June 10, Washington D.C.
It's not that we don't like the East Coast, Washington D.C. and New York and it's not that we don't like the warm weather, either. (Well, actually, we are having a hard time dealing with the humidity.) But Dorothy knew what she was talking about when she philosophised, "There's no place like home."
Tonight we will board a train to New York, hop the subway to the airport and then fly home to Minnesota. We have been recivilizing in stages after being picked up off the sea ice exactly one week ago. Going back to Grand Marais will be the final leg of our journey away from the sea ice and our dreams.
What does it mean to travel from complete solitude to the chaos of New York in seven short days? What will we say to our friends and family to accurately describe our experiences? These are questions whose answers will only come with time.
Still, there are bigger questions that need to get answered. What is happening on the Arctic Ocean right now? Who will go there to document these changes? How can each of us make a difference? While bigger in one sense, these questions exist within the context of our current knowledge.
We will continue to train, to educate and to explore. Please stay tuned for more exciting information from the One World Expedition.
June 9, Washington D.C.
We really enjoyed our time in NYC, but with nearly 1.5 million people passing through Times Square each day, it was a relief to finally leave. Sure we are still in a city, but it is a smaller city and we have many friends here.
We woke early this morning for our appearance on Democracy Now. It is nice to know that people are really interested in our story and what we have seen during our time on the Arctic Ocean.
Then, it was off to the Greenpeace office to meet and talk about the upcoming adventures of the Arctic Sunrise which we will feature on our web site as well as www.projecthinice.org. We also looked into a crystal ball to begin making the first steps in planning another expedition. What did we decide? Well, we're still planning... but you will be the first to know.
June 8, New York
From one extreme to the other. We are in New York City and literally melting in the 91-degree heat. Walking down the street and getting into a cab makes us both wish we had brought a little bit of Arctic weather back with us.
Today we are running around New York again going from one interview to the next. Special stops at People for the American Way and GQ were extra fun.
The warm weather also reminds us of one of the few sunny days that we had on the expedition. In fact, for the first two weeks there were only two sunny days - and those only lasted for two-thirds of the day. Here is a flashback shot to one of those days. For that brief period, the sun was very intense and to prevent our faces from being severely cooked, we added extra sunscreen (thanks Dermatone).
Tomorrow we'll be in Washington D.C. to meet with Greenpeace and discuss our upcoming plans as much is still happening with the expedition and Project Thin Ice. The Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise, will be traveling down the coast of Greenland to document some of the changes that are happening there due to global warming.
June 7, New York, New York
It was amazing to be in Moscow, a place that not too long ago was completely off limits to most Americans. We went for a short walk before taking off and were impressed by the clean streets and ornately decorated buildings and fountains.
Of course, when we had to drag the entire 100 pounds of canoes back and forth through the Moscow International airport FIVE times, we were really beginning to wonder if we would ever leave -especially after paying the second of two unusually large oversized baggage fees. We really missed Alex's help and guidance.
The ten-hour flight to New York was relatively uneventful except that we were able to look down on Greenland as we passed over the southern end. Lonnie commented that it was unusual to see the ocean with no ice.
Now we are in New York running from one interview to the next. It is summer here and luckily Ann brought our warm weather clothes and we were able to change out of our Wintergreen expedition pants for the first time in a month.
Lonnie and Eric are traveling today from Moscow to New York, and were unable to post a message. Check back tomorrow for the latest news.
June 5, Moscow
"Dear friends," Alex VICAAR Agency's second in command begins. It is how he begins nearly every big announcement for us. "We leave in 20 minutes for Moscow."
After our long ordeal with sea ice and drift it was comforting to have Alex coordinating our movements and logistics through Russia again. We wondered if it was even remotely possible to do any of this on our own. On a positive note, we were able to get our old room at the one star hotel in Norilsk.
Today was spent mostly in transit. Leaving Norilsk early in the morning was hard to do. Two and a half years of our lives have been focused on the Arctic Ocean and saying goodbye to the last bit of Arctic tundra wasn't easy.
Of course, there is lots more adventuring to do for us. Just getting off the plane in Moscow was crazy. Everyone from our crowded flight shoved into two small buses for the short ride to the terminal. Then, off to exchange some money and schedule our return tickets.
Our schedule for tonight: hot showers and a nice meal sitting in a chair and eating at a table.
Please check the web site as we will be adding daily postings about our travels, upcoming press events and our future plans.
June 4
We stayed the night at Golomiannyi weather station near Sredniy airstrip, and not long after arriving, one of the local furry residents, (not one of the two station huskies) came to greet us. Oh my God! Not another polar bear...yes, so we had to scare that one away. We are really wondering if they are attracted to us, but no doubt we need a shower.
Polar bears have very a sensitive sense of smell which helps them find seal pups even in small caverns under the snow on the ice, so I'm sure we smell like a sausage factory to the bears.
As we were traveling from Sredny to Norilsk, out of the right side of the Mi-8MTV helicopter was a wide open sea and on the left side were vast flat areas of tundra and taiga "evergreen forest" which was about half snow and half exposed land. The tundra is starting to melt, a lot of rivers are starting to run. All the Arctic rivers are breaking up now--flew over 3 or 4 rivers, breaking up. Summer is coming on to the tundra fast and furious.
We were flying back inside the chopper completely loaded with fuel drums and boats and one of those balloons from the ballooning expedition. We spent 6 1/2 hours flying in the heli. We couldn't figure out if we felt sick from smelling diesel fumes or recovering from a hangover. Now we're waiting for the plane to Moscow at 9:30 am tomorrow.
The One World Expedition would like to thank the VICAAR Agency, Victor Boyarsky, director, for its outstanding work in providing Russian logistics and transport services to the expedition team. Victor and assistant director Alexander Sheremetyev carried out all the detailed planning necessary to get us to the edge of the Arctic Ocean without a hitch. And they came through again when we required an airlift from the ice on June 3. We are very fortunate to be working with this group of experienced professionals.
