26/3-15

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. We were very tired and went to bed at 0900 hours, still only 10 meter away from the lead. Got up after lunch and powered up the hovercraft at 1600 hours and drove off to a new camp site in the middle of the floe about 100 meter away. The tent which was at the edge of the lead on the other side was the next priority. It was buried in snow up to the roof and the floor was covered with 10 cm thick ice from frozen overwater. The drum with 2.800 meter Kevlar line and everything else were recovered.