This is going to be a briefer post as I’m doing it from the ship via a Cerius Iridium satellite connection. When we arrived at the Pole on Friday, we thought that we would have “Ice Liberty,” on Saturday, but it was postponed until yesterday (Sunday). It was very “cool,” and, quite cold, though if anything, I was too warm except for very cold fingers. I guess it's a photographer's "comes with the territory." It was the first time that we were off the ship since we left Dutch Harbor on September 4th.
Looking at the brow, before we headed onto the ice at the Pole
The Healy seen from the ice
Enjoying “Ice Liberty” at the North Pole
Captain Ken Boda joined us on the ice
A bit after noon, there was a Cutterman ceremony on the flight deck that honored crew members who had been deployed on a ship for more than 5 years. After that, everyone headed back on the ice for group photos.
The science party with banner, photo by L. Ames
Once we were back aboard, we started on our long journey south, heading towards Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians of Alaska where we will arrive in late October. We crossed the International Date line for a few minutes, so technically, we were briefly on Siberian time.
As we go south, we will be chasing the light, or more accurately, chasing night and day. In recent days near the Pole, it never got dark, even with the sun below the horizon. Soon, we will have night, but we’ll also have day, with the sun beginning to rise above the horizon. By the time we get back to Dutch Harbor we should have between 8 and 9 hours of daylight.
As I’m posting this directly, the post about our arrival at the Pole and the previous days may go up after this one. BTW, if you like the blog, please tell other people about it. You can also write to me at sussmanfinearts@earthlink.net though I won’t be able to access those emails for a couple of weeks.
Small boats on their floe. These numbered boats, painted by children as well as by people on the ship are part of the www.floatboat.org project. Anyone finding one of the boats can contact the organization, give them the tracking number, and the school or person who painted the boat will be notified.