Stuck in ice, what happens Options

[Janet_Warburton]

Those are great photos of the "ice-breaker" getting stuck in ice. So what happens now? Do you wait it out? The ice is constantly moving - so do you just wait for thinner/less ice? how thick is the ice? What was the angle on that picture of the ship being tilted (i.e. how much of tilt did you have?) Does it make you nervous being "stuck" in ice?

[Steve_Marshall]

Lots of good questions, Janet!
We're doing a combination of things....even trying to melt the ice by shooting power fire hoses at the ice? I'll go into more detail about our manuevers in future journal entries.

Believe it or not, our main enemy has been the wind. The wind keeps pushing the ice against us, and until it changes direction, which it hasn't in awhile, we probably won't move much.

You bring up a good point about the ice constantly moving. Even though we're "stuck," we're actually moving a little along with the ice. Maybe the ice will take us to our sample location!

The ice is very thick where we are...probably about 10 feet or more in some spots. The irony is that everywhere else looks much thinner, so if we could just get up some momentum, we'd probably be moving fine.

The angle the ship has been tilting has averaged from 3 to 5 degrees. That doesn't sound like much, but you can definitely feel it, and it has actually caused some drainage problems, but not severe, in some parts of the ship. I haven't fallen out of bed or anything though!

Being stuck hasn't made me very nervous. I'm used to going with the flow
Besides, we're not so far away that we couldn't be brought back by a helicopter if it comes to that. I don't think it will come to that though. Lot's is being done, as well as melting ice, that I think we will get out of this soon.

Thanks for the questions!

Steve

[Janet Warburton]

Thanks for answering the questions!

In case anyone is interested, you can read what the Captian is writing in his daily log online. Gives you a different perspective of "being stuck" in the ice.

http://www.odu.edu/sci/oceanography/hotrax...se_log_leg1.htm