Departure is approaching. The activity of the day is mainly the arrival of new crewmembers and their way to the boat. Rotations with the dinghy are very long, we’re far away from the beach.

Today, we have an appointment with Glenn Sheehan, director of the “BASC” (Barrow Arctic Science Consortium). Last year they had welcome 2700 researchers. We talk about global warming and local consequences. Here, coastal erosion due to less pack ice is important. The rising of sea level is a concern too. A lot of infrastructures are almost at sea level. One of the many field researches is the capture of the methane which is trapped in the soil. If this methane was set free suddenly, consequences for our climate will be terrible. The stock is much more bigger than oil or coal. Researchers, here in Point Barrow, at the top of the world, try to find out if they can get this energy, use it and control it to be as safe as possible for the environment.

At 9h00, every body is on the dark beach waiting for the taxi to the village. The sky is grey, the sea quite calm comparing with this wind. The beach gives a deep sentiment of desolation. The thin strip of sand stretches till the Horizon between the Beaufort sea and the muddy waters of the lagoon. We drive on the dirty road, next to the first houses, we sight a polar bear searching for food. Our presence does not scared him. We keep going, staying around could be dangerous. The vill
age is grey, not charming at all but people we meet are very friendly. When we finish our clearance in, it’s 15h00, we rush on board. The boat was alone for too many hours. Tomorrow, we have an appointment with the director of the BASC (Barrow Arctic Science Consortium). Going on shore from our location takes on hour to one hour 10 minutes round trip. We re pleased to don’t have any big logistic tasks to do here.

We thought these two days in stand by, waiting for the immigration will be long but in fact we didn’t see the time running. There is always a lot to do onboard, maintenance, post-production or contacts with the team on shore keep us busy.

We’re getting impatient now to see mountains again.

We’re in one of the remotest place in the world and we receive lots of E-mails on to the Iridium. Usually we do have messages everyday but now summer vacations are finish in France and activities start back right away after couple weeks with slow motion, we feel it even in the north of the North. We use this day in maintenance, mailing, etc.
We can see the village far away, but we don’t have the right to go there till we officially cleared in the U.S.A. The immigration officer comes on Sunday morning. We take contact by VHF with the manager of the BASC (Barrow Arctic Science Consortium) to set an appointment when we’ll be free to go back and forth.