Arctic Rowing Team Departs Today!

I've mentioned the Arctic Row team on a couple of occasions in the past as the four man crew planned and prepared for their attempt to row across the Arctic Ocean. It seems their big day is finally here however and as I write this the boys are preparing to start their adventure.

For those who haven't been keeping up on this expedition it is an attempt by a Paul Ridley, Collin West, Neal Mueller and Scott Mortensen to row from Inuvik, Canada to Provideniya, Russia in approximately 30 days. During that time, the crew will be rowing non-stop, 24 hours per day, in two-hour, two-man shifts. They'll cover approximately 2100km (1300 miles) through the ice waters of the Arctic along the way.

You'll be able to follow the team's progress on their blog, Facebook page and Twitter feeds. At the moment there isn't a lot of activity on either of those sites, but that should change once they get underway. The announcement of their departure should come at any time.

I know that there has been some debate in certain circles about whether or not this is a true "ocean crossing" since the Arctic Row crew isn't exactly going directly through the heart of the ocean but are instead skirting about the edge. But put those strict definitions aside for a moment and you realize that this is a truly challenging undertaking. It should be interesting to see how they fare out on the open water, where they'll also be conducting research on the health of the Arctic Ocean's ecosystem.

Check out the great coverage the expedition received from Al Jazeera a few days back in the video below.

Good luck guys!