At 14:26, we were at 83o 15.53N, 002o 52.5W; now at 20:00, we are at 83o 32.00N 003o 25.7W. We keep going back and forth across the 0o meridian looking for leads of open water so we break less ice and actually move faster than if we were to go in a straight line. It is snowing, air temp -0.4C, not too windy 6m/s, foggy. However, the sun came out yesterday evening for 1 hour: the many colors of the white/blue ice, the dark blue water, and the blue/white sky.
I finally turned the seawater pump off that provides continuously flowing seawater to the lab, as it is extremely loud right now; the pumping rate was increased to compensate for all the ice that gets flushed into the pipe every time they back the ship before they ram the ice forward for a 2nd time. Lots of vibrations and shaking; very noisy. Most instruments are turned off during this pack ice transit as they don't do well with the vibrations. So people are analyzing data, getting ready, watching movies, reading, exercising or spending time on the bridge watching the impressive panorama unfold.
This morning we had our first ice safety class, all morning, for polar bear deterrence once we work on the ice. Flares and rifles: Load, unload and shoot. During the ice work, the bridge will maintain one person on bear watch for 24h/day. There are professionals on board to scare the bears; they will also use the helicopter to scare the bears. However, we will need to have a scientist as a bear guard every time we go on the ice and always work and travel in pairs. Andy was quite good at firing the flares!
Food is pretty good, even the vegetarian fare that I'm doing; lots of potatoes! We've had chicken and fish once each...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment