B-day

Birthday icecake!

Sorry, we're still too busy to really write anything comprehensive for the blog, so I'll share some pics instead! Yesterday brought an additional birthday present in the form of a beautiful icescape with the most amazing light. We were trying to break some ice to get to an adjacent area, the
area where we spend a lot of time 2 years ago. The group that was on board then deployed several instruments that have been taking measurements in the water ever since, so now the aim is to get them back to collect the data.

On the satellite images of the ice concentrations it looked like in the past few weeks there was a lot of ice between where we are and where the instrument are, too much to get there. But then, 4 days ago, it looked like a crack was appearing to the north of some icebergs. So yesterday we went to look for the crack. Unfortunately, we found lots of ice and iceberg everywhere we went and the crack had all closed up again. These massive amounts of ice don't melt that rapidly, but they are blown around by the wind quite a bit. This can make a big difference in just a couple of days. So we spend the afternoon and evening cruising around in an area of about 30 miles to see if we could find a way through anywhere. In the evening we tried to break through the ice for a bit. Some Adelie penguins came to check on our progress and came very close to the boat. We had all four engines running and Icecaptain Vladimir was calling the shots on the bridge. He has worked on icebreakers his whole life (including Russioan nuclear icebreakers) has a nose to find the best way through the thinnest spots. Some icebreakers have helicopters to look for the best leads to go through, but the people on the bridge have assured me that icecaptain Vlad is just as good. Unfortunately, even he could not find us a way through, the last picture gives you an idea why... Previously some people had been a bit worried: what if we can get in, but not out if the ice. This would give a good opportunity to sample that area quite in depth, but trash any holiday plans in New Zealand ;-).

Happy New Year everybody!

Time to turn around!