Daily Reports

Position: 85° 17.4' N, 36° 56' W, temperature - 30° C, wind 18 knots from the W. All instruments turned off to save power. Put up the work tent - it is supported by a wooden frame as we have no compressed air at the moment. Successfully recovered the current meter. The generators and winch along with other minor items was packed ready for air drop by the Defense Supply Squadron at Gardermoen.

Position: 85° 17.5' N, 37° 02' W, temperature - 25° C, wind 15 knots from the SW. We received 5 cm of snow and white-out all day. All instruments turned off to save power. E- mail from the Norwegian Defense Operations Headquarter offering a resupply mission on 10 April, alternatively four days later by P3 Orion. Two generators and replacement winch ordered. Checked the radiation flux instrument and removed snow from the IR sensor (up).

Position: 85° 17.5' N, 36° 57' W, temperature - 30° C, wind 10 knots from the NE. All instruments turned off to save power. Continued removing ice at the current meter site and broke through, but slush prevented us from seeing the ice bridges remaining at the bottom the hole - had to give up for the time being. Started putting up the new work space - finished the walls on three sides.

Position: 85° 17.7' N, 36° 57' W, temperature - 32° C, wind 5 knots from the NW.All instruments turned off to save power. Checked battery status. The battery for the engine is 17 volt instead of 28 volt. Service battery for all instruments is 23volt instead of 28. Have four separate 12 volt batteries measuring 11.5 - 12.3 volt. Completed drilling of out the periphery of the hole to recover the current meter and removed the upper 0.8 meter of the ice thickness. IL76 flight and air drop delayed.

Position: 85° 18.0' N, 37° 00' W, temperature - 28° C, wind 5 knots from the NE. All instruments turned off to save power. Started on the new hydro hole - ice thickness is 1.7 meter. Drilled 9 holes down to 1.5 m depth and removed ice blocks down to 1 meter depth. Ice thickness at the current meter site is 1.5 meter. Drilled 14 holes (Ø=10 cm) down to 1.3 meter - need about 10 more holes. Checked radiation flux instruments and cleaned cupolas with pure alcohol to remove thin ice layer. IL76 flight delayed

Position: 85° 18.3' N, 37° 04' W, temperature - 27° C, wind 10 knot from the S. All power systems in the hovercraft turned off except the hot water circulation pump. Pulled up the current meter from 800 meter depth to 30 meter below the ice. Made waffles for the first time on this trip.

Position: 85° 18.4' N, 37° 11' W, temperature - 30° C, wind 15 knots from the NW. White-out all day. Low pressure system over Svalbard is moving slowly eastward. IL76 flight is postponed until Saturday/Sunday. All power systems in the hovercraft turned off except the hot water circulation pump.

Position: 85° 18.5' N, 37° 11' W, temperature - 35° C, beautiful day, calm. All instruments turned off to save power. Pulled the current meter from 1.900 meter depth to 800 meter below the ice. Checked radiation flux instruments and removed ice from the sensor cupola. Check on internet now and then for messages.

Position: 85° 18.8' N, 37° 13' W. All instruments turned off to save power. Moved the weather station and the radiation flux instruments at the new camp site. The fan on the radiation flux sensor will not have power until our generator problem is sorted out. Audun marked N-direction on the ice floe and measured the azimuth of the weather station to be = 354° . Audun also prepared recovery of the current meter at 2.000 meter depth and pulled up the first 100 meter. Made another search for the thermistor string with negative result.

Position: 85° 19.2' N, 37° 15' W, temperature - 32° C, air pressure 1025 hPa, wind 4 knots from the ENE. Ice drift 0.1 knot to the SE. The engine stopped just after midnight while charging batteries. Got it going by bleeding fuel filters. This happened several times in a row. Started searching for the fault. Unrestricted flow in the fuel line, but diesel is dripping from the primer pump. When the engine is running, air is sucked into system via this route. Found a ball valve in my junk box with the right threads and put the valve between the block and the primer pump.