Riddle of the Ice

by Myron Arms

By any account, the impenetrable barrier of sea ice that blocked the Brendan's Isle halfway up the Labrador Coast should not have been there in late July, in what was one of the hottest summers in memory a few hundred miles to the south. Frustrated and mystified at having to turn back so early in his 1991 northbound voyage, sailor Myron Arms became determined to explain the anomaly.

Three years later, having pursued this obsession from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Arms took his fifty-foot sailboat and a small crew back up the coast to test his ideas--this time making it past the Arctic Circle.

The days and nights at sea are an experience of both untold vastness and the closest of quarters, of calm seas one hour and pounding gales the next. And by the time the Brendan's Isle rides the great swells of Baffin Bay, north of everything but towering icebergs, the reader can be in no doubt that, together with the crew, he is holding a finger to the very pulse of our planet.

Weaving together the unfolding narrative of the voyage itself with a groundbreaking synthesis of the latest theories about Arctic ice production--and the troubling signals it may now be sending us-- Riddle of the Ice is a taut and suspenseful science mystery told as captain's log. This is narrative nonfiction of the highest calibre, and it is certain to become a classic in the genre.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 20, 1998

Reviews

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting accounting of a sailboat trip in the North in the Arctic region in the 1990’s to the evaluate the effects of climate change on the ice beds found there

[Amy Sparks · Rating 1 out of 5]

I put this down without finishing it. After I read about half of it, I realized I was bored and didn't really want to finish the journey.

[Falbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read, although much has changed since the 90's as far as our understanding of the science behind climate systems. I also loved reading about his travails as the captain of a small sailboat, it definitely brought me back to my time at sea in 2023 (even if I was drastically further south, storms off the east coast in November can be brutal). And he does a fairly good job of hinting at some of the feelings that come up when faced with the immensity of the ocean. This book definitely inspired me to look up some of the more current research on how interconnected the ocean's gyres are with climate events happening all over the globe. Especially now that so much of that research is coming to a grinding halt due to the stupidity of men (and one orange-haired bastard in particular).

"But increasingly today there is another way of understanding ourselves and our relationship to nature- a kind of interactive worldview in which there is no longer a division between ourselves and our natural surroundings. Instead, both are seen as components of the same complex system. One does not reside outside or beyond the other, but rather the two are integrally connected in a single, continuous, and highly interactive relationship."

[Linda Kenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, although dated, actually sets for us some of the scientific investigation that will support the widespread belief that man is contributing to climate change. The voyage itself could have been more in the forefront of the story. I also felt the photos were disappointing and would have liked more of the landscape.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it was interesting, since I like to read about snow and ice, it is rather dated. The author
seemed intent on finding blame for global warming, but did keep quoting scientists who said there
is not long enough data to be sure. I do wish I could take a sailboat to the Arctic Circle! I think I will
see if the scientists he quotes have had any new theories since the 1990s. I really have to get more
up to date with my reading!

[Miles Ripka]

I don't get it. :)