October 14, 2022
Yesterday was very exciting as we saw our first polar bear of the trip. The bear came reasonably close to the ship, and everyone was out looking and photographing. As we were stopped at a science station the bear remained in view for over 30 minutes before it disappeared in the distance.
There’s been a lot going on over the past few days as we continued to move south. We’re now 900 miles South of the North Pole, two weeks after we arrived there. Our time there is starting to feel like a distant, but vivid memory. I’ve been photographing the pack ice and thin ice when we find leads as I have done since we entered the ice exactly one month ago on September 14th. I continue to find the structure and infinite forms of the ice to be wonderous. The cloud formations have also been quite extraordinary and on more than one recent day, the pinkish light of sunrise spread in an arc of almost 270 degrees around the horizon.
We’re doing a full science station today with multiple deployments of instruments and equipment. The next few days will be very intense for the scientists and crew on the ship as there will be a long series of stations that are relatively close together. Everyone will be working day and night with little time for sleep.
Today may be our last day in the ice. And what a final day it has been. It has been cold, and crystal clear, both during the night and the day. Though we were stopped all for the station, there was plenty to see and photograph. There were beautiful and varied formations in the grease and nilas ice. On the ship, metal railings and other structures were thickly covered with hoarfrost crystals. Hoarfrost is formed through sublimation when vapor in the atmosphere condenses directly into ice. For the first time, I climbed up to Aloft CONN, 93 feet about the water line. The views were amazing.
I photographed on and off all day long including science deployments in the early morning as well as repeated trips up to the bridge. I also photographed one of our scientists working in one of the science refrigerators, separating out Copepods and other tiny animals collected during deployments of the various collection nets that are deployed.
Sunrise wasn’t until just before noon today because we are so far west in our time zone. The sun remains low in the sky, but we now have over seven hours of daylight.
October 15th
At about 2 pm today, Alaska time, we left the ice. Our exit was exciting as there were beautiful formations of nilas, grease, and pancake ice. It was a wonderful ending to our time in the ice.
We will be steaming in open water until our arrival in Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians at the end of the month. It’s hard to believe that we are three-quarters of the way through the trip. Right now, we’re moving at over 15 knots, a bit over 17 mph. It’s a lot faster than we moved in the ice at between two and seven knots. Everyone is tying loose things down as we will be hitting high winds tomorrow or the next day.
The first and likely, the only polar bear we will see on the trip. Seen Thursday, October 13th
The Multinet being deployed. It has very fine netting to catch Copepods and other tiny sealife.
Part of the pink sky that wrapped almost 270 degrees around the horizon with nilas ice.
Hoarfrost crystals that grew on a railing on the Healy deck.
Sunset, with ice fog, nilas and finger rafting ices.
Floating pancake ice at the end of our time in the ice. Note the ocean swell in the scene.