Anne Arundel County Public School:
Planned Research Cruise Route on SV Toboggan
Hey guys! I’m going to Canada. So what?, you might be thinking as you read this.You might have summer adventures planned, too. Maybe you’re heading to a nearby beach, going up to the mountains or visiting family across the country. But I bet my suitcase looks a lot different than yours! My summer fun began with hitting the surf in Ocean City, Maryland with my family and hiking the Appalachian trail with my best friends. But for now I am putting my surfboard in the basement for a long nap until next summer and grabbing my warmest winter gear because tomorrow I leave Annapolis and fly to the Arctic! I actually fly to Greenland first and then hop on a 39-foot sailing vessel, called a Toboggan, which is waiting to take me to the far reaches of Canada. Of course, I will still be in the Northern Hemisphere so while it’s summer up there, too, temperatures can drop to freezing even while the sun stays high in the sky all day and night. Come to think of it, I will have to pack my eye mask to sleep!
It’s a lot of travel just to get to the coldest and quietest parts of Canada. It’s called the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, which are a series of scattered islands that reach up towards the North Pole. Through this maze of islands the watery passages are jam-packed with ice and it’s only once a year, if at all, that it opens. A history of lost ships trying to make their way through that very same place reveals just how treacherous it it is to navigate. Over the last few decades, warming trends have allowed about a dozen boats of varying sizes to make their way through the passage annually, and this summer we hope to be on one of them. The area I will be spending most of my time in is called Lancaster Sound. It is home to the Canadian Inuit people and wild polar marine animals like seal, walrus and the polar bear, and has become a visit site for transient international mariners, researchers and now tourists. The number of people that live up there could fill two Superbowl sized stadiums and are spread out in a handful of towns around an area the size of Alaska. They are tough, resilient and bad-ass because they have to be in that dynamic freeze and thaw environment. Click here and decide for yourself just how amazing the Northwest Passage really is!
So, why is this lady sailing in the ice to a land of dangers including polar bears and icebergs with three guys on a small boat with no shower? Conveniences and hygiene aside, It’s simple: I sail for scientific advancement. I’m an Arctic explorer and it’s a title you can know to be true after having mapped out uncharted waters and having helped discover new knowledge for humanity’s understanding of the natural polar world. Exploration does not come without putting comfort and personal preferences aside, pushing both your body and mind to the brink. Trust, respect and teamwork is the key to survival and success in the game of scientific polar exploration. You may not believe it but I am really not a thrill-seeker but more of a team player. There are countless stories of what can go wrong when the people on a mission at sea do not share that philosophy.
Choosing exploration has its rewards such as witnessing the enchantment of the northern lights overhead upon a return cruise trip in late Fall. Just imagine after months at sea in the Arctic, pushing to meet an extraordinarily complex mission, you set sail for Maryland and all of a sudden, solar activity above you dances like glowing green ribbons overhead for hours. It’s like nature’s very own nightclub! No TVshow or YouTubevideo will ever come close to the fascinating wonder nature reveals if you just make the time to observe.
I always was an observer and that is why I am now becoming a scientist. Being a sailing adventurer teaches one patience and acute observational awareness. A trait of any good scientist is mastering one’s mindfulness in nature. The scientific process typically starts with an observation. Then questions inevitably emerge and the obsberver forms a hypothesis. This educated guess needs to be tested through experiments and, in my case, by analyzing field-collected measurements against satellite data where findings may or may not support my hypothesis. This summer we will endeavor to expand the observations of ice, the sea surface and the conditions where glaciers and the ocean meet in order to improve long-term monitoring of the warming trend in the Arctic. Other researchers this summer are exploring shipwrecks, tracking polar bears, and narwhals among other incredible studies. Find a research project you could imagine yourself leading because here you can search what a dozen other researchers are up to in the Northwest Passage while S/V Toboggan cruises along.