The precise assessment of the scientific activities accomplished onboard Tara by the Damocles consortium were presented in Eos, the American scientific review in January 2008, a few days only before the release of Tara from the ice. At the end of the Tara drift, a few significant facts can be reported. First, we noticed in summer 2007 a major retreat of the pack ice. We were not expecting this and all the prediction models expected it even less so. We lost 1, 5 million km2 of ice surface equivalent to three times the surface of France. This corresponds also to a 40% decrease of sea ice in summer if one compares the surface of the 2007 summer Arctic pack ice (4 million km2) to that of the 1979 summer pack ice (7 million of km2) when the first satellite observations were launched. Had we needed to postpone Tara’s transpolar drift one year later, in September 2007, Tara would have been positioned 800 km north of the New Siberia islands (Russia) instead of 400 km as in September 2006.

In August 2007, one could navigate from the Lena delta in Siberia to the delta of MacKenzie in Canada without crossing a single drifting piece of ice. On the other hand, we noticed that a lot of sea ice accumulated north of the Greenland coast and of the Canadian archipelago, making it very difficult for ice breakers to get across this Arctic region.

Then, the drift carried Tara at a speed twice to three times higher than we predicted on the basis of reliable statistical data inferred from 20 years of observations from drifting beacons in the Arctic. In fact, as the system has entered into a very fast transient phase, it has made this information obsolete and this raises a very serious problem to the climatologist who has lost his usual points of reference. Tara that was supposed to drift for two years exited the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait, 8 months ahead of schedule. To what can this acceleration be attributed to? The winds that are the main engines of the drift have perhaps changed their mean orientation and strength. It is thus necessary to examine precisely the meteorological conditions that prevailed all through Tara’s drift, not only by following Tara but also by taking into account a vast area of the Arctic Ocean around Tara. It is also highly probable that since the ice has become thinner, it has also become more mobile and thus more readily carried away by the winds.

Indeed, we have noticed a 50% thinning of the ice in the Arctic Ocean over the past twenty years. From an average 3 meters twenty years ago, the average pack ice thickness is now 1,5 meters for undeformed ice. We already noticed, based on US nuclear submarines in the mid 90’s, a reduction of the pack ice thickness from more than 3 meters to less than 2 meters in the central basin of the Arctic Ocean over 20 years. The result being that the loss in sea ice volume stemmed more from a sea ice thinning than a reduction of the surface. In 2007, the pack ice retreat is such that its reduction plays nearly an equivalent part to that of the sea ice thinning in the loss balance of sea ice.

During all the first part of the drift and until the arrival of Tara to her most Northern position, 160 km away from the North Pole, Tara moved at the limit that separates the young ice located behind the Tara’s drift that is less thick and characterised by a rather smooth surface, from the older perennial ice that is thicker with a more rugged and chaotic surface that was located in the front of Tara’s drift. We do notice today a reduction of the perennial ice in favour of the new ice (first year ice). This also explains partially the spectacular retreat of the pack ice made essentially of perennial ice at the end of the summer in addition to some first year ice that resisted less and less to the summer thawing. In the past 20 years, we noticed a decrease by more than 1000°C freezing degrees days accumulating all along winter between September and May the following year and that is equivalent to a loss of ice of roughly 1 meter thick. The massive retreat of the pack ice has the other consequence of warming the superficial ocean and of delaying the onset of freezing as long as the atmosphere has not evacuated all this heat accumulated in the ocean.

In this context, the work accomplished onboard Tara will enable us to establish a first section across the Arctic Ocean (2 000 km). It will take into account the first 1000 m above the pack ice in the atmosphere (temperature, pressure, humidity, nebulosity, precipitations and winds) and the first 1 000 meters below the ocean (temperature, pressure, salinity and currents) and everything related to the ice and the snow (thickness, temperature, density, thermal conductivity, emissivity, albedo) all along the drift. This will allow us to fine-tune the calculations regarding the comparative effect due to strong positive feedback linked to the very contrasted albedo between the pack ice (80% of solar radiation that is reflected back into space) and the ocean (80% of the same radiation being absorbed by water and turned into heat), from the thermodynamic forcing linked to the greenhouse effect, since it appears more and more that the former will have a tendency to override the latter and explain mostly the thermal imbalance and warming acceleration that we are witnessing in the Arctic.

For the moment the data of the Tara Damocles mission fill the memory of hard disks and a first objective assessment in figures will be presented at the next General Assembly of Damocles in November 2008.

Today, I am happy to witness Tara’s return to Lorient, her home port with a nearly complete crew onboard as 18 of the 20 “taranauts” have accomplished the last stretch of navigation by my side.
Grant Redvers, expedition leader and Hervé Bourmaud, Tara’s captain, have made sure that the Tara Damocles mission went smoothly all along. Their presence was a key and indispensable element for the expedition’s safety. The careful preparation, the know-how of the architects Bouvet and Petit who imagined this unique schooner, the support of our technical and institutional partners completed the fulfilment of this Arctic drift.
Without the total support of the brand agnès b (Agnès Troublé) this expedition would not have taken place. I do not forget the support of UNEP (United Nations Environmental Protection) and the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco.

I am also happy today because I am convinced that Tara with the projects she carries comes back from this expedition having grown in stature. Beyond the scientific platform, Tara has become a symbol for environmental protection.

Yet the Tara Damocles Programme does not stop there. This return to Lorient is but a stage. We are going to accomplish an evaluation of the expedition with our teams and assess the experience we have cumulated.

The definite results of the scientific data collected by Damocles with Tara will be presented at the next general assembly of Damocles in November. We still have a lot of material to analyse.

But, we have to admit already that the pack ice is melting and this much faster than what was anticipated. In 10 or 20 years, there will be no more ice during the Arctic summer. We can still react. Scientists give us 10 years to reduce drastically the greenhouse effect gas in order to limit the increase of world temperatures to 2° till the end of this century.
Tara will thus continue her missions to raise the general public’s awareness by being present in major events like Brest 2008. Tara will then take to the sea for a series of expeditions as of spring 2009. Tara will need to find other technical and financial partners to pursue her commitments.

A book published by Gallimard in the fall by Francis Latreille and Michèle Aulagnon, a travel story by Grant Redvers, the movie, “Tara, journey to the heart of the climate machine” by Emmanuel Roblin and Thierry Ragobert, produced by MC4 that will be broadcast by Arte on the 24th of May, the Tara Damocles Junior pedagogical programme followed by 140 classrooms, all these will continue to communicate Tara’s messages for the months and years to come.

To take Tara five years ago was my commitment for the environment as a person and as a company manager. I am convinced that we must act together. This is why I think, at the mid-term of the International Polar Year, that a treaty to protect the Arctic region must more than ever be signed.

My thoughts go to Jean-Louis Etienne today who was the initiator twenty years ago of this fantastic drift. All of Tara’s team wishes a great success for his project. I would like to thank Bernard Buigues, Christian de Marliave, Romain Troublé and Philippe Clais as well as the twenty members of the Tara crew and the land team without which this drift would not have taken place.

Finally, I would like to thank the people of Lorient and the general public for their encouragements all along the drift.

We now are sailing through the North Sea, soon to set our feet on French soil, which means the end of the expedition. I would have expected some strong emotions and feelings. But I don’t. Maybe it is because I haven’t really realised that the end is so near. Or it could be that I know, that most of this expedition, I will carry with me for ever. We have done and experienced things that are unique for our time. I have learnt to know and shared moments with these wonderful, enthusiastic, idealistic, sacrificing, energetic, annoying, enjoying, tolerant, inspiring, sensible and generous people. Not for a week or a month, but almost for a year. The trip will end, but I know the friendship and memory will last. I don’t know how to thank Etienne and the rest of the Tara team in Paris that have given me this opportunity.
I just want to say what they said after the drift for more than 100 years ago :

“Three times three Hurra !!!”

On Tara’s deck, Charles Terrin and Audun Tholfsen were getting ready for the accosting to come. To fix once again with straps some plywood planks on the deck. To lower with Samuel Audrain the two main sails. To hoist the English flag and the ship owner’s flag “Tara Damocles”. To prepare the dock lines and the monkey’s firsts that would be thrown to the dock and to install the fenders to limit shocks against the future quay.

Bathing in the golden light of this early morning, Tara began her approach. Fishing boats were leaving to work at sea. The first buoys indicating the beginning of the channel were emerging in the thin morning mist. Faraway on the portside, leaving the Channel, we could see the ferries; cargos and container ships continue their journey relentlessly. A pilot boat crossed our road heading swiftly toward the open sea to guide perhaps one of these sea giants.

In the far distance, Portsmouth stood out: towers, one taller than the others representing a mast and a spinnaker. Two forts were guarding the channel’s entrance that led to this famous port of Southern England. To be under their fire in ancient times meant certainly risking the worst and required a lot of courage.

« There we are, nearly finished. We are returning to civilization with her towers, her businesses, and we are suffering a bit from the blues” confided Hervé Le Goff, our scientist, to me. For Marion Lauters or Grant Redvers, the expedition leader “a gentle arrival, no particular shock. Marion was telling me that” she was happy to have experienced this adventure and happy also to find life again”. It was the same type of reaction for Ellie Ga, our New York artist. For Hervé Bourmaud, Tara’s captain relieved to have accomplished this new episode without any mishap, a stretch of 1 600 miles, the acclimatization is taking place gently before the great return to Lorient.

But no time to beat about the bush, after having correctly moored Tara, we have to connect Tara to the electricity of the pontoon, connect Tara to running water also.
Normal manoeuvres after a mooring. To take care of the foremast that was torn during the sea storm in Norway.
We also changed our clocks to local time that is one hour less than Paris time.
We shall set course for France on the 21st of February. Until then, we must clean the boat and tidy up because we are about to welcome no less than ten people onboard. The quasi totality of the crew members having participated in this one year and a half drift. And the designers of this adventure, Etienne Bourgois, director of Tara Arctic, Jean-Claude Gascard, coordinator of the European scientific programme “Damocles”, Bernard Buigues, Christian de Marliave and Philippe Clais. Only Romain Troublé, the logistics director will be missing. We shall arrive in Lorient all together.
It is official since this morning, we are already neighbours

An imaginary interview on the quay upon arrival

(Journalist) – So tell me, what are your first impressions after your return from the « White Hell » ?
(Taranaut) – Well, nice tide! Good catches, no damage and return to land at 1200 revolution per minute on both engines, with proper sails to support our speed because they insisted for us to arrive at that date in Lorient.

(Journalist) Hmm…. Don’t you have another answer to offer ?
(Taranaut) Off course, I can give you a more « extreme adventure » version and go on about endless months spent in darkness under auroras and the howling blizzard and the daily battle against an extreme but fascinating nature. Then a rather brutal release, the fight of a team united to escape from the pack ice that is breaking up. Then repeated wind gusts on the journey back but a proud schooner despite her fatigue from her trials in the ice brings us safely home.
Or I can give you a concise answer in a military style : Mission accomplished, goals reached by 90%, no human casualties, minor material damage, return to base according to schedule.

(Journalist) I prefer the adventure version
(Taranaut) Quite right mister journalist. But there are some things that I shall not in any case be able to express with words. The emotion I am hiding from you, on this quay where our story ends and another life begins. The memory of an ephemeral family – 3 women, 7 men, 2 dogs, that constitutes a family, right? – united by a subtle common goal during a beautiful story under the aurora borealis. And also the joy mingled with slight apprehension to meet again those who remained on land and who took care of us and trusted us.

September 2006. The Tara polar schooner starts on an extraordinary journey across the Arctic Ocean. On her board, international scientists aim to understand the reasons for the deep changes that are disrupting our planet climate’s machine. Cut off from the world, carried away by the pack ice drift in the polar night, they are going to experience a unique human and scientific adventure

To probe the ocean up to 4000 meters deep, analyse the atmosphere, measure the pack ice thickness, the sun ray effects, trace the Arctic pollution…
The Damocles scientific programme led by the European Union and the Tara expedition are going to put the Arctic under close observation. To fulfil this mission successfully, these researchers will fight relentlessly against the extreme conditions, the cold, the ice sheet movements or the storms that destroy continually the deployed equipments that are also vulnerable to the bears that are driven to the heart of the Arctic because of the pack ice disappearance. By going to a point only 160 km away from the geographic North Pole, Tara is now the schooner that has reached the most northern point in the world. Beyond this feat, the scientific mission will reveal a reality that is more troubling than anticipated for the world climate.

What can one say ten days before our arrival in Lorient that is essential? That I am convinced to have experienced an exceptional adventure and that the discovery of the pack ice, its poetry, its strength is and will always be a wonderful moment in my life. It was a moment that I had dreamt of for a long time and it took place. Like the person who walks in the desert’s sand, far from civilization and experiences the joy of finding freedom again.

Despite its less comfortable surroundings and a few cold spells, the ice and its universe meant the return to essential values such as vitality and truth far from the frenetic gesticulations of a society that behind its smoke screen is maybe yearning to find its soul. To be on the planet in such hostile environments is to become aware of our real place on Earth. Little stone in a gigantic edifice. But a stone that on its scale can give a soul to things with fights that are not sterile such as helping Earth to thrive in a sustainable fashion and to talk about it with one’s neighbour. Indeed, nothing is possible without him.

Marion

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