Sebastian radio’d in this morning at 5 am (we changed the clocks an

> hour forward today – so it was actually 4 AM!!) from the middle of

> the arctic desert.

>

> I had the feeling that he’s finding it mentally hard : pulling those

> heavy sleds over large hillocks of ice – up and down, with the same

> landscape stretching out to the end of the horizon. And he’s only on

> Day 4!  But he managed to radio into his mother to reassure her!

> Although I don’t know if I’m as reassurd as all that, as now I’m

> worrying about him becoming depressed!  He said that the monotony is

> the worst. I’s a real work-in-progress to work on one’s mind so as

> not to dwell on the minute-to-minute discomfort, effort and

> especially the freezing cold.  Mealtimes must be the highlight of

> the day! I don’t expect he’ll have a birthday cake on April 3rd!

>

> As he’s coming back through Paris, I told him that he would have a

> hot bath waiting for him, a comfortable bed and his favorite mutton

> stew!

>

> I told him that he didn’t HAVE to do this and if it got too tough

> that no-one would blame him for quitting, but he said he couldn’t

> quit as he would let so many people down – including his sponsors – but

> mostly himself.

> Oh well, he’s a big boy, but I wonder if he was quite able to

> anticipate the grueling day-to-day ritual.  I think he’s being

> incredibly brave, myself, and I hope he will be recognized as doing

> this as a mission to help save the Arctic, which is not protected as

> the Antarctic is.  The Arctic is so much more at risk, as it is

> surrounded by countries which, in fact, would probably prefer that

> the ice melt as it would create a passage in which all kinds of

> boats will be able to go through, creating all the problems that are

> evident such as  non-stop tour liners, tankers, cargo boats etc.,

> going from the US. Russia, Canada and the Baltic countries, creating

> chaos and destruction to the natural habitat, churning up the

> pristine waters, creating oil spills etc. etc. and the prospection

> of earning billions and billions in mining for oil….

>

> He’s hoping people are following his daily diary – he especially

> mentioned his nephews –  and I reassured him that everyone probably

> was because I have been bugging the entire Earth about him! He was

> especially gratified that Pat Murphy’s son’s class was making his

> trip a class project, so please Pat, let him know—

>

> Over and out, to quote the end of my conversation with him…..

>

> – penelope

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85.4600n, 077.6071w

Like nomads trekking across thee white desert of another planet we advance
one laborious step after the next. The cold temperatures crystallize the
water deposits preventing them from bonding with the ice. The result is
like pulling the 200 lbs sledge through sand. If you have ever wandered
what it feels like to be a plow farm horse, I recommend trekking
through the Arctic sea ice. The terrain is never flat even when
hitting nice pans which has been rare. Mostly it has been rubble fields
which slow us down and can be quite discouraging when they sprawl on
for miles. The mood varies between euphoric and upbeat, and frustrated
and doubtful. All this in the silent and lonely universe of the intense
effort punctuated only by the sound of heavy breathing: your own. Still
the Arctic desert reveals itself to us in all of its majestic and
endless subtleties in the way that it only does to those committing to
traveling its unforgiving realm. The lunar vistas are simply
breathtaking. No life here, and no sounds but for the cruddy break of
our feat on the ice and our constant marching companion: the steady and
heavy rhythm of our breath. Temperatures have remained around -38F or
so, dropping somewhat by days end. The sun does not rise above 15
degrees from the horizon at its apex, but no longer sets either. We are
now in 24 hour daylight. Today we traveled for 8 hours and covered 6
nautical miles true North but likely walked 8 on account of the
shifting course forced on us by the obstacles. We have crawled into our
tent and pried our sleeping bags from its frosty grip: we quite
literally have to pull them open cracking the ice that seized them from
the cold! Our current position is N85°27.600 and W77°36.099. Time to
sleep. Thank you for staying with us!

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85.3623N, 77.6615W

We are doing well and plugging away at
the miles. The cold temperatures have been making our stoves hard to
light, but we have a few tricks to make it easier. The majority of our travel today was over broken ice, with a few old leads to change
up the scenery. Old leads are cracks in the ice that have frozen over
enough that you are able to ski or snowshoe on them. When we are
trending in a northerly direction it is like getting out of
bumper-to-bumper traffic and getting on a free-way with no cars. It’s
easy and fast mileage compared to the bumps and zig-zagging of rubble
zones. Typically it’s not common to find old leads heading north-south,  but we’ll keep
our fingers crossed that we get some!

The temperature in the morning was a frigid -38F, but in general
the day was nice, with sun and little if any wind. We traveled 6.8
nautical miles North ending at N85.21.738, W77.39.695. Check back
tomorrow for another dispatch!

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