The Arctic threw us a challenge two weeks ago, after we finished our first five expeditions on Greenland’s west coast. We’ve been blocked by a giant ice dam pileup of thick 4-year-old ice that is preventing all boats from rounding Nunap Isua (Cape Farewell), the remote southern tip of Greenland.
The challenges of integrating the Expedition Mind with the Big Picture Mind are never as acute as in the months just before departure.
Washed Ashore. As someone who spends a lot of time on or near the sea, I am obliged to pass along the following update -before sharing the plan for ArcticEarth 2024 & 2025 (below).
ArcticEarth SOUTH- After last winter’s decision to position the boat in the outer ranges of the Gulf of Maine in 2023, we set to it in June, with the first of four purpose-driven collaborative expeditions. All four trips allowed opportunities to connect the narrative dots within the larger bio-region of the northwest Atlantic (Maine to Greenland and Canada) that we call home. In 8 months, we will return to the NORTH, exploring both the west and east coasts of Greenland.
Our expeditions start this week with a fourteen-day trip to the high seas and some offshore support for a film and science group. We are also pleased to announce a multi-year relationship with the Ocean Genome Atlas Project, beginning this summer
Our 2023 expeditionary focus will be exploring the connections between NORTH and SOUTH, within our region of the northwest Atlantic. The lineup so far looks like: a science team studying plankton genomics and behavior, a group of writers examining the mysteries of the intertidal in the Bay of Fundy, a visit to the Kent Island Research Station of Bowdoin College, a group of still photographers workshopping with well-known maritime photographer Allison Langley, and filmmakers recording the life that moves from Maine to Greenland.
Ice is not the only excitement in the neighborhood. There’s also mud.
JULY, 2022. The goal is to be fully ready, provisioned, and in position next week for two upcoming charters in Disko Bay, on the west coast of Greenland. Disko has the reputation of an exciting place with lots of ice (one glacier dumps 35 billion tons of ice into the sea each year at a flow rate that can exceed 150 feet per day… that’s Sermeq Kujalleq, the fastest moving tidewater glacier on the planet).
Ice is not the only excitement in the neighborhood. There’s also mud.
Earlier this month, I was invited to give a talk and screen some video for 60 seasoned long distance sailors (CCA). The topic? My top three learnings from ArcticEarth’s first year:
1. The vessel ArcticEarth works well amidst ice (and melting ice)
2. A surprise for me- Greenland is geothermal!
3. Equitable & ethical engagement with Inuit communities & knowledge is foundational.
The first question in the Q & A, however, took us in a slightly different direction, “can you summarize what scientists are learning in the Arctic?” I replied that I’d follow up on that. Here’s my best shot, below.
Expedition 003 and 004 are complete and ArcticEarth has returned to Maine! We are now announcing our expedition locations for next summer: (north to south in Greenland) Uummannaq, Disko Bay, Eternity Fjord, Ikka Fjord, Nanortalik, Cape Farewell, and the remote SE coast of Greenland! Bookings for 2023 (and 2024) are well underway. The northern summer is short. Travel logistics are set up early. Please let me know early what you are thinking.
Expedition 002 was with my production company Compass Light. After Expedition 001 with our partners at the Climate Change Institute (UMaine), we sailed to Qaqortoq to meet with the visionary and energetic Sarah Woodall (travel sector) and her team at INNOVATION South Greenland. What a great town!
ArcticEarth’s first charter is with the Climate Change Institute of UMaine, led by Paul Mayewski. Paul’s team’s goal over the next 10-11 days is to collect at least 50 coastal water samples in southwest Greenland, and define a baseline chemistry that will help Greenlanders and others track and understand future human impact in the area.
Today, ArcticEarth approaches the edge of the Greenland Shelf (see Tracking ArcticEarth). Announcing early Autumn Labrador offshore individual berths, with one remaining full vessel charter slot in Greenland 2022!
Thoughts about Earth Day and the Arctic, plus an interview with 26-year old Inuk filmmaker Marc Fossing Rosbach of Nuuk, upon the release of his new Sci-Fi Horror film Imajuik.
How does BLUE become YELLOW? Changing colors reveal stories. The cool deep BLUES of the Northwest Atlantic are the home waters of the s/v ArcticEarth. They are surrounded by the warmer YELLOWS and the hotter REDS. ArcticEarth’s winter port is in Maine, at the thermal edge, in the midst of severe and dramatic change. Just a few months ago (Sept, Oct, and Nov), this water temperature averaged 59.9°F, the hottest autumn in recorded history, more than 4°F above the long-term average.
A productive summer and fall on board the s/v ArcticEarth is slowly yielding to the cool quiets of late fall and early winter. This morning’s air temperature is 5°F in Qaanaaq, Greenland’s northernmost settlement on the west coast. Here on the Maine coast, it is a balmy 46°F, amidst the wet winds of an autumn …
Several days offshore of ocean ocean ocean have swiftly passed under our keel. Far astern is the small island off the coast of South America where we discovered, launched, and re-commissioned the vessel that is becoming known as the “s/v ArcticEarth.” Ahead is Maine, our own little corner of the northwest Atlantic, a gateway into …