Some mysterious force pulled the rowers 30 km into a headwind on July 24 with the GPS off, and no discussion from the rowers. Had the hand of Gaia not pulled their boat along, their expedition would be over.
Another expedition which was not blessed by the hand of Gaia, has given up because of the ice.
We just had a phone call from Captain Bob, and the news from the boat is not good. The Bernard Explorer is back in Alaska at Barter Island, just west of the Alaska-Yukon border. They had made it all the way to Pullen Island which is quite close to Tuktoyaktuk. However, the ice was so bad that even after getting that far, they had to go all the way back to avoid being trapped by ice. Even with all the talk of global warming and an ice-free Northwest Passage, now we are hearing that this may be the worst ice year for 10 years! Some things are just not predictable anymore.
Why are they letting some rotten, decayed ice stop them?
h/t to DRPOHL
Gaia musta pleaded with Poseidon on the rowers behalf.
“now we are hearing that this may be the worst ice year for 10 years!”
Shouldn’t that be “the best ice”?
I expect the miraculous hand of God will also deliver a replacement anchor.
Why not. After all, AGW is a faith-based initiative.
“Some things are just not predictable anymore”.
When was this wondrous golden age when we could predict where, when and how much ice there would be? The idiot.
Dontcha love it though? Who could have predicted the Arctic would be covered in ice?!?
“Some things are just not predictable anymore.”
– Canadian Arctic Expedition
“Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.”
– Bullet Tooth Tony
I love, absolutely love, this blog… but to accuse these rowers of cheating without offering any evidence is not a good idea, in my opinion. The expedition is funny and delusional enough without unsubstantiated accusations!
Gaia granted them a miracle, just like I said.
“”We are completely innocent. We run a very clean and professional team that has been singled out due to our success.”
– Lance Armstrong, Dec. 2000
When ice rots and decays doesn’t it turn into open water???” Evidently not if you are a Warmest Wiener.
“Even with all the talk of global warming and an ice-free Northwest Passage, now we are hearing that this may be the worst ice year for 10 years! Some things are just not predictable anymore.” HOLY J.C.
What this warmest wiener meant to say is that it was your fault that he failed, because of your addiction to heating your home, turning electric lights on after dark, going to work in your car, and cooking your organic vittles to a searing 107 degrees YOU helped created the conditions that made it impossible you him to predict the ice conditions in the Arctic, like good witch doctors have always been able to predict Arctic weather years in advance for the past 10,000 years. Maybe the lads from Candia were looking for this Northwest Passage and stumbled onto the one in the Arctic by mistake.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/11268/Northwest-Passage-Re-issue-Trailer-.html
Canada
That’s “Oh, Canada”.
They updated their position 2 hours ago. Haven’t moved an inch since yesterday.
http://mainstreamlastfirst.com/?slide=home
Looks like they are sitting out the storm. If they wait too long, the wind will turn against them again.
They are Not moving far from camp, Polar Bears must be around. I wonder if they had to shoot at any or killed any yet. Funny they are in Polar bear country and no peep of seeing any yet? Customs should of counted their shell count before heading into Canada.
“we are hearing that this may be the worst ice year for 10 years!” ~ rowers watching way too much http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/ TV.
“Some things are just not predictable anymore.” The chunks of decayed ice (affectionately known as ‘sand-bars’) have been around for so long, they would have surely appeared on the Arctic Joule’s nav-chart for years no?!
Love it.
Record high arctic sea ice for this decade for the last week of July! Perfect for a row in the north.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php
I had heard that they had gone missing, and that we actually pray for their very lives. Sounds like that prayer was answered, as Gaia delivered a miracle.
correction: we should actually pray for their very lives (!!)
For their lives, and that their experience may be educational for them.
Amen
I don’t understand this, Ice ahead is thick and they expect it to melt soon or will the GPS turn off and they magically appear past the ice and rowed against 25 knot winds. I think they got some help??? If they continue they will be Rowing into death zone unless they call it quits from the island they are on now. They have to be exhausted!!
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/WIS38SD/20130730180000_WIS38SD_0007186948.gif
Call Guinness and have them personally monitored the whole way 😉
Hand Of Gaia. HOG? So they used a Harley as an outboard motor?
Look like there going round in circles.
http://mainstreamlastfirst.com/?slide=home
That looks very disturbing. Something wrong with their G.P.S?
The G.P.S. is on but no ones seems to be home.
What are you looking at? My take on their GPS coordinates is that they are standing still.
The last coordinates I have are from July 30.
Oh, now I notice Anthony Hills’ comment and map on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201513065615765&set=p.10201513065615765&type=1&theater
How do you get that closeup of their coordinates? Ate they walking about that island?
I mean ARE they walking about that island. I don’t want to use the word “ate,” thinking of polar bears.
Back to normal ice levels for the 30 year average it looks like.
(Now, ordinarily I would be very careful to mention that it is only
just touching the 2 s. dev. area so is actually still low. But with
tracking how well their GCMs do with temp. predictions, it’s apparently
fine that the temp.’s are just barely within the range of a few outliers
on their spaghetti graphs. So if that means their climate models
predicted our temp.’s for the last 16 years, then I can call this
normal ice at the 30 year average).
Normal? How about average over a meaninglessly short period of period of time.
It looks like the gap in their GPS record covers a time period between 7:57 PM and 8:51 AM. Thirteen hours. There are also earlier gaps in the record.
I wonder if GPS is a gadget they need to activate, perhaps hitting a button to see where they are. If one member of the crew is really compulsive about their progress, and the rest less interested in the minute by minute details, you could get a watch on deck with a lot of reports followed by watches with few or none.
Their decision to hunker down and wait for more favorable conditions sounds a bit like learning from the school of hard knocks, to me. Or the school of hard bergs. Their battle with ice doesn’t sound like a picnic, and in some ways they are lucky to be alive. (They can’t be airlifted out if they are dead.)
More than 40 years ago, when I was young, liberal, and something of a “useful idiot,” it was the school of hard knocks that snapped me out of my delusions and woke me up. Not all useful idiots remain stuck in their naivete forever. Don’t lose faith in the young, even if they do seem like dopes.