If there is one thing that we can be sure about during this expedition, it is that we can never really relax as we drift across an ocean of ice. Sunday night at 3am the sea ice came alive. Beginning with an innocuous grinding and tapping on the hull, the pressure and sound rapidly increased to a deafening noise inside the boat. At times a constant tapping as the ice squeezed and the pressure increased, then rising to a high pitched screeching like fingernails running over a blackboard as the blocks of ice slide by. Tara handled the onslaught well, being pushed in all directions we have now come to rest on a pressure ridge with a nine degree list to port, not huge but big enough to give us the impression of being at sea. After a very busy week spent reinstalling scientific...

Departing Oslo this morning under a blue sky and mirror calm sea, we cast off the mooring lines even more excited for our upcoming adventure. Tying up alongside the museum of the Fram, the ship of Fridtjof Nansen, has provided us with an inspiring insight into an expedition from the ‘heroic age’ of polar exploration. While the conception of Tara was based on the same principles as the Fram, to see this vast wooden ship in all her splendor has given us even more of a feeling of connection to this historic vessel. During our brief stop we also had the pleasure to meet Liv Arnesen, a Norwegian adventurer who was the first women to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole in 1994. Liv is planning to Ski to the North Pole from Canada next year and will possibly finish her ...

The Yacht Tara has just set sail for a two year arctic expedition during IPY. Tara is now home to only a handful of people taking the expedition into the ice where they will become frozen in over winter. They are then intending on drifting across the arctic during which time they will carry out a huge range of science including meteorology, nivology (snow density, thickness and water content), glaciology, oceanography, atmospheric and oceanic chemistry, marine biology, zoology and physiological studies of the crew. The UN Environment Programme is provid...