This morning we woke up 988 km from the North Pole, much further south than when we pitched camp. We have walked 5 km today. The wind is coming from the west, pushing us far eastward. That’s good, really, because near Cape Arktichesky there are powerful currents and really turbulent ice. But we’re still drifting southward as well, and I expect that in the course of the night we’ll drift back the distance we’ve progressed.
The ice is drifting less than yesterday and the day before. Our current position is N81?12’01”, Ø98?11’42”. As you can see, that is much further east – but again that is good, because the ice to the east is usually better.
Actually the ice has been pretty good today. We’re on thin ice here …well, if you could call it that when it’s half a metre thick. But it’s very broken up. After just a few hundred metres, we have to jump across to a nearby ice floe or cross areas where the ice is really broken up. Mike and I have developed a pretty good technique of attaching a rope to the pulk, running across, and then pulling the pulk across. We’ve only had to swim once today.
All in all today was much better than yesterday and the day before. At least the ice conditions have allowed us to progress, and …
