June 2
Eric followed the tracks of the polar bear that visited us yesterday. They led to one of those leads that have been so tough for us--ice too thick to swim through, too thin to walk on. It appeared that the bear just dove through the ice and swam under it to get to the other side. What incredible animals to be so adapted to this brutal environment.
Eric also found that the bear had followed our ski tracks to get to our tent yesterday. I guess we're both keeping an eye on each other out here.
June 1, no location sent
No written journal entry today, but listen to Eric's audio report on the electronic gadgetry that makes it possible to do these updates.
May 31
We had another furry visitor today--a curious polar bear approached our tent. It was about 30 feet from us when we scared it away by shooting off five flares. I'm sure our yelling didn't hurt, either. Photo courtesy Rolex Awards/Marc Latzel.
May 30
It's Memorial Day. We're staying put in our tent today because it's raining. Puddles of water are pooling on our canoe covers when I look outside; special thanks to our waterproof Hilleberg tent with the high sides, it's keeping us dry here.
Seagulls are flying overhead, they don't seem to mind the wet conditions as they fly around our red tent over a sea of white ice pans. Raining on the 30th of May is normal for Minnesota, but here on the Arctic Ocean it seems quite early. It's more normal for July and August. Perhaps this is another sign that the earth is warming.
We hope that Memorial Day is drier where you are, and to our families and to our friends at Greenpeace we hope you're having a great weekend.
May 29
The sun is out again today and it is really bright. Actually it is downright hot; intense -unforgiving. Luckily, we have brought an ample supply of sunscreen provided by one of our sponsors, Dermatone. It works really well and a little goes a long way, which for us is really important. The other thing we like about Dermatone's Z-cote is the smell. Every time we open up the container we are immediately transported to a warm tropical beach.
Listen to today's audio report for more about the sunny conditions.
The south facing sides of the blue blocks of pressured ice are beginning to melt. Their undersides have formed long dripping icicles, and the surface of the snow has become sticky at midday. The wind is blowing at about 50 mph and actually ripples the water in the open lead.
Summer has come here and the ice is starting to break up a month early this year-it's scary to think global warming will leave this place ice free in 50 years. Temperatures right now are in the upper 30s, which really shouldn't be seen until late June, and currently the humidity is 88 percent due to all the open water. Fog pretty much shrouds the nearby pack ice during midday; we had some particularly thick fog about 2 days ago.
Listen to today's audio report for more about open water and seals.
May 27
We've had some pretty scary experiences with polar bears- three different encounters in the first week. Once we actually had a bear sneaking up on us while we were setting up camp, that next morning a bear came into actual camp while we were in the tent and pounced on our tent while we were in it, and then a few days later we had a very aggressive polar bear coming into camp and threatening us before we were able to scare it away. Here's a shot of our ski next to a bear track.
So it was pretty touch and go there for a while with those bear encounters; however, as scary as it was, it was still very amazing to be able to see these incredible and majestic animals. They're so well adapted to this environment, to be able to survive in this brutally pressured ice and open ocean, and it's a place where we've been struggling just to move forward. These polar bears are living and thriving, actually, and it's unfortunate that global warming is affecting their habitat so much.
It's possible that if warming continues at its current rate that the Arctic could be ice-free by 2050 in the summertime, and what that means for the polar bear isn't too good, because that means the polar bear will most likely become extinct because they live on the sea ice and hunt from the sea ice, and no sea ice, no polar bear. So again, while we are nervous about being in their home we are also very honored to be here, and hope they're able to continue to live and survive because they are a symbol of the Arctic and the true north.
For something completely different, listen to today's audio update for a briefing on our daily routine.
