I just had a video call with a colleague who is on a ship at the North Pole. A VIDEO CALL. It was smooth and bug-free and he could have been just down the road.
And this is the end of an era, in a gigantic way. One of the most special things about these expeditions is that you’re isolated - recently you might get text-only e-mails once a day, but that was it. You had to actually be present all the time, because the people on board were all you had.