Sail to the North Pole

Cornishman

Cornishman

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Professor Lovelock, he who first sounded alarms about global warming several years ago, has just had a book published on the subject. During a BBC interview yesterday he claimed that we might well be able to "go to the North Pole in a sail boat" in 30 years time.
I won't be around then, but I guess magnetic compasses won't be much use on that trip.
 
Navigation to the northpole

thats ok - just use your GPS and depth gauge .... anyone got any charts for the northpole ?
 
Icebreakers go there regularly these days, well, at least on a yearly basis. I was off north Greenland on a science cruise a year and a half ago, and we met up with "Polar Stern", a big German research ship on her way back south.
The general consensus among the scientists seems to be that the Arctic ocean will no longer have permanent ice in 50-80 years. It seems that the presumed melting of the Antarctic over the past decade or three was based on sea salinity measurements, and it turns out that it was the Arctic that has been melting all along. Once it has gone, at least in the summer, Greenland will start to lose its ice more quickly.
 
Why won't you be around in 30 years then? Get yourself cryogenically frozen,with sailing instructions to thaw you out,on your boat, at the pole of your choice,2036!
 
If he is on his boat at the South Pole I think he will be on land, even if the ice has melted. Unlike the Arctic, Antarctica is a land mass.
 
As a Cornishman you may be interested to know that Seacore Ltd, based at Gweek, spent 4 weeks drilling for research purposes at the North Pole last June.

The ice was only 3m thick.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Professor Lovelock, he who first sounded alarms about global warming several years ago, has just had a book published on the subject. During a BBC interview yesterday he claimed that we might well be able to "go to the North Pole in a sail boat" in 30 years time.


[/ QUOTE ]
Not likely. Few days ago I read that magnetic North Pole is moving inland. In 30 years it will be in Siberia.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I guess magnetic compasses won't be much use on that trip.


[/ QUOTE ] You get some pretty large deviation figures. 180 deg. north of the magnetic north pole in fact. I guess you would need a compass specially designed for the angle of dip as well.

How did Arctic explorers navigate in the days before GPS?

The same applies at the south pole presumably.
 
Decca only if the area was covered by Decca. Decca was only developed during ww2 to aid the D-day landings. At least that is my belief. There were Arctic explorers before then!
 
"How did Arctic explorers navigate in the days before GPS?"

Astro- nav. - they used the moon a lot , and of course were able to take sun sights 24 hrs a day !!!
 
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