Fifteen months in an icebox

Empty, frozen lands stretch as far as the eye can see. The wind rages, temperatures plummet. In a ship softly bobbing in the arctic waters, a biologist adds the following entry to his log: "To reach this state of grace and harmony, some sacrifice is required. For the members of our expedition, the price to pay is measured in months of isolation, far from loved ones and kept from a normal life."Jean Lemire wrote that entry in January 2006, only four months into a 15 month trip, during which he and 12 other people lived on a 51-metre long sailboat and shot 600 hours of film to capture how climate change is changing the Antarctic. The Sedna IV - a three-masted sailboat with a range of 10,000 nautical miles, and fitted with high-definition filmmaking equipment and a cutting room - set off in September 2005 from the port...