Okay so lets see. Last blog update was ... Sunday. Sunday? Sunday was brilliant! Monday. what happened on Monday? Ah yes, it rained. And rained. And was foggy and windy. So we sat in the hotel and watched the rain. Tuesday was like Monday, only more so. Here's a consolation picture of a couple of sled dog puppies.
Wednesday. Hmm Wednesday. That was... hmm two days ago! Feels like it was a long time ago. It rained and had low clouds and fog. But only for half the day. The rest of the day we actually kind of sort of got something done. We went to Helheim Glacier, one of the faster glaciers in Greenland. Thomas seemed quite pleased to be actually doing something after so many no fly days.
The flight was complicated as the system we were installing to the west is being stored to the east at the airport at Kulusuk; believe me when I say this makes more sense than it sounds. These are BIG heavy systems. So we flew east, picked up the power system and flew back west over Angmassalik island and up the fjord that Helheim feeds with ice. And it just spews ice. The glacier is prodigious, cramming the fjord full of icebergs and making new ones every few minutes. There's no open water to see, just the mish mash smashed up glacier ice floating merrily out to sea. The glacier itself is one of the few that comes straight off the Greenland Ice Sheet and boy does it hustle. In 2005 it was truckin' along at 10km a year. Lets see.. thats ten thousand meters divide by mummble mumble mumble, carry a 3 and divide by Thursday to get, oh I don't know, but about a meter an hour (ish). Which for a block of ice about 10 kilometers wide and a kilometer or thereabouts deep, i.e. quite big, is a reasonably insane rate of motion. For those of you working in feet and miles these are really really big and fast numbers. Think watching something very very large which looks as though it's part of the landscape, no wait scratch that, instead think the of the entire landscape moving - there you go, thats Helheim Glacier.
It seems to have slowed down a bit since 2005, but I don't know what the latest is. Anyway, it's big, impressively smashed up, and just now has 15 US GPS receivers somewhere on it. Someone either far braver than me, or with no sense of self preservation (or possibly both) will be attempting to pick them up over then next few days. In the meantime we landed on the northern side to install a GNET system. Remember earlier I said we picked up a power system? We didn't bring an antenna or monument as there's one there already. And boom. We just run into a major problem (why can't we run into minor problems? They're beginning to feel left out). The antenna on site doesn't have a big enough gain on it to be used with our gear. So theres this lovely, nay gorgeous, bomb proof power system, satellite communications link and just well-thought out kit sitting on the north side of Helheim Glacier with nothing for it to talk to. Any takers? Ah well it brings us up to two and a half systems. We will install a new antenna on Friday, if the weather cooperates.
Thursday - well it's 11pm Thursday night. Lets just say it was a good day. More tomorrow - if we're not stuck at Helheim again!