28/3-15

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. This separate lead had now closed with over 100 meter of transverse motion. We could find the approximate location of the mooring site within meters, but the site was buried under a pile of ice rubble and no traces of the mooring could be seen. We went to bed at 1000 hours and got up at 1500 hours. Audun checked out the mooring sites for the two current meters and they had not experienced any ice activity. We then started preparing a new parking area for the hovercraft by pouring water over the surface instead of having to put a tarp underneath to seal off the porous snow.