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Polar Explorers Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen send daily dispatches during their unprecedented four-month journey to the North Pole and back. The expedition team will pull and paddle specially modified canoes across nearly 1,000 miles of shifting sea ice and open ocean. Their objective is to complete the first ever summer expedition to the North Pole and to highlight the growing issues surrounding global warming.
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Rest Day for the Weary

Jul 04, 2006
overcast, sun, 33.0 F, 0 nautical miles
Day 64. We finally got that rest day we had been hoping for. We were planning to sleep in; however, spent much of the morning (and rest of the day) fielding questions from reporters over our satellite phone.

A special thanks goes out to the Greenpeace media department for coordinating our calls. We feel this is time well spent as it allows us to talk to a larger audience about some of the dramatic changes due to global warming that we are seeing. We also were able to tell our polar bear story which is always a good bridge to talking about how global warming is affecting them.

The remainder of the day was fairly uneventful; the exception being food. Even though we are not travelng our stomachs are still in 'acquire calories' mode. While no one was looking we added additional cheese and salami to our dinner.

The sun came out for the first time in a long while and we were amazed at the ice all around us. It is on days like today that we really begin to fathom how vast this place is.

But it is not infinite. The ice on the Arctic Ocean has already decreased by an area twice the size of Texas since the late 1980s. Scientists also believe the Arctic Ocean will be ice free in summer in less than 50 years. That does not bode well for the polar bear.

The bright sun has kept us up longer than we would like. Not a big worry as the Hilleberg Hotel is warm and cozy and we are planning on another rest day tomorrow. Hopefully, we will dream of all the things we miss so very far away.

Today's picture: ice and snow. The july 3rd view of the Arctic Ocean... under sunny skies.

Word of the day: leisure - nothing too fast or difficult for us today.

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