Seamaster, the exploration and environmental survey vessel, once skippered by murdered yachtsman Sir Peter Blake, is hitchiking a ride with the polar ice in the Arctic Ocean. Now re-named Tara, the aluminuim-hulled schooner, is trying to recreate the voyage of the Fram, a wooden ship, sailed by Norwegian explorer Nansen into the same waters 111 years ago.

Tara has gone further north than any ship before her: to 88 degrees 32 minutes north, just 100 miles from the North Pole itself.

She is due to extricate herself from the ice between Greenland and Svalbard this week.