Cape Farewell Greenland Voyage 2007 » News

Returning to Greenland

Kathy — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:28:11 +0000

In September 2008 Cape Farewell returned to Greenland to visit the spectacular Disko Bay and continue the work started in 2007. The Art/Science crew began their 10 day sail in West Greenland, visiting the Disko Bay area and Jakobshavn Glacier, one of Greenland’s largest glaciers moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day.

Working in partnership with the British Geological Survey, the scientists extended their investigations of climate change with extensive surveying below the seabed.

The arts crew, dominated by an international array of musicians including Laurie Anderson, Vanessa Carlton, Jarvis Cocker, Feist, Robyn Hitchcock, Ryuichi Sakamoto, KT Tunstall and Martha Wainwright also featured artists, comedians, architects, film-makers and journalists.

Follow the 2008 Disko Bay Expedition in blogs from over 40 artists, musicians and scientists as we sailed through the extraordinary Disko Bay. During the voyage we brushed aside snow and broke out our portable satellite gear to broadcast text, images and video direct from the deck of the boat. Check the expedition website, subscribe to the podcast or view the galleries of images and video to journey with us.
http://www.capefarewell.com/diskobay/

Time Magazine Picture of the Year

Kathy — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:42:21 +0000

Cape Farewell are proud to announce Time Magazine ‘Pictures of the Year’ 2007 features Nick Cobbing’s photograph from the voyage. The end of year issue of TIME Magazine (December 31, 2007 – January 7, 2008) carries the photograph by Nick Cobbing from the 2007 expedition with a quote by David Buckland. The article aligns the Cape Farewell voyage to the NASA space mission (only a bit cheaper) and also carries a feature on Al Gore.

Time Magazine online >
See more images from Nick >

Back on dry land

Kathy — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 09:00:03 +0000

Final crew portrait as we leave the Noorderlicht in Akureyri, Iceland. Massive thanks to the Noorderlicht crew (Gert, Ko, Renske, Barbara and Anna) for getting us to Iceland safely and in style.

Sunrise

Nick — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:20:59 +0000

Anna, Renske and Barbara

hannah — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:33:11 +0000

The Nooderlicht Crew

Greenland!

Emily — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:05:50 +0000

The last 24 hours now seem like a distant memory. Yesterday lunch time we were listening to Christmas carols as the snow fell outside. Last night we were heeling over in the middle of a force 9 under only bare poles, taking it in turns to hang on for dear life whilst watching out for icebergs. Between 2 and 4 the sky began to clear, and we even had a glimpse of a northern light as we weaved our way through endless bands of ice.

This morning, I have spent a good few hours totally mesmerised by our setting. Since first light when the moon and Venus were stunningly bright, we have watched the sun rise from the mouth of an idyllic fjord, not a breath of wind or a cloud in the sky. We then did a couple of circumnavigations of a breathtakingly sculpted iceberg, which, in my scientific wisdom, I think looks just like a Mr Whippy!

On that note, I can’t stay inside any longer, having rested and emptied my camera, and topped up my coffee levels, I’m off to take in some more of this awesome scenery.

It’s great to get your messages, I wouldn’t have wished the last eight days upon anybody, but now I really do wish you could see this!

A message from the London basecamp

hannah — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:10:27 +0000

This is just a quick message for everyone who has taken the time to post comments to the crew – thank you! All your messages of good luck and calm waters have reached the Noorderlicht – On Sunday 30 September, the crew were almost to the east coast of Greenland, towards the mouth of Scoresby Sund (they could see the ice! A moment of elation)!. However, as it is currently covered with some floating ice they are heading a bit further north to try and get on to terra firma (Monday 1 October), this has meant another day at sea, but the oceans are calmer (so I’m told). Ko, the expedition guide has been sharing stories of the outstanding beauty of the Fjord so everyone is hoping to get into the Sund.

Please continue to post your messages and I will make sure the sailing crew get them.

Thank you

Hannah Bird
Cape Farewell
PS you’ll all be pleased to know that the Noorderlicht is not going round in circles (as our map showed). We were having a few technical issues showing east/west longtitude which have now been resolved!

Stormy weather!

hannah — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:58:21 +0000

Marcus Brigstocke’s Arctic Diary

Marcus — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:05:36 +0000

Read Marcus’s Arctic diary on the daily telegraph travel website.
Click here to read >

Greenland Voyage reaches Oslo

Kathy — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 00:20:37 +0000

After a long day, and many months of preparation, we’ve all made it to Oslo and the Greenland Voyage is finally away. Tomorrow morning we fly out direct to Longyearbyen where we take over from the Youth Expedition and board the Noorderlicht. The current ice maps for our route are “interesting”. What this means for us we’re not sure at the moment. Our first step tomorrow is to analyse the latest satellite information available, and I’m sure we’ll be posting more about it soon…

Initial thoughts

Dan — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:47:13 +0000

So a very long journey up here via Stockholm, Oslo, Tromso then here to Longyearbyen. Arrived with snow falling, although not much has settled (leaving the textured rock surfaces drawn and enhanced with white dust).
There is something about returning here- so far away from the life style we live back down South and yet now very familiar to me.
The age of this land, the rock formations. You can read through it’s history, the strata laid down over millenniums, exposed, eroded and cracked into dust by the cold and ice.
It’s a raw reality that belittles everything else and puts this world back into perspective. Lonyearbyen is like a Wild West frontier town, one of the changes though is that now they are beginning to place advertising flags down the main street, lets hope this is kept to a minimum, and in fact shouldn’t be allowed at all !
Have tried today to pick up a Polar Bear bone from the Sysselmannen’s Environmental Adviser – it was put aside for us 2 years ago. Seems that I now need a CITES agreement to import it back to the UK for a piece of work Heather and I are working on. Hope Heather can get this for me by my return here next week!

Youth crew arrive in Ny-Alesund

hannah — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:48:31 +0000

We have finally arrived in Ny Alesund!

It was quite a lot of work to get here. The kids and the adults spent the entire night taking turns on night duty in 2-hour sessions. This involved waking up in the middle of the night, putting all their warm gear on, and standing on deck with the captain to help sail the boat, pull up sails and watch out for icebergs in the ocean around us. The kids worked really hard all night, and as a result, are very tired today. However, arriving in Ny Alesund made all that hard work worth the while. It is absolutely breathtaking!

Today, the weather is beautiful…warm and sunny…blue skies all around us.

News flash: the weather forecast is predicting snow and sleet as of tomorrow (17 September 2007) and possibly the rest of the week, which means our internet connection may be slow or affected by the weather. We expect that our blogging and videos will be posted as scheduled, however it may changed slightly if we are not able to properly connect.

We have arrived at the Sverdrup Institute. We were greeted by Carl Petter Nielsen, an optical engineer, who has gratiously allowed us to use this facility as a basecamp for scientific analysis and art composition.

BBC London News

hannah — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:05:13 +0000

Cape Farewell and the youth team are featured on BBC London news on BBC1 and 94.9FM. The feature focuses on the three students from London; Hayley, Akash and Liam who are voyaging with Cape Farewell as part of the youth voyage.

See the video online

Expeditions launch event

hannah — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:29:18 +0000

Cape Farewell launched its first international Youth Expedition and fourth Art Science voyage on Sunday 9th September at Southbank Centre. Hundreds of well wishers cheered the twelve students on their way, as the expedition launched on the Thames to a brass fanfare from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Embarking on a landmark arts, science and media project, the students will voyage from Longyearbyen to the frozen extremes of Spitsbergen, Svalbard in the High Arctic.

The youth team were joined by members of the Art/Science crew, including Marcus Brigstocke, Kathy Barber and David Buckland.

Upcoming expedition route

Kathy — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:46:27 +0000

This expedition is Cape Farewell’s most ambitious yet, attempting to navigate an area that has only just become accessible due to the changing climate. The voyage will cross the Greenland Sea from Longyearbyen, Svalbard on the 78th parallel to the East Coast of Greenland. Sailing south, the schooner Noorderlicht will explore the coastal fjords and Scoresby Sund before crossing the Denmark Straits to complete the voyage in Akureyri, Iceland. The precise route will be determined by the level of melting sea ice. Contemporary satellite data already shows that ice extent in 2007 is the lowest ever recorded, a sign that climate change already has a hold in the region.