I experimented with various ways of recording our journey from Svalbard to Greenland and then down to Iceland. Eroding plaster blocks suspended behind the ship. Burning card with a large lens, which tracked the ships movement in relation to the sun. Allowing an ink covered ball to roll over paper soaked in seawater in the rough seas. The latter transforming with the use of luminous paint on black card while the Northern Lights shifted and flowed overhead – not forgetting the luminescent plankton glowing in the dark water disturbed by the prow of the ship.

The watches continued as usual but with somewhat reduced in personnel. All of us when on deck were wearing harnesses to be on the safe side, managed to shoot a great bit of video of Matt parting with his breakfast over the side panning round to Brian receiving a huge wave straight in the face (watch out for this on You Tube). After our early morning watch 2am. tried to sleep but couldn’t, the wind had dropped somewhat and we were running on engine, this changes the whole motion of the ship. With the sails up -whilst at an angle the ship is held stable, when they are down the movement is not only up and down but also side-to-side. I tried propping myself in but just could get comfortable. In the end I resorted to lying up stairs with the bench pushed against the other and managed to wedge myself under the table -this stopped me rolling from side to side and finally I managed to sleep. Today the wind has dropped although is now coming at us fro the West to South West which isn’t so good for us as that is the way we are heading -so into the wind. Must admit I’d thought that the whole journey could have been as rough as yesterday, so we’ve been lucky. If clear skies tonight we should see the Northern Lights.

First thing tomorrow we should see the ice shelf but it won’t be till Sunday that we get to Scoresbysund, still hoping that the ice will have cleared so we will be able to enter -otherwise we’ll have to head on down to some other smaller fiords further South.

Managed to do a little art – thinking about ways to record a trip like this. I found a ball bearing and by placing paper on a walled plastic sheet with colored ink poured around it, produced line drawings of the ships movements -as the ball rolled in response to the rocking and rolling on the ship. Need to perfect this but the idea works well.

Well, where does one start?

The students having lined up and said there farewells to the captain and crew, did an Inuit dance lead by Doriana which she had been teaching them as a way of having fun and keeping warm – it was fantastic to watch, full of energy, fun and vitality. Then they realized that they had to go which became very emotional for many, lots of tears, really felt that they were leaving part of a much loved family. The cross over at the airport didn’t allow enough time for them all to meet the next arrivals, which was a shame. They generated such energy; I already miss their company.

The others arrived with even more language and kit than the first group, which soon piled up to be a mountain of cases, bags, boxes, flight cases and scientific equipment. Unimaginable where on earth this stuff would fit on the ship, but somehow we managed to squeeze it all in. Our cabin now has just enough room to open the door and stand in and I’m sleeping with a box of art materials -my computer and cameras in the bed.

After a quite night moored again in Trygghamna and a walk on the shore to a Glacier, which was sublime, and a much need last step on land before we headed out into the Greenland Sea.

Unfortunately there has been very little wind, which means we’ve been travelling on mainly on the motor, the sails have been raised and briefly in the night we managed 8 knots. The swell so far has been very little and nowhere near as rough as I had anticipated, (although perhaps it’s early days to mention this – as we now have only been sailing 17 hours). We saw a whole bunch of Dolphins swimming passed in the early evening.

The watches have been set -everyone is expected to do two, two-hour watches every 24 hours. I’ve been given mid-night to 2am. and mid day to 2pm. with Gert the Captain, Amy, Vikram and Ko. Our fist watch last night was just so much fun standing outside in the middle of a blizzard the snow whirling around the sails and settling on our clothes -really very beautiful but certainly necessary to be well dressed. At around 1 am. Simon and Emily, two of the scientists had to be woken up to drop a CTD (they’ve been doing this every few hours). This is a sensor protected by a circular metal cage and 200 meters of cable, which is connected to a computer. As it sinks down through the dark sea it records the salinity, density and temperature sending live dater to the ship. The only problem with this is that you have to turn the ship into the wind and stop so that the device can slowly sink. Pulling this back to the surface is not easy but does warm you up, even if you hands get soaking wet and freezing cold. This all takes about ½ an hour, we then raised some sails the snow had stopped and we were travelling with wind power again. The wind was short lived though and soon the engine needed to be started.

Trying to sleep is interesting it sounds as though you’re in the middle of a huge dishwasher. The sound of water continually swashing around which is from the drinking water stored in tanks below our cabin and the crockery sliding around in the galley. Think I’m going to need a number of catnaps during the day to catch up.

Wind has now returned and there’s a fair bit of blue sky and sunshine and we are sailing again. Aminatu is playing guitar and singing, everything seems peaceful.

Few hours later the swell is up and it’s snowing again, but at least the wind is stronger and we are making good speed, now back up to 8 knots, means we’ll get there quicker although there are still questions if we’ll be able to get in to Scoresby Sund (the largest fiord in the world) as it’s mouth is covered by pack ice. Many people are sleeping or at least trying to and feeling somewhat seasick, luckily I’m still feeling good and enjoying every minute!

Images: Dan Harvey with ice before casting (above) and casting the ice on the deck of the Noorderlicht (below).

Just found an image I took in 2004 of the glacier at the end of this fiord and have compared this to an image taken yesterday -hopefully these will be posted on web, the difference is obvious. Things here are changing fast! When outside day or night at least once or twice an hour you hear the noise like distant thunder as massive chunks of ice peel of the glaciers, the Kongsvegen glacier we were told is now moving at a rate of 2 meters a day!

Kongsvegan glacier photographed in 2004 during the Cape Farewell voyage.

Kongsvegan glacier photographed in 2007, during the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition.

I have been experimenting with inks on a cut block of ice reveling the small tubular holes that run deep within them like blood vessels. Will try tomorrow to push this work further and would love to understand the science behind these capillaries.

Had a great time hunting for the right block of ice on the second try we managed to lift it onto the small boat, felt far too heavy for the vessel but managed to get it back to harbor in Ny Alesund and then with the help of another crane from a lorry managed to lifted it up onto the quay – a beautiful piece of ice. Wanted to finally carve a clear ice lens but it has been so warm here that whilst carving its been cracking in the warmth, hope tonight to be able to pour water over it so that it becomes clear again then tomorrow if it is sunny… we’ll see if it will burn something….

If not I´m planing to set some ice on fire so stay posted for some flaming ice pics. of one sort or another.

Hunting, collecting and moving ice for the Ice Lens.

Dan Harvey
Artist (UK)

Dan has collaborated with Heather Ackroyd since 1990. In 2007 Ackroyd & Harvey created their most ambitious public artwork to date, FlyTower on the National Theatre’s Lyttleton flytower. Here the artists grew seedling grass directly on the exterior of one of London’s landmarks, transforming this iconic building into a living artwork of massive proportions.

Since 2003 Dan and Heather have made three expeditions to Svalbard with Cape Farewell, investigating and responding to the effects of climate change. Their major work, Stranded was created for the Cape Farewell exhibition Art & Climate Change. Dan voyages with both the Youth and Greenland Expeditions in 2007.

How and why does loss matter?“The chemistry of our oceans is changing. It is now accepted that, if we continue unabated in our consumption of fossil fuel, the acidity of the oceans will increase incrementally and the life they support, from tiny carbonate shells and plankton upwards, will perish.

Does the loss of this young minke whale matter? We only know him through his death and we really know very little of his life. So we have embraced his loss and sought to re-appraise the value of his life. Here, where the gleaming crystals encase his lifeless bones, lies a memento mori for our times.”

Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey