Long Distance Information

I got a call from Janet today at about 10AM. The ship spent the night east of Longyearbyen, and passed back into cel phone range on the way out to sea today.

They overnighted in a sheltered cove, and went out in a zodiac this morning to visit an abandoned Russian mine. Not sure exactly where, but for those who are cartographically-inclined, here's a map. On shore, two of the crew stood by with rifles as they hiked around.

Janet was happy to see flat water in the coves, as she's planning on videotaping from kayaks. Should be interesting. They'll need to drop the kayaks into the water from the ship, then enter them from the zodiac. For those who haven't been in kayaks, they're very easy to capsize. For those who haven't been in the arctic, the water is very cold. She'll be wearing a drysuit, but it's still a bit dangerous.

These are shots of Janet playing kayak polo in the Hudson, where she spent plenty of time in the water. She wasn't crazy about getting into the Hudson, but at least it was warm.

Janet says the participants are spending more time falling down aboard ship than standing up. A concern, as they're in relatively still water -- the much rougher open ocean should be interesting. Her bunk is small but cozy -- and there's a large board across the side so that she doesn't fall out in rough seas. Not much storage, so she's sleeping with her cameras and books.

They're heading down Isfjorden tonight, then they plan to sail north for three days - straight through open sea, day and night. They plan on exploring Woodfjorden, near the northwest shore of Spitsbergen.