Global warming is opening summer sea lanes through the ice, along the north-west passage sought by Martin Frobisher and the North-East one sought by Hugh Willoughby.

The Olympic torch did not burn properly during the opening ceremony, an ice-making machine broke down as did several buses, and unseasonably mild weather caused events to be postponed.

Then as a result of the decreasing ice cover which means the North-West Passage is opening up it kept on going before heading south into the Atlantic.