Whenever it snows in my neck of the woods, I feel the sap rising in my sledging legs.

However with the rising sap comes the stress of knowing I absolutely HAVE to make it to whatever appointments I have for the day.  I put a three-line whip on myself, in parliamentary-speak, to be present and correct.  Why, you ask?  Because how can a so-called polar explorer allow himself to be put off by a few stray snowflakes when he’s trying convince everyone he’s going to make it to the North Pole!  It sends out a rather dodgy message if you fail to make it to meet the suits.

And so it was that I was due to address a packed media assembled at Google’s offices this morning to support the global launch of the new Ocean’s in Google Earth, - our Survey is one of their partner organizations.

So there I was … and there they weren’t.

Great Britain (southern version) had collapsed in a heap – except, I might add, the Google team and a handful of hardy journalists.  After the prodigious work effort of the Google team to create Google Earth 5.0, it must have been frustrating in the extreme to have news of the new service, available to anyone with internet access, snookered by some untimely snow.  But the good news is their service marks a watershed moment in our understanding of, and relationship with, our oceans … and the legacy of their hard work will be with us from this day forward.  A job well done.