Day 53 : 30 January 2011

Hello All

Well it is nice and sunny, but not quite the lazy Sunday we were expecting with a couple of large section braking away from the ice shelf and some almost broken away. This morning we inspected the area where some container were depoted to find that a crack was running along parallel to the ice shelf about 100m in front of the containers.

We also found that the area we were working in before has now changed completely and the flags marking the ramp area drifted out to sea. The large iceberg approaching the bay has not moved that fast and probably went aground on the shallower areas to the NE of the bay.

The first of 3 passenger flights landed on deck this morning with another 3 planned for tomorrow. We will try and get some of the containers onboard the ship while the CAT train makes its way down to Neumayer with the remainder of the cargo. Heavy snow falls are predicted from the 2nd onwards, so I think we might still be in for a couple of challenges.

Have a lazy Sunday afternoon.

SA Agulhas keel laying message

The excitement and "buzz" of the new ship is building this side with us referring to it's possible capabilities all the time and, no disrespect to the old lady, but we would like to be here on the new ship now trying out all the features.

Never the less on Monday a significant event will take place with the laying of the keel for the new vessel. It is quite the accomplishment for South Africa as a whole as we take this program through the 3rd generation.

The new vessel will highlight the program and bring South Africa on par and even closer to the top of the log with regards to our infrastructure and sophistication of deep ocean science and Antarctic and sub Antarctic support.

The general public awareness and interest of shipping and Antarctica has exponentially grown and with continued growth and development we can become a very successful and competitive maritime nation. 

So for this big event with the vessel's keel being laid it signifies a change of an era, a development for the future and a new tool to assist us to understand the world we live in.

Our message for the keel laying:

"May your steel be laid strong, as you are born. We await your arrival in great excitement and anticipation, but you will serve us long and we will be patient for the big day. We wish luck to all the minds and hands that will apply them to your construction since you have big shoes to fill as your fore runners served us well. We hope that you will inspire our youngsters to continue in their quest for development and to keep their dreams and aspirations alive. We look forward to fly the South African colours on your halyards as we welcome you home. From the Master and Crew of the SA Agulhas"

Day 52 : 29 January 2011

Hello All

Yesterday afternoon we completed the discharge of the tanktainers to the AWI personnel and left the ice shelf to run standby in the bay again. We decided to run the main engines up a bit since they have been idling for a while and to inspect the progress of the very large iceberg B15b, which was just to the NE of Akta Bay. When we could clearly detect the entire iceberg by radar we made a couple of marks to monitor its progress.

We returned to the Southern end of the bay for the evening standby. This morning we estimated that B15b moves in a WSW'ly direction at about 0.5kn. This will then result in it coming close to the entrance of the bay by tomorrow morning if it keeps the direction and speed. This afternoon we will again run up to it to monitor its progress...."rumble rumble here comes the judge." 

We are waiting on the CAT train to return to Akta Bay for the remainder of the cargo backload.

Day 51 : 28 January 2011

Hello All

Yesterday afternoon we were engaged in transferring Jet fuel from our storage tanks to the tanktainers on deck. It took a bit longer than expected but we finally finished shortly before supper.

We dipped our daily CTD after supper amongst many pieces of ice, icebergs, bergy bits and growlers, with the wind strongly from the SW. All the ice debris that has been building up against the ice shelf is now being blown out into the bay.

This morning we assessed the conditions against the shelf before breakfast and found it to be not great, but workable. The AWI personnel were informed and they made their way down to the shelf edge.

We then discharged all 3 tanks to them, but were delayed for a short while waiting on a couple of Emperors passing by, see image :-)

Have a good start to the weekend.

Day 50 : 27 January 2011

Hello All

Yesterday afternoon the swell conditions were the best since we arrived back here from the buoy run. We managed to land the 4 tanktainers remaining for SANAE and then loaded 3 tanktainers to be filled with JET fuel for the Neumayer base.

The conditions still remained good with the wind veering around to the SW blowing some of the ice "debris" that has been accumulating there off the shelf again.

Last night we could clearly sea a white line appearing on the horizon as some sea ice encroached the bay, but that did not last long since the wind blew it offshore as it came around. We might still be in for a bit of ice bashing before we head home.

The "judge" as we refer to the large ice berg B15b is not too far off and is steadily making its way this side, soon to be followed by another large iceberg that has broken out of the ice shelf from Admiral Byrd Bukta. So much for our treasured Admiral Byrd Bukta bay ice we normally get to visit.

Today we are filling the Jet tanks and will probably only deliver them tomorrow, before Saturdays storm comes through.

Have a nice Thursday.

Day 49 : 26 January 2011

Hello All

The wind came up slightly in the afternoon yesterday, but died away again toward the evening. We continued our standby routine while the deck guys struggle to get each tanktainer on its sled. Eventually they succeeded and we were getting ready to discharge the tanks and sleds as units this morning.

We arrived with the swell conditions unchanged from yesterday, but still workable. Two large sections of shelf ice broke away from the north and were drifting down the shelf into the bay and close to our position of work. We then backed off and stood standby monitoring the movement of these two icebergs closely. They hovered around our working area for a while and then started heading offshore, but were not quite clear at 10:00 when we arranged start off work with the AWI personnel.

We made another proposed time at 13:00 and when approaching found the icebergs clear enough for comfort and made our approach. We should shortly start with the cargo operations.

Have a good day.

Day 48 : 25 January 2011

Hello All

Yesterday turned out to be quite successful with the back loading of cargo. We finished most of the cargo that was brought from SANAE and discharged 3 of the tanks.

This morning we hoped for getting the remainder of the tanks off, but had no luck and decided to follow the same procedure by getting all the sledges onboard and to the lighten the tanks a little before swinging the tanks over as a unit.

Since this morning the wind has been building from the South East and is now a chilling 20 knots bringing the wind chill temperature to about -15°C. We still have some fuel to pump to the German Base and will hopefully get around to do that during this lee time.

Perhaps conditions will be improved by the time the CAT train returns to Akta Bay.

Have a good afternoon.

Day 47 : 24 January 2011

Hello All

Sorry for the late report today, we were busy discharging and loading some cargo.

To our benefit a very large section of ice shelf, which we rated unworkable yesterday, broke away from the shelf just south of the ramp area. This left a nice clean and low ice face, which after inspection was also found crack free leading inshore. Even though we were still getting a 2 meter lift along the shelf conditions seemed to have improved from yesterday and will hopefully continue to improve.

The conditions when we started off today was not all that good to try and fit a 24 ton tanktainer on a sled with container pods with the tanktainer swinging around and the sled stationary on the shelf. We decided eventually to decant some of the tanktainers to bring it to a weight of 25 ton when adding the weight of the sled. In that way we were able to swing the sled onboard and place the tank on the sled and swing them across as a unit.

3 Tanktainers went off that way after which we were able to backload four sleds filled with cargo, which we are now discharging into the cargo holds.

Tonight we will discharge the sled to the ice shelf again and hopefully by tomorrow morning the swell have died down even more to discharge the remainder of the tanks....hold thumbs.

Have a good start to the week.

Day 46 : 23 January 2011

Hello All

We were convinced that mother nature would give us a break today with the swell and allow us to complete our cargo work, but it was a no go.

It is a stunning day out here in the bay with hardly any wind and clear skies with the sun shining sharply of the ice shelf. We tried all the areas along the western side of Akta Bay, but did not find a suitable area. The ship would be relatively stable on a low section of shelf deeper down in the bay, but then the shelf would have dangerous cracks running in from the ice edge would could break away at any time.

The section that we were working on 2 days ago has completely broken away, is drifting in the bay and is now no longer known as ice shelf, but rather as iceberg.

There is maybe some glimmer of hope on the horizon with the Neumayer forecasters predicting that the swell will ease of during the course of the day and tomorrow, but keeping an eye on the weather forecast we seem to be in for a strong easterly wind by the end of tomorrow which will provide challenges of its own.

In the eight years that the ice pilot has come down to the shelf he has not seen the swell this bad in the bay and the great big sections of shelf that is breaking away bears testimony to that.

We are hopeful though and have enough time left, so lets see what happens.

Day 45 : 22 January 2011

Hello All

We are having a "SWELL!" time.

Yesterday we finished the filling of the tanks onboard, while running standby off the shelf, but when we made an attempt to place them back onto the shelf the swell conditions was found even worse than earlier when we loaded the tanks.

After a couple of attempts with the load swinging violently at the end of the crane it was decided to seize operations and find a better position or wait for conditions to improve.

We are thinking that the culprit causing the swell is the deep depression hanging over the middle of the Weddell sea. This NW'ly swell is then deflected into the bay of North point and North East point and it seems to deflect off the ice shelf again causing a rather confused sea in the bay. We are estimating about 2 meters swell against the shelf at times.

This morning we tested the shelf at North Point thinking that in the little natural bay there it might be better, luckily it wasn't since after lunch we observed a very large section of North East Point had broken away from the shelf and has collided with north point. It seems like the swell is causing havoc in the bay.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Day 44 : 21 Januarfy 2011

Hello All

Last night shortly after supper we completed our last CTD cast in the middle of the entrance to Akta Bay in 250m water. Another leg of this voyage was completed successfully when the CTD was finally landed on deck with a celebrating party to receive it on deck and secure it.

We ran to the ramp area after the CTD recovery to inspect it for work this morning. The wind was still around 20 knots with the swell rushing up against the shelf as if at Clifton Beach. This was a bit worrying and justifyingly so, since this morning backload of the tanktainers ended up being very challenging.

We are hoping that the good forecasts for the next couple of days will result in a lower swell. We should finish the pumping today and return the tanktainers ashore later on this afternoon.

The Kamov arrived on deck shortly before lunch bringing the DCO and the Doctor back while we pump fuel and do cargo backloading.

Have a good Friday.

Day 43 : 20 January 2011

Hello All

This morning the sea was like a dam without any wind and a swell that can only be noticed when watched closely. This is good news for us since it will allow for good conditions inside Akta Bay.

More good news is that after talking to Neumayer station it was clear that there is no bay or sea ice inside Akta Bay and it would possibly be completely clear for us to work in. This will allow us to get close to the "Ramp" position where the shelf is rather low and easily worked on.

Tonight at 20:00 we will do our last CTD for the scientific leg, which will amount to 42 CTD stations completed since we started at a latitude of 58.5°S...that is a lot.

Tomorrow the ship will be a hive of activity with the helicopter returning with some of the base personnel and the CAT train arriving at the shelf with tanktainers for us to fill and more cargo to backload.

Have a good day.

Day 42 : 19 January 2011

Hello All

As they say "another day, another dollar".

Things onboard today are mostly unchanged with the outside temperature dropping finally below freezing and recorded at midday as -1°C. We will probably only see positive outside temperatures when we are heading north again. This dry bulb temperature combined with a 15 knots wind results in a wind-chill equivalent temperature of -13°C. It is therefore vital for us to assess the wind strength when having members work outside and exposed.

Tomorrow will be our last day of CTD's after which we will start work against the ice shelf again...change they say is as good as a holiday.

The swell height is a little worrying and will hopefully lower slightly by the time we are at the ice shelf again. The weather outlook for Akta Bay is favourable for the next couple of days.

Have a good mid week.

Day 41 : 18 January 2011

Hello All

We maintained our 6 CTD Casts a day for the last 24 hours, but had to zig-zag carefully and also move some of the proposed CTD cast positions to avoid running into iceberg, bergybits or growlers. Luckily we are experiencing mostly daylight conditions throughout with a couple of hours of dusk/dawn.

The Snow Petrel made its return and there are 2 to 3 permanently circling the ship with the odd Antarctic Petrel and Southern Giant Petrel in the mix.

We are now back in the Antarctic Circle and are getting closer again to human civilisation as we approach Akta Bay where Nuemayer Scientific Station is located. We only have another 276NM to run with 12 CTD's to complete.

Have a good afternoon.

Day 40 : 17 January 2011

Hello All

Fortunately a high pressure ridged into the area we are making weather conditions favourable for the CTD casts.

The casts themselves are revealing some interesting information with a colder more dense layer of water sitting between 80 and 150 meters below us and then a increase in temperature and from there a gradual, less intense decrease again to the working depth of 500 meters. There are some areas with high productivity and an increase in iron levels and phytoplankton ...or so I have been told. I do not completely understand all of the oceanographic jargon, but I know that the team is working relentlessly on achieving their goals and capturing as much data as possible. I am sure they are looking forward to reaching the ice shelf to get some good sleep...so are we since the CTD arm and winch makes a hell of a racket.

Other than that we are keeping our chins up against the notorious day 40 and will sacrifice a lot in the quest of ground breaking science. All in all a good trip so far with all the objectives met at the required times.

Have a productive start to the week.

Day 39 : 16 January 2011

Hello All

The CTD casts today were a bit more of a challenge for the bridge team with the winds touching 30 knots at times and quite a wind wave building from the East. We also have a fair number of icebergs, bergy bits and growlers around the area constantly and have to be quite vigilant especially in times of poor visibility.

Outside temperatures have settled on freezing point with sea temperature to match. Over the last 24 hours we have seen a number of whale pods with the Pentado and Antarctic Petrels making their return. We are still to see the magic Snow Petrel again, but perhaps it has absconded due to the lack of sea ice.

A steward celebrated his birthday yesterday and today a UT Steward is celebrating his. Tomorrow it will be the 2nd Navigating Officers birthday. With the scientist's 21st birthday on Friday that makes it 4 birthdays in a row, quite extraordinary. The celebrations are resulting in a lot of cake being consumed, hopefully we will still be able to fit into our Jeans come arrival day.

Have a relaxing Sunday.

Day 38 : 15 January 2011

Hello All

We are doing CTD casts every 4 hours now, so it has become part of our daily ritual. We are making good progress but are foreseeing deterioration in the weather conditions as this very low frontal system will pass over the next 2 days. Hopefully it moves further north and passes above us.

Good news also is that the massive iceberg B15l (in excess of 20NM long) has moved passed Penguin Bukta close to Blaskimen Ice Rise and seems to be heading seawards now. If it continued on its path it would have caught up with us in Akta Bukta. It could even possibly close the bay off.

Our ETA for Akta Bukta is AM on the 21st of January when we would continue with some bunkering operations and start to backload cargo.

Have a good Saturday afternoon.

PS. The braai, commemorating the halfway mark of the trip, was a mayor hit with all the crew and scientist with moral on the ship at an all time high. Yesterday one of the scientist also celebrated her 21st birthday, which added to the festivities.

Day 37 : 14 January 2011

Hello All

We are back in the 60's with icebergs in abundance. Even some penguins pop their heads up from the water to see what we are up to when on station for our CTD casts. The days are getting longer again with us only experiencing night time condition between midnight and 3 in the morning.

The weather is good, for now and our CTD casts are going as planned every 20 miles to a depth of 500 meters. We continue with underway sampling using UCTD, Iron Fish and ship intakes with the scientist really working 24/7 at this stage and even struggling to get through their samples in the steaming time between the stations.

Yesterday marked the halfway mark of this voyage...downhill from now on, we hope.

Day 36 : 13 January 2011

Hello All

We had to do a couple of "dog legs" to get to the positions we wanted to deploy the SAWS buoys at their intended positions. The weather has been subsiding consistently over the last 24 hours, but there is still a rather large swell running in from the west making our life difficult since we want to head almost due south.

We are expected to reach 58.5°S by supper time where we will start with our CTD casts, which we will do every 20 miles all the way to the ice shelf. Hopefully the scientist get some good data in the process.

If the weather holds tomorrow we might have a braai, which, as any normal South African, we can not live without for long periods of time.

Have a nice day.

Day 35 : 12 January 2011

Hello All

This morning we all were quite weary eyed, with not many getting good sleep due to the rolling of the vessel as we were running with the increasing sea and swell on our quarter.

This morning we altered more to the South West to try and weather route to the next buoy positions and even though we are shipping green seas through up to 10 meter swell we are not rolling so much anymore.

Our speed is knocked back to a dismal 5 knots at the moment, but the barograph has started its upward trend so we are just stemming the wrath of the front hoping that by tonight or tomorrow morning the worst of it will be over.

The storm and the ships movement is taken in our stride, knowing that at some point we would be faced with it, since we have been avoiding normal South Atlantic conditions for far too long now. Well, at least we have now also bought that T-Shirt and can get on with the next challenge.

Keep well and enjoy your stable environments.

Day 34 : 11 January 2011

Hello All

The fact that we managed a credible speed of 11.2kn at noon is amazing taking into consideration that the wind was gusting past the 60kn mark at tea time today. We have been very fortunate with all the weather since leaving South Georgia always maintaining a direction abaft our beam. The wind now is slightly on our quarter and will be directly on our stern when we alter shortly after 14:00 to the next buoy deployment position.

What is also amazing is that the direction changes of the wind resulted in it never really having the consistency of building a sea greater than 7 meters, which is also very lucky.

This morning we had rain, then snow, then sleet and then rain again. We only detected one iceberg in the far distance and have to still come across our first ice, whether sea or land ice, as we head back to the icy continent.

Have a nice day.

X-Line Ceremony

SA Agulhas Aerial shots workng cargo

Day 33 : 10 January 2011

Hello All

Yesterday afternoon we rolled to 21°, the maximum we have done this trip with the swell on the quarter as we tried to reach the next buoy position. We had to sacrifice some of the westings to keep the ship relatively comfortable while steaming north.

Shortly after midnight we dropped the northern most buoy of the voyage and turned ESE'ly. The wind followed us around as if it was called to do so and made the ship more comfortable by breakfast time when it blew the swell down a bit. The predictions for tomorrow are very interesting and we will have to see how she behaves to a 7 meter beam swell! We will probably end up doing a bit of a dog leg to the next buoy position.

With the outside temperature a very warm 8°C, shortly before lunch, we almost felt like breaking out the deck chairs and getting ready the sun screen, but it did not last long and rain is pouring down with poor visibility as I am writing this mail...talk about fours seasons in a day!

Have a good Monday and good luck with the rest of the week.

Day 32 : 09 January 2011

Hello All

As we left King Edward Point yesterday afternoon the passenger vessel "The World" were sending in her tenders to offload their passengers for a visit.

We had some pre-frontal rain showers just to the north of the island and initially the wind increased from the North East and then backed around after midnight to gale force South West. Currently the sea is pushed up to about 6 meters and the wind gusting through 45 knots. We are feeling the effects of it as we are now rolling more than we have been for the entire voyage.

We should reach our northerly most buoy deployment position by midnight and will then head back south.

Have a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Day 31 : 08 January 2011

Hello All

It is amazing how lucky we have been at South Georgia over the past 3 years with the weather window opening just to allow us a quick visit.

We were not as fortunate as before with regards to visibility since the low cloud with slight drizzle covered most of the amazing glaciers we have come to know. Still we can not complain since there were hardly any wind and no ships in Kind Edward Cove allowing us free passage. The passenger vessel "The World" was due in during the afternoon and came to the outer anchorage shortly before our departure at around 16:00GMT.

We are on our way north now to a most northerly latitude of 49°S after which we will turn South East to run down the eastern side of the South Sandwich island before starting with Scientific stations every 20 miles from a point close to Thule Island all the way back to Akta Bay.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Attached is a photo of the vessel taken from in front of the Gritvicken museum. The history of this place is amazing and well preserved with the old Whaling Station derelict still telling a true story....an amazing experience.

Day 28 : 05 January 2011

Hello All

Even though we altered further to the north to avoid the belt of pack ice still in our way, we managed to find ourselves navigating through 6/10 of melting first year with multi year ice inclusions with many medium sized floes. It was not a mayor issue passing through it since the ice had enough space to move around, but we had to do it very slowly due to the sheer thickness of some of the pieces encountered.

This reduction, plus the poor visibility slow down we had to do this morning due to the presence of icebergs, bergy bits and growlers averaged our speed to noon to a mere 8.2 knots. The barograph dropped almost instantly as the front passed through with the gale northerlies packing the blowing snow onto the starboard side of the vessel's structures.

The wind is backing quickly now and by supper tonight we are expecting the South Westerlies to come through as the tail end of the depression. Hopefully it does a good job in blowing down this short, steep (6m) swell a bit, since the swell on the beach at Thule will determine whether or not we will be able to land our boat there.

Hold thumbs and keep well.

Day 30 : 07 January 2011

Hello All

Yesterday afternoon and this morning mainly consisted of normal "running of the mill". We altered to the North West, once clear of Thule Island, towards South Georgia. The "Iron Fish" was deployed for sampling and underway CTD's were resumed with another SAWS weather buoy deployed this morning during tea time.

The sea is still confused and the Moderate Westerlies not helping our speed much resulting in a average Noon to Noon speed of only 9.3kn. It was odd for us to see rain again since we were getting so used to only having snow as any form of precipitation. Darkness, last night, was welcomed for a change, which offered less confusion during hours of rest.

The weather forecast for South Georgia is looking relatively good for tomorrow, so we hope all will go well there.

Have a good Friday.

Day 29 : 06 January 2011

Hello All

Yesterday afternoon we were slowed down by the steep swell that was induced by the strong northerly wind. It backed later to the South West with the same intensity and made the sea quite confused with wind wave and swell causing awkward movement at sea. We deployed a weather buoy after supper last night and made radar land fall of Thule island at a distance of 62NM at 21:54. The wind eased off through the night, but steadily increased again this morning.

Currently we are on our way to South Georgia basking in the afterglow of a successful operation at South Thule Island. At first the conditions seemed marginal with the wind pumping over 30 knots at our entrance to the caldera of Thule Island and visibility reduced due to snow blowing off the glaciers on the western side. When we finally came closer to the area we were expecting to beach our workboat the conditions improved a little due to the lee provided by the island.

The workboat was sent ashore with 3 crew and 2 SAWS personnel and successfully replaced the buoy on the island within a very short time. This was fortunate since by the time we left the blowing snow reduced visibility to less than a half a mile. I commend the coxswains (CNO and 3NO) and the crew for a good, smooth operation in challenging conditions.

Our next call will be King Edward Point at South Georgia on Saturday morning.

Have a good day.

Day 27 : 04 January 2011

Hello All

We averaged a credible 10.9 knots at noon today, navigating in bergy waters with not very intense drift ice around. The visibility remained moderate to good, except for the odd snow squall, with perpetual daylight still experienced. Tonight however we might see dusk setting in at which point we would probably slow down for a couple of hours.

The weather forecasts for South Thule is not any better, which might force us to revisit the island on the way south again.

This morning we altered more to the north to avoid a "lip" of sea ice that has not melted completely yet. By this evening we might come around again to gather some westings towards South Thule.

We are hoping for good weather at South Georgia to allow us to transfer the required SAWS Buoys to the authorities there.

Have a good afternoon.

Day 26 : 03 January 2011

Hello All

It is in some way or another nice to feel the effect of the open ocean again with the vessel starting to roll and pitch more now that the weather has increased a bit. Luckily the weather is following at present pushing us along and the going is good.

The scientists are working day and night to capture their underway data with SAWS personnel deploying their weather buoys at the required intervals.

Our ETA for South Thule of the 5th is not very promising from a weather point of view and we are hoping that it would moderate enough to allow a safe landing there to change out the  stationed weather buoy.

We are crossing bands of drift ice to the extend of having to recover the Iron Fish sampler but not quite having to slow down the vessel for it yet. At this point we are zig-zagging to avoid the drift ice. Tomorrow we are expecting more consolidated ice, but will have to wait and see.

Have a good day.

Day 24 : 01 January 2011

Hello All

Happy, Happy New Year. May you dreams and aspirations become a reality this year.

Yesterday afternoon we placed the bow of the vessel up against the shelf again to assess the condition and the effect of the swell, but found it to be too extensive still and decided to wait until this morning.

We had the bow up against the shelf early and decided that we will attempt to pump the fuel even though there was still a constant half a meter swell with a meter to 1.5 meter sets coming through at times causing the vessel to ram hard against the shelf. We ran the hoses ashore and pressure tested them, but they discovered some air leaks which had to be repaired before we could start.

The vessel dug itself into the shelf deep enough to almost strike the bottom of the foremast after which we decided to move further down the shelf where a sort of out crop presented itself, which turned out to be better....for a while anyway. We had to extend the hoses somewhat and started with the pumping at 11:00 reaching a rate of around 36000L an hour.

With this rate we should be done with the first sortie by supper time tonight after which we are expected to leave on the buoy run once the SAWS personnel are back onboard.

Have a good first day of 2011.

Day 25 : 02 January 2011

Hello All

What a relief it is to have the first batch of fuel across to the ice shelf. The vessel was not comfortable against the ice shelf yesterday with the swell running onto the shelf. We persevered and managed to pump the majority of the required fuel across.

We the left, after having a long day, on the SAWS buoy run thinking that there will be little to no sea ice to deal with...surprise, surprise. We ran along the edge of the pack ice westerly for quite some time thinking that we will find a gap to go through at normal sea speed, but this was not going to hope and between two and ten this morning we were back to normal 4 knot ice navigation though 3/10 multiyear and broken bay ice. There was enough water between the pieces of ice to make way but crossing more dense sections slowed us right down due to their thickness and density.

We are now in open water and are expecting to remain in open water for the remainder of the buoy run. We should be at South Thule Island by the 5th.

Have a relaxing Sunday.