After updating our route, and heading through clearer waters (by clearer I mean ice-free ), we are headed back into ice! We are at 79°N latitude and 125°E longitude, and the temperatures (air and water) are around -1°C (30°F), and we are continuing back north. I love how, with all the intellect on this ship, there is an unending childlike excitement about seeing little pieces of ice turn in big floes of ice rafting over each other as we pass by. More ice = more chances to do observations of the ice + on the ice + in the ice + …
I am a huge fan of childlike excitement and I always try to incorporate it in every day of my life. That sounds like a lot of fun and I would be extremely lucky to experience it about ice. It is so beautiful and soft, yet also dangerous and dense. About how much force is required to drill through those boulders of ice?
Hi Camila, I’m glad you appreciate childlike excitement, never stop including it in your everyday life! Your description is very accurate and written beautifully too. Do you want to be a scientist? A writer? I hope you get to see these sights one day with your own eyes. About the ship, it is really impressive. It has 4 engines, totaling 22,000 horsepower, and can crack its way through ice up to 6 feet thick. 🙂
The view must be amazing. I can’t even imagine how it must look like.
Hi Helene, the view is indescribable, but I’m doing my best to describe it, so you can imagine what it must be like. But you’re right because the camera can’t possibly do the beauty of this place justice. I hope you get to see it someday for yourself!
Why is your crew changing course?did you guys find new experiments to do?
Hi Joseph, the scientists plan way in advance what their route is going to be, because they know the regions that they want to do experiments in. so we do our best to follow that course, but sometimes the ice does not let us. The times we have had to change course is because the ice got SO thick and densely concentrated that even this ship (which can get through 6 foot thick ice) can’t safely get through. So in those cases, we need to back up or wiggle out of the ice and find another route.