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