Day 7 - To the Ice

Woop di Woop another day has passed. 

What did happen?

Icy Morning

No Yoga this morning. I took a break from exercising and worked a bit, preparing a meeting. As a group we dug out our GoPro Camera to learn how to use it. Well somehow we all know how to use these gadgets, to get real proficient one still needs to sit down and dig the heels in and read the manual and then practice. At the end we only have limited of time and especially flying time and if footage isn’t captured, it isn’t captured. In any case something as benign as a learning how to operate a GoPro and especially what its limitations are, is one of the many things to think about and get done on this voyage. On the training front we listened to a presentation on sea-ice and as if it was planned after the presentation we did hit the first sea-ice. Thin ice of broken up ice as well as some frazil and grease ice, and a few very nice pan cake ice bits.

Sea-ice formation

After dinner I tended for a bit to socializing and played darts. Playing darts on a moving vessel presents its own challenge. At the end we all won, laughter and a good time. The late evening I spent a bit on the bridge, black dark outside some great wettish snow flying mostly horizontal and obscuring the vision. Putting on the search light doesn’t gain too much as the light reflects in the spray and blowing snow. At the end the bridge did some excellent job navigating around the big ice bergs and also dogging the smaller bits and pieces which fall off the big brothers and are way more difficult to spot and avoid. Imagine a ton of dense ice, just a cubic meter sticking out only 10 cm above the water surface. Hitting it with just the right speed and momentum can make a dent into steel. Wouldn’t be the first time and certainly not the last one. Still something to avoid and which our crew is excellent at. In any case the blowing snow and search lights as well as the spray made for some excellent photo motives. 

Port and Starboard Side