08-26-05: Ice Liberty One Options

[Ute_Kaden]

Ice Liberty One
8-26-05



Ship Position Information at 2005/08/28 00:37:01 UTC
Longitude: 167 15.571 W Latitude: 84 7.631 N
Air temperature: -4C
Water temperature: -1.7 C

We had normal workdays until…

The heroic moments of the last two days came when our seismic streamer with the transducers (microphones) for receiving the sound waves that bounce off the ocean floor got stuck in the ice twice and the multi core equipment got pinched by ice as well which made the recovery a daring effort. Edgy time but most of the gear got secured in the end.


The rope filled with microphones on the ice is our seismic streamer- Help!!!


Oh, how can we get the steamer back on the ship?

After those tense moments the rumor spread fast "Ice liberty on Friday afternoon!"
Ice liberty meaning everybody not on duty can leave the ship for having a good time on the ice (on the Arctic Ocean). The ship was stopped next to a big ice floe and the brow (steep walkway) is lowered onto the ice. The area on the ice is secured by cones, with the bear watch in place, the beer in the snow the fun starts. Healy is a dry ship. No alcoholic beverages for consumption onboard. Well, ice liberty means also 2 beers for everybody over 21 on the ice.


Bear (Beer) watch is a serious business


Yes, we are ready for Ice Libery One!


Ice liberty is fun!


Beth, David, Will and Asa enjoying the Arctic Ocean white snow beach


Dennis Darby going for an eagle at melt pond 18


Gary, Beth and John talking about navigation, mammals, computers...?

Like always liberated people get creative. Beach chairs, funny hats, cigars, golf sets even beer mugs from the Hofbräuhaus in München showed up. A soccer game started immediately. Sweden against Norway, Russia with the US against Argentina with Venezuela?? Soccer was beyond doubt more popular as football. This elliptical spheroid named football had a tendency to bounce off into the melt ponds requiring a special rescue technique and a trained rescue team.


Soccer game in front of the ship. Great fun.


An excellent soccer game needs a good referee. “All decisions are final”, no doubt about this. He is available for the World Cup in Germany 2006 if needed. (Not to worry- It is our bear watch!)


Ohhh no, this egg shaped thing is in the melt pond, again! Help!


The special force unit takes care of the problem - On thin ice!



Small talk with the Captain, lots of laughter and photos. For Alejandro from Venezuela it was the first time in life being on the ice. He liked it!


All good things come to an end. Up and on the ship it goes... Bye, bye... What a fun day on the Arctic Ocean!

After about 2 hours of fun we got called back onboard. All souls are accounted for and we are on our way towards the North Pole. On August 30, 2005 we are scheduled to meet the Swedish ice breaker Oden for a tandem operation through heavy ice which allows us to deploy the sensitive seismic equipment.
We just crossed 84 N. The North Pole is close.

Best regards,

U. Kaden

[Steve_Marshall]

Hey Ute!

Getting close to the North Pole! I'm really excited for you and everyone on the ship. It was great to read about your ice liberty too...Definitely a lot of good fun. They seemed to have gotten a lot stricter on the two beverage limit though, what with the guy with a gun right there next to the bottles!

I also enjoyed the journal entry about putting the buoys on the ice. We didn't have anyone lowered in a basket during my cruise, so that was definitely something different. Looked like it was kinda fun.

I've enjoyed reading all your entries, and look forward to hopefully having some of my students join you for the next live connection. Will you still be able to do that so far north? If so, we definitely look forward to it and appreciate the details as to when that might be. If you have to wait until you get to lower latitudes close to Norway, we'll look forward to joining you then too.

Steve

[Ute_Kaden]

Yes Steve,
Like you can see, the beverages are protected. It would be a pity if the polar bear gets to them first!
Thanks for reading along .
Ute