Over the Top. To the North Pole by Icebreaker.

together we are about to embark on a journey through the polar ice to the very top of the world just why on earth anyone would want to do that is a fair question which we will attempt to answer along the way the point of departure was more mengsk the most northerly city in the world but one which due to the remnants of the Gulf Stream remains ice-free throughout the rigid Arctic winter despite being at the same latitude as the north coast of Alaska our route to the North Pole takes us between the island groups of Svalbard and Franz Josef land and runs north always north today moments cos sadly down-at-heel but during the dark days of World War two it was the destination for vital supplies carried by the year-round brutal Arctic Convoys an imposing memorial to those who gave their lives to this endeavor takes the form of a towering statue overlooking the harbor [Music] [Music] photography was not allowed in the docks so a distant glimpse of red and this photograph of her at the pole will be the introduction to the star of our expedition she is the llamo who's named appropriately means the end of the earth and it is her unique qualities that make our amazing journey possible [Music] the undocking of any ship is always accompanied by an air of excitement and anticipation of what lies ahead in this case it was greatly increased due to the nature of the ship itself in our remote and unreal destination and further enhanced by the playing of stirring patriotic music over the PA system [Music] yamo is a nuclear-powered icebreaker that was completed in 1992 she is the youngest of the arctica class of icebreakers of which another example is seen here [Music] Murmansk is on the Kola inlet 20 miles from the Barents Sea and as the Yamal draws 36 feet navigation down the inlet means waiting for high tide and requires careful piloting here the harbour pilot comes aboard [Music] jemelle is a working icebreaker during the winter months but between July and September she makes regular runs taking tourists to the North Pole that she can reach the pole is never in question but even for llamó there is no absolute guarantee that she can always do so in time to maintain the schedule [Applause] the pilot leaves the ship close to the mouth of the inlet and with his departure Gamal severs her last ties with the land [Music] we encountered fog as we approached the first of the ice despite having radar regulations requires the presence of a lookout on the bow although in trivial amounts compared to what lay ahead the first sight of floating ice is always exciting it wasn't long before occasional chunks escalated into almost total coverage but it was still weak and was pushed aside with contemptuous ease [Music] the bridge is open 24 hours a day and provides a fascinating opportunity to observe the navigation of a unique ship for days at the time through solid ice specialized charts based on data from satellites are downloaded from the internet but this was Yama's first trip in the 2005 season and even in July the ice sheet can still be solid with its condition as yet unverified by actual observation it is a requirement on any ship that a lifeboat drill be held within 24 hours of leaving port in our case this was preceded by a briefing from Laurie the expedition leader followed by a demonstration of the use of survival suits now there are some life jackets on the ship but we don't use those those are not normally used what we use are these hydro suits and we're going to have a demonstration of that in just a minute so when you look at your cabinets you won't find things like that they there are special storage areas at the lifeboat Pacific stations you'll find out more about that shortly and when you go to the station you will be given one of these and there will be people there crew members there who will assist you if you require assistance to get into it I want to try to avoid so I didn't assistance so I think we have somebody is going to demonstrate to use the viscous [Music] so you want you may dismiss in the ordinary about Rossum [Music] okay [Music] remember you always [Music] okay go you want following the briefing we made our way on deck for the lifeboat drill very very effective [Music] [Music] [Music] the ice gradually began to thicken up with occasional leads and open areas called polynyas you soon learn to become accustomed to the continuous rumble and vibration that accompanies life aboard a working ice breaker [Music] on a ship the surrounding environment is normally always moving and it was quite strange to be progressing through what appeared to be solid surroundings EML can maintain a speed of 3 knots through ice eight feet thick so ice of a lesser thickness was of little consequence to have progress I make no apologies for dwelling on the breaking of ice it is after all fundamental to making this amazing journey and is in reality endlessly fascinating to watch [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] we have to follow there's obviously people up there once but just a few miles from the mall for myself I've also seen polar bear tracks very close to walk fall on another occasion so while you want to see them we also don't want them to get too far out on the ice and hundreds of miles from the nearest land we came across the first of several polar bears we encountered on the trip this mother with a cub about six months old had probably given birth to twins but these bears live close to the edge of survival and hunting has to be good to be able to nurture two cubs polar bears are the undisputed top predator in the Arctic and they fear nothing these Bears have almost certainly never seen a human or a ship and to them we merely represent a potential meal their normal diet is seals and the Bears need to be out on the ice in order to hunt them their very survival is being threatened in areas where global warming is already resulting in early thawing and late freezing of the sea ice [Music] despite our presence this mother evidently felt sufficiently relaxed to suckle her cub [Music] their skin is black beneath the fur and polar bears have been seen holding either a poor or even a piece of ice in front of their noses to disguise their appearance while stalking their prey their sense of smell is so acute that they can detect the scent of a seal below the ice one kilometer away [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yamo has triple screws and these are one of the three sets of levers used to control the power and rotation of the propellers an ice breaker does not merely plow heedlessly ahead but has to be navigated continuously by her crew as they picked their way through the path of least resistance while maintaining a general course in the desired direction [Music] barbecues are always a regular and welcome feature on expedition cruises and we bundled up to enjoy the first of these day [Music] [Music] every one including one of the Russian waitresses in particular obviously enjoyed themselves while the ship was parked in the endless expanse of ice [Music] [Music] [Music] we soon encounter the second polar bear with cub were not quite sure what to make of us [Music] perhaps one way to spot bears is to look out for the birds which escort them in the hope of benefiting from these top predators [Music] ah that feels so good [Music] the booming noise of the hull against the ice caused some alarm as we got underway the pack was now thick enough to become an issue as cracks split open and then closed again while the ship forced aside sheets of ice the size of football fields perhaps this would be a good time to describe some of the technical aspects of this amazing vessel the energy from two nuclear reactors heats water to produce steam for the turbines generating the electrical energy for the motors which drives the propellers power on each of three shafts is 25,000 horsepower for a total of 75,000 she is the most powerful ship for her size in the world this is a photo taken one on a scheduled engine room tour during which we were shown the reactors and the control room the propellers are 19 feet in diameter weigh 50 tons apiece and have four individual blades which can be replaced at sea spare blades are stored on deck they can handle immense blocks of ice which is spat out behind the ship ml is 500 feet long and a hundred feet wide and draws 36 feet she has a displacement of 23,000 500 tons and a top speed of 22 knots ice 8 feet thick can be broken while maintaining a speed of 3 knots her normal ice limit is estimated at 16 feet 4 pressure ridges of up to 30 feet have been broken through maximum daily fuel use while braking heavy ice is 300 grams of uranium having the physical dimensions of about 4 squares of chocolate if diesel powered the equivalent daily fuel requirement would be 160 tons or 52 thousand gallons which would obviously limit operating range yamo has a range of approximately 4 years air jets from the bubbling system exit the hull 30 feet below the water at 3 places along each side of the ship and they can deliver enormous quantities of air to aid in ice breaking they suppose the bottom by this yeah I'm sorry too German of spell over Thomas Diaz from initial Newton yeah given up one Oh we now encountered the first ice thick enough and tough enough to bring Yamal to a halt when this happens an ice breaker backs up and rams the ice for as many times as necessary until she breaks through ice that has survived for more than one year is called multi-year ice and it becomes increasingly tough the longer it survives it turns blue in color as the air is squeezed out of it [Music] the monitor in the lobby showed that we had barely reached 84 degrees north having started at 69 and being brought to a halt while still so far from the pole gave rise to the first niggling doubts as to whether we would be able to reach it before having to turn back in order for Yama to maintain her unforgiving schedule the next few minutes will dramatically illustrate the forces involved in breaking ice of this thickness and off the immense power required to overcome them you have only to think of the effort required to push aside just one of these blocks of ice let alone the forces required to break them in the first place [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] but we were brought to a standstill once again and reduced our average speed still further some of us began to mentally prepare ourselves for the idea that maybe it would be alright to sacrifice calling it Franz Josef land on the way back just so long as we could reach our goal of 90 degrees north perhaps it was time to invite King Neptune on board to ask his permission to enter his Arctic realm and to obtain the key to unlock the barriers that stood in her way [Music] [Music] on board bishop different countries of the world brave men so this is our captain me anything don't worry dude don't worry sir good evening here ladies and gentlemen [Music] say I'm worried she get prettiest an ocean is a fool ask him to be not so severe to be kind that's us and let us go further on our direction didn't know the poles my enemy crow sure when you know all of us have such a beautiful not the cold let us ask him also about it you wish I'm occlusion and on I am warden him with this the day it's very very important key this is the key from Arctic is this captain is an experienced one is high qualified specialist yeah yeah now then crow it's do you sleep like polar bears into the snow or maybe into the comfortable plebeians into the cabins whaddaya want onancock Polonia Kippy if you could be happier than me and what about your mail do you like real tourists there are delicious European dishes to go to the pole is cheap at any price there is this tremendous man or maybe woman that has find him partner maybe a little bit on this one let us see before the first song is Swan that group of people which is on starboard side oldest provokes people which is on port besides it's only this power daddy's moments right Torrance good [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] it seemed that Neptune's key did not fit the lock and within a few hours we were at a standstill once again this time stopped by a pressure ridge reported at nearly 30 feet thick there was now really serious concern being expressed about our timetable and the helicopter was made ready to reconnoitre a route through the remaining distance while it was away the ship continued to back up and RAM the obstinate Ridge without success [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] finally on the fourteenth attempt the ml broke through and we were on our way once more [Music] [Music] [Music] they were now no longer any open leads and pools of blue meltwater and pressure ridges stretch to the distant horizon in every direction one of these brought us to a standstill yet again [Music] [Music] now at 89 degrees and 55 minutes progress was torturous and we had to battle for every milestone [Music] a fogbow created by ice crystals in the atmosphere formed a gateway in the direction of the pole we were close but still not there and the clock was relentlessly ticking would we be able to break through the final obstacles or would we like Shackleton at the South Pole we have to turn back just a few miles short of our destination [Music] the grubby appearance on the underside of the ice is caused by algae which are the very basis of the Arctic food chain algae feed the zooplankton which in turn are the staple diet for baleen whales and fish the fish are food for mammals such as the toothed whales walrus and seals which are prey for the polar bears despite the hostile environment the ice that is home for the algae is bathed in six months of continuous daylight during the Arctic summer which provides the energy to fuel the growth [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] over the next few miles yells progress was slow slower and almost but not quite dead stop [Music] under the relentless pressure of her immense power I slowly and reluctantly cracked and eventually gave way to let us through this is a view looking down on the teeth painted on her bow chomping their way through the ice we will have a better view of the teeth later [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] gradually we began to gain confidence that we were going to make it in time even though our average speed was down to two knots the monitor in the lobby showed our next Waypoint to be the pole itself 90 degrees our course appeared to be very erratic but this was because the lines of longitude were now so close together that a deviation of only a few hundred yards would be greatly exaggerated on the plot I saw quite a few of you around GPS a political and you notice will actually get a slightly further way through fall and the moment heading east because they came to a head expect the voltage solution have your flashlights realize we were gonna get do it follow the easy way to just this second just before they coming down here I check one more time we're beginning to make the turn again we've been about 14 miles away from some time now and was about thirty miles of the moment so all beings well we should now what should you get right everybody to come we will have champagne Friday you're up to your lips until we get there you may do so we're all set up so bad to do all the herbs and things like that ready and then you to fill the hole of the page but the captain will not be using the GPS that is the big Greek one that is you can see so easily he has a little television speed up above the steering controls are the extreme left hand side and he'll be watching time so to tell you things to Everett will give him room to give him space and also even though is very exciting please still keep your voices down and I know what everybody up there is difficult and if we find it's getting too noisy forgive me if I get on the PA system and said tell everybody please just keep a little bit quiet because he still has to do with his officers with the announcement and so on he will attempt to get directly to 90 degrees now it could be a tiny bit of because we have three GPS positions of the ship and the one that that doing speed is using is in the center of the ship which is not very rigid so we're pretty confident we get the ship directly at 19.00 but it may or may not read that up there because but it will be within the confines of the ship which GPS is using and then once we torture there we'll have a toast adaptable before the toast and you can spend some time after take photographs with the GPS position and so on and as soon as we can we will start the truck to the next stage of the process which is to get oxidized I say a process because it may not be as simple as just getting off the ship at that point four or five miles as we approach the pole they are looking for large patterns of stop ice because occasionally they don't we just franchisor open water if we can if we're lucky we'll be able to stop at the pool and that's it but he made beef to move in order to park the ship into some stronger ice besides my GPS would not read belowdecks and by the time I'd figured out where on the ship to go we had moved and this was the closest reading I was able to record mulled wine was served on the foredeck while preparations were made for a barbecue on the ice among the first ashore were the three armed guards deputized to keep us safe from polar bears who might consider as part of the barbecue you can only tell when you have reached the top of the world by looking at the GPS and of course in this crystal desert the pole just looks identical to everywhere else for a thousand miles but this imaginary spot has some strange ephemeral characteristics for example if you continue north in a straight line towards the pole and you fail to stop when you get there you will find yourself traveling south even though you have not changed direction in fact no matter which direction you set out from the pole you will always be traveling south the Sun circles around almost parallel to the horizon higher or lower according to the season until September when it goes below the horizon and remains there for six months so there is only one day and one night per year at the poles all the lines of longitude come together in a single point so to travel around the world and pass from yesterday into tomorrow and back again takes but a moment among the passengers was a lady who celebrated her 90th birthday at 90 degrees north and she went around the world three times in under one minute just to be sure she got the date right the whole ice pack moves at four miles per day which equates to 300 yards per hour or five yards per minute during the time we were there chewing on our barbecue we had drifted at least one mile away from the pole here we can see the teeth painted on the bow the paint has suffered but the special polymer coatings are intact a number of hardy individuals went swimming in the freezing water which at the pole is over 13,000 feet deep the air temperature hovered around freezing and never got much colder than that during the entire trip gonna jump Oh [Music] the return journey south was comparatively smooth sailing because yam L was able to follow the path she had cut through the ice on her northbound track this view of the lobby monitor shows our northbound track in white and our southbound in red although the two tracks are parallel the red does not overlay the white which illustrates how much the ice has moved over the surface of the earth during the intervening time the monitor also shows that at 89 degrees we are still quite close to the pole and the east-west deviations are exaggerated due to the closeness of the lines of longitude it shows our speed to be a brisk 10 point 4 knots [Music] with the weather so fine it was time for our much-anticipated helicopter sightseeing flight around the ship if we have an opportunity to fly we jump on it any time of day or night in other words if we get cleared weather we will use it and you might think at times that's a little bit extreme if we get you up too early or we start something late at night but it's possible if we do not do that with that we simply don't get any flying time we will try to get everybody on two or three flights up and around the ship to watch it actually in action as it breaks the ice and you'll be able to pop up near the power to see it crashing through you'll be able to go up high and get a see of the whole of a the ice field and the ship time little tart working its way through it and also using the helicopters to make landings and we have a system that we use where we will give you all in number and we will call you to the helicopters by number in other words the you will not always be with exactly the same people because sometimes we will only have 12 people in the helicopter if we're doing a just a flying a sightseeing flight we are limited to the six sort of windows on each side so we we limit it to 12 so you have more opportunity to take photographs if we're doing a landing we'll put you in 20 at a time you line up close to the helicopter deck but not where you're exposed to it again we will help you with that to keep you just a little bit back just in case anything happens on that deck you don't want to be anywhere near a flying steel or anything that's moving around we're not talking about accidents you know that there's a tremendous downdraft of the the bi8 helicopter and if there's anything at all accidentally left they can pick it up and throw it like a bullet across the deck so we keep you at a safe distance same unsure when we land on sure we will have a designated landing spot and a designated assembly point and the assembly point it will be quite some distance from the helicopter we will always have a staff person at the door I will have a staff person at the same good point and we will be communicating and you just wait for our signal to move forward to the helicopters to come back but when we do our landings then you really need to test well because you'll be able to make a helicopter for one or two hours of the land and totally exposed we suggest that if we're going to land but you eventually do put on the sunscreen because even if it is a little bit overcast it's surprisingly high radiation levels at this latitude and especially as you are in surrounded by either water or ice and which reflects the radiation with only 12 passengers per flight this involved eight flights and the ship stop between each one [Music] that evening the corridors were deserted while everyone took advantage of the special cocktail evening at the bar you gotta buy that Big Bear food and service aboard the ship were first-class we deviated from our northbound track as we turned east towards Franz Josef land and Yamal had to return to ice breaking once more but we were now sufficiently far south that although the ice was still blue multi-year type it lacked the strength of the ice we had encountered further north we encountered another bear but this one wanted nothing to do with us and stayed well away from the ship and just let you know that jason has been seeing quite a few bearded seals up on the bridge and some ringed seals as well scattered around so we're getting into an area of wildlife so after you finish your dinner it's worth coming up and going on the deck and seeing a good spot the ice became progressively weaker and took on a lacy appearance as we drew closer to the southern fringe of the pack Franz Josef land was discovered in 1873 and is an archipelago of 191 islands spread out over 8,000 square miles our first view of land in almost two weeks was bleak and forbidding although the ice presented no challenge to llamo it precluded the use of the zodiacs for making a landing and the cloud cover was marginal for helicopters finally a decision was reached to make a helicopter landing on Champa Island here the main points of interest were the perfectly spherical boulders and the startling mosses lichens and wild flowers so unexpected in this bleak and apparently barren place [Music] the boulders were formed in a layer of buried sand many millions of years ago when the area was a desert this was followed by glaciation and then much later with the melting of the glaciers the land began to rise and the boulders were revealed as the meltwater washed away the topsoil our next stop was at Rubini rock where millions of seabirds used the deform basaltic columns as nesting sites [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] at Takaya Bay on nearby hooker Island is an abandoned Soviet weather station which was our next stop even in high summer this was a bleak place although Hardy wildflowers are doing their best among the litter [Music] [Music] one can only imagine what it must be like living here during the winter the resident staff were cut off and marooned here from 1941 until 1945 during World War two it is hard to believe but the Graf Zeppelin airship called here in 1931 [Music] a proposed landing at flora point had to be abandoned due to the weather now the time had come to leave the ice behind and head back to Murmansk [Music] [Music] the season wind were greater than on our outward journey but they were on the bow and caused us no discomfort [Music] it was in these waters at the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk had tragically sunk in August 2000 with the loss of all on board she had been based out of Murmansk [Music] although the coast of Siberia still lay over the horizon increasing numbers of birds tells us that we were not far from land [Music] [Music] the notch in the landmass marked the entrance to the Kohler Inlet to starboard of it is the Kola Peninsula where the deepest borehole ever drilled in the Earth's mantle is to be found it is more than 40,000 feet deep and rocks 2.7 billion years old have been found at its base his purpose is purely scientific research we had celebrated the 4th of July on the way north and now as we entered the Kohler Inlet we celebrated Bastille Day July the 14th for the benefit of the large group of French passengers it was our last dinner together onboard so it was a bittersweet affair with the sweet part provided by Baked Alaska [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] the pilot was back on board and it was close to midnight when a mole was greeted by her escort of powerful tugs we would leave the ship at 8:00 the following morning and she would be leaving for her next trip to the North Pole at 4:00 that same afternoon she had kept to her schedule [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] our amazing journey was over and we were back where it had started just 12 days earlier why did I go just for the experience and the memories will stay with me for the rest of my life [Music]

Channel: FlemingYachts

Views: 298,920

Rating: 4.6529589 out of 5

Keywords: North Pole, Arctic, Icebreaker, Fleming

Id: FdtAH-RqFH0

Length: 83min 44sec (5024 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 11 2018