True North

The captain and crew were trying to set a record – furthest journey north ever by an polar expedition passenger ship.  While it’s not quite the race for the North Pole, it would still be quite an accomplishment.  If we actually accomplished it.

We were way up North.  The record was 83 degrees and change.  We were gunning for it, but the ice that stretches from a certain point to the North Pole and back down all around had other ideas.

We made it all the way to 81 degrees, 47 minutes North (of course, if it were South, we would have been a bit lost).   That means we were just about 492 nautical miles from 90 degrees – the true top of the world.  That’s the point where the full ice that covers the North Pole started at this point in the year.  

The National Geographic Explorer (or Nat Geo Explorer as us polar insiders call it!  Okay, us polar wannabe insiders call it that) can cut through ice, but isn’t a true ice breaker.  Going further wasn’t going to happen.  Too risky, too dangerous, and why break all that ice to be a footnote to a footnote in polar history.

Still, it was pretty remarkable to be that far north.  One impact is that we were out of internet satellite range (which is spotty around Svalbard, but non-existent above it).  Okay, so that’s not healthy to focus on!  Anyhow, the further south we got in Antarctica was 66 degrees and some-odd minutes, so this was approximately 935 nautical miles further North than we got South.  

“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.” Quote from some really old guy.