Pen Hadow Hurrying South
By Paul Homewood
http://www.arcticmission.com/follow-arctic-mission/
Strange goings on onboard Pen Hadow’s little expedition.
You may recall what he said when he announced on Aug 30th they were turning back south:
A meeting of the four skippers was held led by Erik de Jong, with Pen Hadow present, and it was agreed further northward progress would increase considerably the risks to the expedition, with very limited scientific reward. The decision to head south, back to an area of less concentrated sea ice in the vicinity of 79 degrees 30 minutes North, was made at 18.30 (Alaskan time).
http://www.arcticmission.com/arctic-mission-reaches-furthest-north/
But since they turned around, they have been travelling at a rate of knots well south of their intended stopping point, and are now at 78 degrees 05 minutes and still running at 5 knots.
Throughout the expedition, Hadow has stressed that the scientific aspects of the trip were just as important as the aim of reaching the North Pole, and that the researchers wanted to carry out their work as far north as possible and be given as much time as they could.
So why have not they stopped at 79N, as intended, to allow the scientists to resume their work?
Could it be that ice conditions are much worse there than we have been led to believe?
Intriguingly, there has been no more news on their blog since Wednesday’s announcement, and nothing has appeared on Facebook either. In particular, no photos or film have been published.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Would I seem a weak and poor soul if I expressed my feelings of how sad it would be if he was ‘run-over’ by one of those BBC LPG tankers that don’t need ice-breakers because there’s no ice?
Might well have a few converted sceptics on board, including all four captains …. brrrr !
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php
Maybe they’re being chased by hungry polar bears?
Reblogged this on Climate Collections and commented:
They followed a finger of ice-free ocean and got to 80N, 148W, and found -4C air temp, -1C SST. They’re roughly 450NM due north of Prudhoe Bay, AK and still about 150NM north of the NOAA “ice edge” ( http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/arctic/OISSTICE_LATEST.gif ). I’d be hustling south too.
I congratulate them on getting that far north. When they’re back safe, we’ll see how they describe their journey, and then we can assess their hubris/humility quotient.
Maybe they are trying to figure out how to spin this. Takes time.
If it’s -4C, then they probably want to get the hell out before they’re frozen in.
Cold saps energy quickly, cold and freezing wet even more so. Add a shift or three using a pole to push away ice and then south looks good. I trust all is well with all on board.
Did you just call them “cold saps?”
Maybe the fools on the ships of fools have seen the light, and it’s to the south.
Or maybe they’re trying to nautically trace out Ursa Major’s front leg? Or is it Camelopardalis via Triangulum Australe? Difficult to tell, really :-)…
Open water at 80ºN, my a*se, lying through their teeth if they’re running south for flippin’ hecks sakes: their boats are the bloomin’ next best thing to ice breakers…….”specially designed”.
Good grief, they must be jumping bonkers and to prove only what they averred/speculated wasn’t there – lots of sea ice!
Yep, the light will fade to not much and then to darkness and bloody soon even trudging south – at 78º N that’s too blumin’ north, fekking loonies. I arrest totally my feelings of sympathy for a more worthy venture, though having said that I hope that they’re OK but who knows, the wind in all its ferocity blows ill, makes navigating the seas and their mad expedition – such an appallingly bad idea.
but hey they did it all for science – so chilled out – ooh they are that.
Might be wrong but I don’t think they have any “scientists” on board, just pet journalists and other eco-bunnies. Maybe the diesel/gas is running low and they have discovered that solar panels cannot provide them with any heating or cooking. As this was only ever a publicity stunt maybe they are hurrying back to the closest port where the BBC and like-minded MSM can provide the necessary exposure.
So, he didn’t get as far north as Alert in Canada or Nord in Greenland, which are the two most northerly permanent outposts of humanity. He’s now further south than 6 British blokes in a rowing boat made it (look at the map) https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/another-arctic-rowing-expedition-comes-to-grief/
As I look at his site now he’s back in warm weather – +5C! And further south than Longyearbyen, which has a population of over 2000. Way to go, Pen, really pushing the frontiers of what’s possible for human beings.
But – like others, it would be uncharitable not to hope he and his crew make it back safely.
That +5C was at 18:00, but looking back at 14:00 it was -4C. I think the cold may have frozen the minus sign off his thermometer!
They let slip on their blog, just before the most northerly point, that they had a frozen freshwater tank due to the unexpectedly low temperatures. They’ve held radio-silence on this freeze up since.
It might well be that they still have no proper supply of drinking water and having to get back down to warmer latitudes, where they can thaw out?
‘the unexpectedly low temperatures’ – unexpected to Hadow and his not-so-merry crew that is. Imagining what conditions are going to be like is not much of a travel policy in the Arctic.
I did the last degree trek to the North Pole in April pulling a sled for 6 days. The temperatures varied between -29c and -35c which were much lower than normal in April. Ice conditions were very good for travel, very few open leads of water to negotiate. It is unlikely that the ice is in terminal decline this year!
Thank goodness for their eco diesel made from old tyres!
http://www.euroecofuels.com/about/
Forget that mileage is too far for it to be them Apologies for the wishful thinking David Heap
Sent from my iPad
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Still heading south this morning, and getting warmer:
03/Sep/2017 06:00:00 UTC
077° 23.293N, 148° 53.373W / Course: 189° @ 3.5 knots
2°C at 6m above sea level
From Nigel Molesworth’s ‘Fotos frome mi Browyi’ in ‘Down With Skoo!’, a captioned drawing of a fat boy, with his arms out on a diving tower. went:
‘A piccy of Gillibrand Sen. going off the hi bord. Aksually, he came bak down the lader…said he culd do it easy, any-tim butt did not feel like it toda.”
They are doing 5 knots due South, but the weather map shows almost complete calm. The egg beaters are being used! No fair! They are gonna escape.
There is useful information about S.Y Bagheera on the internet bagheerasailing.com
The yacht is designed for polar regions and used for charter. At the most economical speed of about 5kts and in good conditions such a yacht will use (optimistically) one gallon/hour. The yacht carries 423 gallons giving a maximum range of 2115 n.m. Nome to the North Pole in a straight line is 1540 miles, or a roundtrip of 3080 miles. The images show no signs of fuel drums on the deck, though there might have been some in lockers. Barrow is a possible refuelling place – offshore only. However, the 2 hourly positions given, show steady travel northwards past Barrow at about 4.5kts. i.e. they apparently did not refuel there.
The arctic is, on average, a low wind region with frequent calms. Yet on the most optimistic basis (no using fuel ‘jiggling around’ ice flows) they would have to sail a minimum of 1000 miles.
As the website shows, the skippers of Bagheera avoid 6/10 ice pack or more. There is on board full facilities giving online information on ice cover, with predictions for the following few days. The skipper(s) of Bagheera would have known what to expect, yet they went. Why?
All the evidence suggests that the whole thing was a façade, a sham, presumably orchestrated by Pen Hadow.
It would be interesting to know who paid for the jaunt.
“…a sham…”
Like a jaunt to the edge of an active volcano, pretending you are going to jump in “because it is extinct.”
I would expect these yachts to achieve much lower diesel consumption than ~4.5 L/hour. They would be motorsailing through the southerly stretches and I suspect, keeping rpm at 2000 or below. I would expect them to manage on 1.5-2 L/hour.
William Morgan,
I suggest the your figure of 1.5-2 L/hour is over optimistic.
See rpm, power output , fuel burn graph Lehman 2713 E, 105 HP.
The first up is for a Lehman 80 HP but should not be far off the mark.
Others below but most of than are for cruisers, not yachts.
What I don’t understand is why thy took sail boats. I haven’t seen many pictures of them actually under sail. Is it a just a novel way to promote the use of Fossil fuels for Science? I did see a picture of the zodiac punt with a kicker, but no oars in the locks. A spin opportunity that was missed. Guess they aren’t anti fossil fuel. There is hope.
Fair point. My guess would be that they expected the general public to assume that they were sailing.
i.e. not using fossil fuels
The money shot for them was to be a photo of a sailing ship at the North Pole, which apparently would have been more “iconic” even than a polar bear clinging to an ice cube.
Well past their destination, no communications, could this be another Marie Celeste?
Reblogged this on 4timesayear's Blog.
They appear to have encountered ice pack which has slowed progrees. Using the automated 2 hourly position, speed etc on their website we find that up until
02 Sept 12.00 78 deg. 05 mins 5.0kts, -4 deg C. they were making steady progress. Then:-
03 Sept 10.00 77deg. 04 mins 4.9kts. i.e, 61′ in 22 hours (av. 2.8’/hr.)
Then only 7′ in the next 10hours:-
03 Sept 20.00 76deg. 57 mins. 2.6 kts
04 Sept 06.00 76deg. 33 mins 0.5 kts
Effectively stopped. Probably by ice.
Oh dear! They may get stuck….
Is anyone putting together a rescue fleet???
Thanks for keeping us informed of Mr. Hadow’s “progress”. The BBC seems to have lost interest in the expedition!
Poor BBC. What ya going to do when your “sailing on open waters to the North Pole” gets stopped by ice pack long before the destination? Ya quietly fold your tents and slink away into the night.
The BBC’s icebreaking tanker is an icebreaker, built to ARC7 standard. So no story, then. Read it up.