one has visited since 1940. As we floated there, we witnessed sea ice form within 10 minutes around us. Simon had been telling us that a very small drop in temperature can result in a sudden freeze but that he had never seen this himself – the text books come alive. Today, we bust a groove in the boat through a LOT of ice to get to a glacier front. Even close up we could hardly see the glacier front through the mist and falling snow. Ice for miles around on every side of the boat and an eery, ghostly silence. People spoke very quietly on deck. What is it about ice and snow that makes people whisper? Or is it more to do with experiencing glacial melt in this truly visceral way?

Anyway, Dan sends love and misses you all. Every time we put on your waterproofs to face the storms we see your names in pen all over them. You are with us in some way!

See you all soon,

Vickyx
(visit the youth voyage pages at voyage4.capefarewell.com)

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Vicky Long
Artist and Cape Farewell Project Director (UK)

Vicky has a background in theatre and scenography. Since 2005 she has produced exhibitions, events and film for Cape Farewell. Vicky enjoys working with a wide range of artists, to create work that gets right to the heart of what it is to be living today. She has worked in the UK, Netherlands, Czech Republic, India and Hong Kong and is excited by the internationalism of the Cape Farewell voyages in 2007. Vicky is also a voice-actor and singer and will keep a voice diary on the expedition, as well as recording poems, stories and songs, pertinent to the sea, the ice and our changing climate.

“Here is an opportunity for change. It will be exciting to look back in 30 years time and think, I was a part of that change.”
Dr. Chris West, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University