Daily Reports

Position: 85° 20.5' N, 37° 26' W, temperature - 32° C, air pressure 1021 hPa, wind 6 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards SE. Finished off preparing the parking area and pulled the craft on place resting on two 4" x 4" pieces of lumber. Moved some equipment items away from the pressure ridge towards the new camp site. Audun refueled the hovercraft.

Position: 85° 22.4' N, 37° 30' W, temperature - 32° C, air pressure 1015 hPa, wind 9 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards S. Woke up at 0530 hours to the sound of fierce ice ridging 100 meter away at the old parking site. To our surprise, the pressure ridge had increased to 3-4 meter high and advanced about 40 meter into our floe from the original crack where the hovercraft used to be parked. We were able to dig out two boxes of food and some equipment items. We then went to search for the thermistor string which had been isolated on another floe to the northwest.

Position: 85° 23.7' N, 37° 24' W, temperature - 31° C, air pressure 1015 hPa, wind 5 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards S. Worked all day clearing equipment and food away from the pressure ridge. The fuel was the first thing to be pumped over to an empty bladder 50 meter away. The radiation flux instrument and the weather station was dismantled at 2000 hours and carried over the pressure ridge to our floe. Intermittent ice ridging had by now consumed the site where the hovercraft had been parked for the last three months. The pressure ridge was 2 meter high and 10 meter wide.

Position: 85° 24.4' N, 37° 24' W, temperature - 34° C, air pressure 1011 hPa, wind 7 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards S. At 0230 hours, we suddenly woke up to the sound of ice ridging - the 100 meter wide lead next to the hovercraft was slowly closing. The 15 cm thick new ice on the lead was now piling up as rubble where the hydro hole was. We started winching while running the engine at maximum power and 50% forward thrust. The hovercraft came slowly up the incline out of the snow pit. The ice activity stopped in the early morning when the lead had narrowed down to 10 meter.

Position: 85° 25.3' N, 37° 26' W, temperature - 34° C, air pressure 1009 hPa, wind 1 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards S. Beautiful day, clear sky and calm. By now the lead next to the hovercraft had widened to about 100 meters. The ice activity was very low. Audun took apart the winch to attempt repair, but windings were cut and burnt - a fatal fault. We have another small winch with

Position: 85° 26.1' N, 38° 04' W, temperature - 34° C, air pressure 1034 hPa, wind 7 knots from the S. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards S. Shooting seismic reflection. The NE-SW running crack c. 50 behind the hovercraft that separated the thermistor string from the rest of the camp widened to c. 20 meter. A parallel crack 50 meter in front of the craft opened and became c. 2 meter wide. But at 1200 hours a new crack between the two cut 3 meter to the side of the hovercraft and separated the tent from the craft. About 20 cm of overwater flooded the ice.

Position: 85° 25.4' N, 37° 49' W, temperature - 31° C, air pressure 1028 hPa, wind 2 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards S. A beautiful day, no wind. We contacted Griffon Hoverworks, Southamton and got an immediate response from a team of engineers including expertise from Deutz, UK. We were able to monitor the hovercraft engine performance using the diagnosis software and e-mail screen shots to UK for scrutiny. From that Deutz, UK engineer J.

Position: 85° 28.4' N, 38° 15' W, temperature - 31° C, air pressure 1030 hPa, wind 2 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.15 knot towards S. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Checked the radiation flux instruments, cleaned IR sensor and removed snow from weather station.

Position: 85° 30.7' N, 38° 22' W, temperature - 35° C, air pressure 1027 hPa, wind 5 knots from the S. Ice drift 0.1 knot to the SE. Had 12 volt supply off from midnight to mid-day as part of checking why our power consumption is so high. The seismic data logging PC with its old battery was the problem - removed the battery and connected the power supply to a 12 volt battery on the engine side. Serviced the air gun and started shooting at 1400 hours. Changed battery on the radiation flux instrument data logger.

Position: 85° 34.4' N, 38° 51' W, temperature - 31° C, air pressure 1041 hPa, wind 10 knots from the W. Ice drift 0.2 knot to the SE. Beautiful day with clear sky and the sun. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Audun made a ski trip to search for bathymetry buoy # 4 and # 5 -located one, but was stopped by a wide lead about 4 km out from our camp. E-mail from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate announcing their support for FRAM-2014/15 with NOK. 1.5 mill.