Daily Reports

Position: 83° 15.8' N, 14° 45' W, wind 7 knots from the SE. Ice drift 0.1 knot to the ESE. Made CTD cast down to 800 meter as winch did not function properly. Checked radiation flux instrument - battery 12.07 volt. Checked floation tanks in the cabin for water from condensation - emptied 6 liter out of the tank below the work bench. Audun went for a ski trip. Two Ivory gulls over the camp in the evening. The crack behind the hovercraft has widened to 0.5 meter.

Position: 83° 19.5' N, 15° 15.7' W. Ice drift 0.3 knot towards the SE. A glorious day. The AirMar weather station on the hovercraft went down. Made a CTD cast to 1000 meter depth. Went out on skis and on foot to bathymetry buoy #2 , 1.7 km out. The buoy was located in a 50 meter wide flat area surrounded by a maze of pressure ridges. We drilled a 15 cm diam. Inspection hole through 2.5 meter thick ice and checked with the underwater camera. The hydrophone cable was hooked and the hydrophone recovered by cutting the cable.

Position: 83° 23.4' N, 15° 36.7' W, temperature - 5 °C, pressure 1015 hPa, wind 23 knots from the NNW. Ice drift 0.3 knot towards the S. Made a CTD cast down to 1000 meter depth. Finished transfer of all logs to Exel format. Discovered a band of 3 parallel cracks trending NW_SE across our floe. Hovercraft azimuth is 240 degrees. One of the cracks is right behind the stern skirt, and one crack separates the craft from the radiation flux instrument and the weather station. Cracks are 10 cm wide.

Position: 83° 31.95' N, 16° 06.9' W, temperature - 5 °C, air pressure 1018 hPa, wind 32 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.3 knot towards SSE. Deployed the Syquest echo sounder of the autonomous buoy made by Chr. Michelsen Research to obtain bathymetry from the camp site. Iridium transmission was deactivated and recording is on internal memory with a 10 minute repetition rate. Made two CTD casts down to 1000 meter.

Position: 83° 39.7' N, 16° 24' W, temperature - 3 °C, 1022 hPa, wind 22 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.3 knot to the SSE. Worked on the weekly report.

Position: 83° 44.15' N, 16° 24.7' W, temperature - 3 °C, 1030 hPa, wind 6 knot knots from the ENE. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards the S. Downloaded data for the last month from the radiation flux instrument. Hovercraft maintenance all day. A snow bunting was found dead - we had noticed the bird seemed to be physically reduced during the last few days.

Position: 83° 44.8' N, 16° 18' W, temperature - 6 °C, 1028 hPa, wind 9 knots from the NW. Ice drift 0.1 towards W. Checked the radiation flux instrument and the weather station. Deployed our Aanderaa SeaGuard current to 150 meter depth in the hydro hole to record for the rest of the drift. Audun recovered the Finnish mass balance buoy which had stopped working. The buoy was located in the old camp area. Burned all remaining garbage in the old camp area. Two Ivory gulls came by our site today.

Position: 83° 43.2' N, 16° 08' W, , temperature - 5° C, air pressure 1023 hPa, wind 6 knots from the SE. Ice drift 0.1 knot to the W. The northwestward drift is very disappointing and the weather forecast suggests this will go on until Tuesday next week.

Position: 83° 41.6' N, 15° 48' W, temperature - 5° C, air pressure 1019 hPa, wind 12 knots from the SE. Ice drift 0.2 knot towards the NW. Checked the radiation flux instrument. Data logger voltage 12.6 volt. Checked weather station - battery is 10.3 volt.

Position: 83° 39.4' N, 15° 31' W, temperature - 9° C, pressure 1028 hPa, wind 5 knots from the SE. Overcast and low light contrast of the ice surface. The Danish Air Force 5954 Challenger coastal surveillance plane came overheat at 1545 GMT and dropped a parachute from 60 meter height. We received resupply of antifreeze and spares for hovercraft radiator, spare swords for the chain saw and battery for one of the laptops. A thank you note was dispatched to the Danish Arctic Command expressing our appreciation for the service rendered.