This is Borge and Mike from the tent. We are on the ice. We have a little bit of difficulty with the conditions here, because the wind and currents are pushing us south. We have drifted to the east side of the Cape and are actually 7 km further south than when we started yesterday morning.
We have used our special drysuits five times today for swimming across open leads, which have been up to 200 m wide. That’s about the maximum that we can swim. We’ve managed ok, but the strong wind makes swimming a bit of strange experience.
We’ve set up camp near a huge lead where we can’t see the ice on the other side. Obviously we can’t risk going into the water. As soon as we lose our points of reference, we can get into real problems. Mike and I just have to wait here and check out the conditions in the morning. An alternative is to continue walking along the edge of this east-west lead.
We no longer have our inflatable boat. The dinghy weighed 30–40 kg. We left it at our last camp when we mistakenly thought we had passed the worst areas of water and shifting ice. Well, most Arctic expeditions proceed without the benefit of boats or dry suits.
Hopefully the wind will change soon and push us northwards instead of backwards, which is a little bit depressing. Sooner or later it will change. Today has been a difficult day with difficult conditions. But our spirits are high and we’re doing our best to push northwards.
Hi,
I wonder how the sleds are moved across the open water between the leads. Are they pulled by the swimmers?
Thank you.
Kirsten
Dear Kirsten,
I asked Børge about this. In today’s post (28.01), he explains the technique they’ve recently been using for getting men and pulks safely across the leads.
A few days ago, they were jumping across to the next floe, sometimes taking strides onto fragmented ice lying in the lead — before pulling the pulks across by rope.
So apparently their technique varies according to the ice conditions and width of the lead.
With best regards,
Olav