With full power Polarstern rammed herself into the relatively homogeneous sea ice of Atka Bay and then delivered equipment for the Neumayer station onto the ice. Sleigh trains pulled by piston bullies carried the freight containers over 10 km of sea ice to the shelf ice edge. Only fuel can not be delivered this way. The full tank containers on sleds would be too heavy and could be lost.
All participants on board had an opportunity to visit the station via helicopter shuttle flights. I stayed on board, let my colleagues deliver packages and instead took care of the “old overwinterers” during a tour of the ship. They are almost at the end of their overwintering, but they know Polarstern only from short visits or courses, like the meteorologist Claudia to whom I explained the sensors for the ship’s weather map a long time ago. Now we are talking shop again, but with the experience of a year of autarc work in the Antarctic.
The pack ice is towering some 10 meters above the water on the shear ridge between fast ice in front of the shelf ice edge and the freely floating ice. Even the “old ones” grabbed their cameras! What forces must have moved these ice masses! Only an iceberg of considerable size can have left this behind. But no matter what, if you want to get to the shelf ice edge, this is where you have to go across. No helpful storm from the south is in sight. Swell can not be expected either, due to the large extent of sea ice to the north this year which dampens any energy and steady movement that might help to break the compact ice into floes. What is needed here is not only the strength of an icebreaker, but also the knowledge and experience of people, the captain, his nautical officers and the crew. The Polarstern will live up to her task just like in the past 25 years, I am sure of that.
Martin Fröb, electronics technician on board Polarstern since January 1992
Photos: Angelika Brandt, University of Hamburg