However, although the sea ice is shrinking -- covering less total area as well as becoming thinner -- the Arctic is still a world ruled by ice, a lesson well learned when the Polar Pioneer encountered heavy pack ice between Svalbard and the eastern coast of Greenland, forcing the captain to divert theboat and drop speed to just a few knots.
This was not the flame accompanied by David Beckham on a speedboat and sprinted into the roaring Olympic Stadium before a television audience of 900 million.