NorthPole Celebration (Monday eve 16th) & Ice Station B (Sun-Mon 15-16th) and Ice station C (19-20th of August)

As usual, the past four days has been adventurous - and history has been made (dancing on the Norhpole to live music)! For today’s blog, I want to tell you about our two last super ice stations (station B right before the North Pole and station C, which is ongoing right now), and the big North Pole celebration. In between the ice stations we had some calm days - transit to the next stop on Tuesday, as well as transit and a few CTDs on Wednesday. The ice conditions were variable - at the North Pole we had some thicker ice and some of the planned stops on the way were cancelled due to the ice conditions, which took us also longer to transit than expected. However, at yesterdays ice station, the ice was thinner again, but with a heavy crystallised snow cover on top. The weather was variable - from cloudy to partly sunny and then back to cloudy and foggy. We also had some light snowfall the last days!

Let me start with the Ice station B on the day we also reached the North Pole. We were located right next to the northpole, only about 6 km apart from the 90 deg N. This station was successful for most of us - The beam and other acoustics worked well the day before, apart from one failed multinet, the CTDs in the night before faced some ice problems but were successful in the end - the last CTD was up by lunch on Monday, whereafter only the beam was operated from the ship - giving space for scientists to work in their labs and analyse water sampels. We also had a helicopter flight in the morning to retrieve the fishing longlines and cameras. The day until dinner was dedicated to ice work. Everyone working on the ice got lifted by the crane - this loading and un-loading of equipments and people took some time, but me and John managed to get to the ice in the early afternoon and start our gas flux measurements and water sampling by 1 pm. Apart from us, there was a SAS coring team doing ice cores - and we tried to be close to them for our measurements. As usual, our team was interested in the gas fluxes over open ocean (leads) and melt-ponds, so I got attached to a harness to be secured to go to the ice edge for taking samples. As we got out, the visibility dropped for a while and we were afraid that we had to return to Oden due to safety risks - but the fog quickly disappeared and we could be out on the ice until the end of the ice station - stayed out for four hours! This requires also some relaxing - we had some chocolate and music with us on the ice for a nice break. 

Photo: Lisa

Photo: Lisa

Above you can see some photos from the Ice station - thank you Lisa for the two photos of me and John working on the Ice and me looking so happy through the ice core pyramid. If you look close on the ice coring photo, you may also notice that Santa Claus got also out with us on the Ice - the one living on the North Pole. 

The day was successful  - but tiring! I had been awake from 5 am due to the morning weather balloon, we had a long Ice station out on the ice and many of us had to work the whole night and the morning - But the mood of everyone changed rapidly in the evening, grown by the excitement of reaching the North Pole in just a couple of hours in the Monday evening!

The evening was a memorable one! A few hours after dinner we were all invited on the bridge by the captain to witness as the GPS shows us 90 N! The weather changed suddenly from cloudy to absolutely lovely weather - sun was scattering through the clouds and the sun rays beautifully got reflected by the ice and water surfaces - creating a magical scenery as we reached the North Pole. It could not have been more perfect - but yet it did become even better! We were cheering on the bridge as we reached the North Pole, same time as live saxophone music was playing on the front of the ship - magical! Some of us went up to the 7th deck for some photos (and I was dancing with Frank) before we all moved to the ice for a North Pole celebration. Below you can see a few pictures from the North Pole Celebration, capturing the nice moments during this special evening: beautiful weather, group photo on the ice, Lindy Hop dance performance ON THE ICE with 14 couples, danced to live saxophone and guitar and filmed by drones and other people enjoying the show, posing in front of the North Pole pole (with signs showing the distance to certain cities), throwing snowballs at each other… To dance on the Northpole to a choreography that I created was my dream as I came to Oden - and my expectations topped fully and would never have imagined how it all turned out in the end! I am so happy and proud of everyone participating in this - seeing people so happy makes me so happy! It could not have been a more perfect moment. I have also gotten many requests that we should continue giving dance classes - this will happen tonight (Friday eve). After the celebration on the Ice, we got invited for BBQ on Oden and at midnight we launched a North Pole group weather balloon, where everyone who wanted to could write a greeting on the balloon. I am still so astonished by the fact that we have been to the North Pole and everything that happened that night - as I have so many times stated - every day on Oden in the Arctic is full of new adventures, experiences and surprises and you never know what will happen the next moment - a polar bear? A whale? Breaking thick ice?  Fishes? Dancing on the North Pole? Dancing on the helideck? Ice work? Helicopter flight? The list is just growing day by day. Right now we are about half way of our expedition - 25 days of 57 days has passed and 32 days are still left for us to explore the Arctic and for us scientists to reach our goals. 

Photo: Janina

Photo: Hans-Jörgen

Photo: Hans-Jörgen

Photo: Hans-Jörgen

Photo: Hans-Jörgen

For the CTD going down to 4 km depth around the time of the North Pole, we sent down some customised cups that were artistically painted by us. These 2dl cups came back as shot cups - souvenirs and memories from the north Pole and Oden. 

On Tuesday, as we were mainly transiting, we had a half-time dinner in the evening, with a two course meny with delicious food (as usual) - we were also dressed up and the evening was lovely - such a nice atmosphere! 

Yesterday was the beginning of our third Ice station - starting with helicopter flights and CTDs, and a day full of working on ice. It was a challenging day on the ice, as the thick snow cover on the ice made it hard to walk on the ice. We found a natural lead in front of Oden, where me and John stayed for almost 5 hours to work. It was a tough day, but a successful one! The day ended to some of us with a funny and relaxing film in the cinema. Today (Friday) the ice station will continue with a beam in the back of the ship, but for most of us it means a more relaxed day as no CTDs are planned  - so time for sports, relaxing and DANCING!