Swedish Icebreaker to Greenland: Devils and Details

The ship leaves Thule, Greenland July 26, 2015 for Petermann Fjord. About 50 scientists are all scrambling to get gear and paperwork in order. This includes permits, licenses, and insurance to travel and work on land, ice, and sea from government authorities of Denmark and Greenland as well as Canada and Nunavut:

Guns need to be registered, communication devices declared, and shipping lists prepared for custom brokers and harbor agents. All equipment has to be in Sweden on the ship May-15, that is, I have less than 2 months to purchase, assemble, pack, and ship about 3000 lbs of gear, some of it sensitive electronic equipment. All of this is terribly tedious and boring work. One does not just step onto a ship, enjoy the ride, and post pretty pictures on the web.

Devils are in the details, and lots of details bedevil me these days, but some good happened today: I got word that my PhD student Peter Washam will be going with me. The British ice coring team needs a young and strong worker on the glacier to help with the drilling of holes about as deep as the Eifel Tower in Paris, France or the Empire State Building in New York, USA is high. Peter is eager to go as he is already preparing the ocean sensors for deployment through these holes. We today worked together on sensors that arrived last week from British Columbia.