15/6-15

Position: 82° 41.2' N, 12° 48' W, temperature 0 °C, wind 7 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.05 towards SE. White-out. Woke up to a sound outside. A somewhat scruffy bear was outside the hovercraft. We have been 42 weeks on the ice and this is the sight of a polar bear. The animal walked over to the food storage and started digging for one of the Zarges boxes. We started the hovercraft engine and the bear took off, and we have not seen it since. The AirMar weather station on the hovercraft went down. We consulted Bergen, but did not solve the problem. The melt process is accelerating and ponds are forming around the hovercraft. A pomarine skua was visiting the camp several times.