March 31, 2009
The title says it all! Just under three weeks to go and Steve and I have both been sneezing, coughing and feeling rough - a touch of “Man” Flu methinks! Actually Im quite happy to have the flu now, better than when we are on the ice! That happened to us in 2005 and was very unpleasant. The ow’s represent the areas of my body which are hurting at the moment! I twisted by “good” ankle this morning - my “good” ankle being the one which used to be the bad one but after surgery became the good one compared to the other one! Confused - me to! My back seems to be in sympathy with ankles as I’ve been getting backache, something I have never suffered from before! Enough moaning - all will come well!
Steve and I meet up in Guernsey next week for our last get together before we leave on the 18th April. We are both having our work Appraisals(!) and doing some more Press stuff! Soon the trip will begin and we can get into full on expedition mode. At the moment work is busier than ever and we still have a few things to sort out. Not long now…………..
March 17, 2009
In the summer of 1888, Fridtjof Nansen made the first crossing of the Greenland Ice sheet. For the duration of his explorations, Nansen and his party essentially disappeared from the face of the earth! We are in a very different position today and aim to keep in touch on a daily basis. The norm for most Polar expeditions is to carry an Iridium satelite phone. The Iridium system is an array of polar orbiting satelites which enables phone calls to be made from virtually any place on earth.
We will be carrying 2 Iridium 9505A handsets which are to be seen on most expeditions these days. Thanks must go here to Steve’s postman, Tony, who has been kind enough to lend us his phone that he had for a recent expedition to the Himilayas! These phones will enable us to call in every day with information for the web site and are also there for emergency use. In addition, we are taking an asus Eee PC 901. This little beast is a solid state pc, so no moving parts to freeze up! It is very light, compact and with a good battery life. This, combined with the Iridium phone will enable us to send pictures back as well. It does work, but sending pictures over the Iridium system is slow so there will be no high resolution shots. The picture below took 3.5 minutes to send, so somewhat slower than the broadband many of us are now so used to, but still amazing to think that we will be able to send and receive e-mail in the middle of nowhere!! The final piece of the puzzle is a 25w solar panel. It is most likely that the laptop will need charging each week and we hope to do this during the day by securing the solar panel to the pulk as we travel.
Electronic equipment is not at its best in the extreme cold so we will have to take care of this kit. During the day it is normal to have to carry electronic equipment and certainly batteries close to the body in a pocket to keep them warm before they will work effectively. At night an assortment of equipment will get to share our sleeping bags to keep it warm so it is just as well this gear is quite compact these days!
March 13, 2009
Two posts in two days - wow!!
Have made some changes to the website now in preparation for our leaving. When we are on the ice you will be able to hit the links at the top of the home page to see our latest blog entry from the ice including data recorded and also another link to the map showing our latest recorded position. Cool eh!
Steve is busy writing up some other info. for the site including equipment lists and more importantly the contents of our med kit. This is so that our Doctor can look at the list to tell what to use if treatment is needed!
March 12, 2009
Says it all really! 5 weeks to go! We leave Guernsey on the 18th April and that’s 5 weeks this Saturday! 6 weeks on Saturday, and we should have 30 miles under our belts. 10 weeks on Saturday we should be finished!
Steve and I still have a few things left to do, a bit of sewing here and there, a few items of food to buy (Pork Scratchings!) and there’s some PR stuff outstanding. Apart from that everything is in order!
I think we will both be glad to get going now. So much work goes into organising an expedition that there is a real sense of relief when you actually start!
Still out early in the morning pulling that damned tyre!
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