Our last full day at camp and all the experiments are winding down. Jenny had originally suggested going and drilling some more holes on the ridge but had second thoughts and decided to give the drill flights a day off. After rinsing all the salt water off them and applying a lot of WD-40 Adrian and I headed off with Andy and Jenny to take pictures at sites around the perimeters of the survey areas. This was the most time I’ve spent simply exploring this environment since we got here.
The four of us took a couple of skidoos. We had to be carful about where we went as the ice was moving quite quickly and we didn’t wanted to get trapped on a floe surrounded by leads we couldn’t cross (the small ones you can just drive over). You can see in the video us stopping by a large area of new ice and Jenny testing how thick it is before stepping on it. We searched for areas of the ice cover that we thought could be seen from the air and marked their locations with using a hand held GPS. Line six is the only line that has not been broken up by the ice moving and the only line we can now get to the end of.
We decided to ditch the skidoos and head off for a walk instead with Cathy. As soon as Cathy and I had put some sun lotion down a weather front crossed the sky, in the far distance we could see a section of blue sky but mostly it was grey. As the ice is relatively flat and there are no high obstructions such as buildings and trees you can see the weather approaching and changing. It’s pretty spectacular. We caught up with Jacky and Bruce who were standing next to a creaking ridge. Then there was a bang and a very big crack appeared. As the ice stared sinking, water flooded onto the snow. It was fascinating seeing the ridge change right in front of my eyes. I’ve posted a video of the ridge forming. The noise you can hear is the ice. I think it sounds like insects and a lawn mower.