June 27, Grand Marais, Minn.
Though the expedition was unsuccessful in dealing with the ocean conditions off the Russian coastline, it was successful in reaching our main goal of bringng attention to Global Warming issue.
With figures still coming in, the One World Expedition garnered tens if not hundreds of millions of media impressions worldwide on Global Warming. A more precise number and list of media will be available in the next few weeks. We along with Geenpeace, our environmental and communication partner, will continue our campaign to fight global warming and bring you more updates from the ice through our 2006 Oceans project.
June 22, Grand Marais
Life does not stop for very long. In Grand Marais, we are already busy with planning and preparation for the summer of 2006 - One World Expedition, the next step. Please keep posted for more exciting information on this upcoming expedition.
In the mean time, we are both keeping busy with preparations and planning. Lonnie has been working with images from the expedition and contacting sponsors and doing research for next summer. I am escaping for the moment and riding my bike around Lake Superior. I hope to make the entire 1300 miles in a little over a week. That means, riding around 150 miles a day.
Stay tuned for more biking, polar and Grand Marais news!
June 15, Grand Marais
You are probably wondering what it was like out there on the Arctic Ocean so far away. We would like to share some of our experiences with you so that you can better understand the conditions that we faced.
Leads were always difficult to cross. They also changed in character throughout the trip and the day. Intially, we had to cross leads that looked a lot like this picture. They were full of brash ice and many times we had to jump from ice chunk to ice chunk just to get across. Of course, this would also make the ice unstable for the second person which would compound the problems even more.
One day we paddled across lead after lead after lead. It was fun paddling the boats because we actually made good time on the water. The stressful part was finding a good landing spot and hauling the boats up and out.
Later in the trip we even had one glorious day where we didn't have to get in our boats to cross large leads. We simply skied back and forth and found a narrow spot. Of course, this was only one day and the next day we were
back to our old arduous routine.
June 13, Grand Marais
It's hard to believe we are home - especially since we almost didn't make it. A four hour train ride from Washington D.C. to New York, another hour on the subway and then our flight was cancelled?!? We were beginning to wonder if we would ever be able to come home. Everything everywhere just seemed difficult.
But here we are, home. What a magical place. Friends, family, support and safety (there are no polar bears in northern Minnesota). It is so weird not to be on the sea ice and instead sleep in a comfortable bed.
Since John and Ann are driving the OWE truck full of gear back to northern Minnesota, they thought they'd take advantage of this opportunity to see a bit more of the world. First stop: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they moseyed through gorgeous green hills, Amish farm country. After a tour of an old flour mill and a stop at a farmer's market, it was on to Niagara Falls, which oddly enough appeared to be a cross between Las Vegas and the Wisconsin Dells.
We thought we'd post this shot of Ann and John; however, look forward to more exciting images from the ice. We spent the morning sorting through our pictures from the expedition and hope to share these amazing scenes with you. Stay tuned for drama, intrigue, adventure, and of course, more global warming news.
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.
