People unclear on the concept - the crew of the Belzebub II

From The Montreal Gazette:

Ship's historic crossing signals extent of Arctic melt
With a 9.3-metre fibreglass sailboat, Nicolas Peissel and his crewmates were able to do what seasoned explorers on hulking Arctic ships attempted over centuries but never succeeded.

They crossed the northernmost route of the Northwestern Passages, which connects Baffin Bay to the Arctic Ocean in Canada's far North.

"There's no reason why we should have been able to do that," Peissel, who hails from the Montreal area, said Friday over satellite phone aboard the Belzebub II, three months into its journey.

At any other time in history, the M'Clure Strait, the last stretch of land-bound water before the Beaufort Sea, would have been entirely covered in ice.

But it wasn't. And the boat, which would have easily been ensnared by ice like those of many explorers before it, is now sailing peacefully on the Beaufort as it heads to Alaska.

"This is a clear signal that there's climate change," Peissel said. And this was the point of the whole journey. Thirty-five-year-old Peissel, his cousin Morgan Peissel, and Swede Edvin Buregren are making history to demonstrate how Arctic ice is at an all-time low, and the serious implications for humanity.

"The ice caps contain millions upon millions of litres of fresh water that are melting into our oceans," he said. The melting is responsible for higher water levels and the unpredictable weather the world is seeing, he said.

He described the Arctic as the canary in the coal mine that tells us what's happening to the rest of the world.

Couple of things are dead wrong -- first, the polar ice is floating. The ice can melt and there will be zero change in sea level. If there was a credible threat of sea level changing, the large ocean port cities would be scrambling to compensate. They are not. Second, trips through the Northwest passage are routine -- they are by no means the first to do it. A bit more:

The Belzebub II will sail down to Vancouver via the Bering Strait. Peissel said he will be glad to return to Montreal in October and sit on a terrasse before the cold sets in.

I hope that while they are in Vancouver, they can visit the excellent Maritime Museum and especially the RCMP ship the St. Roch which made the Northwest Passage in one season back in 1944. It is still a feat of navigation and exploration and sounds like a rousing journey. Just not the first. The ships website is here: Belzebub II