Read Part One Here22 April
We have made a lot of holes in the ice for the instruments. Now we make a hole for our selves. I can’t wait. I rush inside to get my towel, then I am standing on the ice in woollen socks and swimming suit. I jump into the black water and it’s deeper than I thought but I don’t have time to feel if it is cold or not before I am up again. But obviously it was because then the kick comes that makes me love bathing in cold water.
When everybody who wants has taken a bath we pack and soon the ship is going again. We are heading north to find a drifting ice floe to work on and again there is the sound of ice crushing against the boat.
23 April
Rough ice spreads out in all directions. Here and there it is interrupted by holes and cracks of open water. At the horizon it is emerging with the blurry sky that pours light snow over us. This is our ice floe.
If you, like me, are more used to lake ice, you maybe think that sea ice is a plane sheet that get thicker and thicker the colder it is. In calm places that are protected from the wind it might be like that, but for our ice floe that is not true. Under a thick layer of loose snow there is deep slush interrupted by ridges of harder snow or ice that looks like they are possible to walk on. Sometimes they really are hard, but more often you just sink into the wet when you try to step on them.
The ice is a mess of pieces that have been broken loose and then frozen together again. Frozen in are small and big icebergs from calving glaciers. It stretches, pulls, and presses in all directions. Some places small cracks will open up in wide leads of open water. Other places you will find long lines of pressure ridges where the ice has been crushed together so the blocks are on top of each other. Above the surface these ridges are hard to pass by scooter, or heavy to walk over. Below the surface they are way much bigger. Sometimes they reach all the way to the bottom. If the ice is drifting they will make big scratches in the sediments.
We use the evening to repeat the procedure of setting up the instruments. It doesn’t take long before a problem turns up. How vast the ice may look like, this is not no-mans land. It is the land of wild animals, and a walrus is around. It doesn’t show much mercy with our instruments. The stick for the cluster that measure turbulence is moving back and forth and finally get bent when it is attacked from beneath. We have to take it up.
24 April
The icefloe is drifting to the south. There is already a crack in it and we are preparing to leave. It seems like the crew felt sorry for us that had to cut a hole in the ice to take a bath so they made a hot pool on the deck for us. It is wonderful, but not as refreshing as the cold water.
26 April
For days we have been sailing over open water now. The only thing we have seen is sea and ice floes. The routines on the boat are getting into my system. Every morning it is breakfast at 7:30, lunch 11:30 and 17:30 we have dinner. I start work when I get up, and don’t stop until I go to bed. Neither the monotonous view, nor the limited space on board bothers me.
I love watching the ice floes passing by. They are all different. Together with the frosty pink in the clouds their bright white colour make a big contrast with the dark blue water. I wonder if it is possible to ever get tired of ice. It is so much of it here that we have to skip several CTD stations.
We are going south west, looking for a new ice floe. We hope it is going to be multiyear ice. That is different from first year ice. It has had time to get thicker and fresher because the salt drains out.
The wind is very light so we have almost no waves, and even if the sky is clouded we get a sight of the sun every now and then. One of the crew told me that this is the common summer weather in this area. It isn’t logical for me that it is summer when there is snow and ice outside. And I imagined that weather on these latitudes would be harsh. But what he said makes sense with what I know about polar high pressures.
28 April
The ship is moving smooth. It rises up and down on gentle waves. I am on the deck taking CTD again. The sea reach all the way to the sky, and the sun light is playing on the dark water surface. But there is something missing.
Ice.
Yesterday we found the kind of ice we where looking for. It was a really small one and it moved up and down in big waves, following the movements of the sea surface. The ladder we use to get down was sliding along the side of the boat so it was a bit tricky getting onto the ice. We only stayed for four hours and left the same evening.
During the night we have been sailing south. The CTD measurements show incredible water temperatures of +4 degrees. It is the remains of the Gulf Stream that have reached our latitudes. When it has come this far it usually has had time to cool down and because it is so saline it sinks under the cold Arctic water. Now it reaches all the way to the surface. No wonder there is no ice.
In the evening we sail into the harbour in Ny Ålesund. It used to be a mining town but now it is a research centre. For the first time in many days I have solid ground under my feet. We stay here over the night. Tomorrow is the last day of sailing and early on Monday we will be back in Longyearbyen.
29 April
The waves are high. We have to stop taking CTD measurements because the instrument risks hitting the boat and get damaged when we take it up and down. The deck is the only place on the boat where I can be. It’s good, not only because I can see the waves and the horizon and get fresh air, but also because it is nice to be out and feel the weather. I get showers of salty water when big waves are hitting the deck. Some of them are so big that they reach the other side of the boat. Through the greyish air I see pieces of land bumping up and down, sometimes disappearing behind the waves.
30 April.
We have to get up early this morning to pack before breakfast. We eat and when I go to get my bags and carry them up, suddenly the windows are covered by something from the outside. It is the bridge in Longyearbyen harbour. We are home and the cruise is over.
Matilda Hallerstig