Tara Arctic - A New Zealander's Epic Voyage

Tara Arctic is about the expedition Grant Redvers led aboard Tara, formerly Sir Peter Blake's Seamaster, which drifted, frozen solid in pack ice, in the Arctic for 18 months during 2006-08. The expedition was a significant part of Damocles, the leading project for the European Union within the fourth International Polar Year. Damocles aimed to observe, understand, and quantify the Arctic climate changes to assist global warming decision-making. Grant Redvers was leader during the whole expedition. There was a changing complement of 22 scientists and seamen on board during the 18 months. As the Tara expedition was a French initiative, there were 15 Frenchmen as well as three Russians and one crew member from Estonia, Norway and the USA. An article in the prestigious magazine, Nature, discussing the expedition, said: ....on 28 May 2007, the ship came closer to the geographic North Pole than any ship ever before. At a latitude of 88 degrees and 32 minutes north, the Tara was just 160 kilometres away from the pole. That was not the only remarkable aspect about this expedition...'