Day 23 - May 28 2006

Today dawned sunny and warm. It was so warm in our tents with no winds and constant sunlight, many of us were forced to lie on top of our sleeping bags or to open our tents in the early morning hours in order to keep from overheating. Unfortunately, the weather steadily deteriorated from there as the winds came up, the snow started to drift once again and the sun disappeared from view. We worked further on the bad keyboard and managed to get it partially working. At the same time Sverrir was able to repair the Skidoo. But by this time the weather situation made it apparent that we were not going anywhere until at least tomorrow. The drilling team did drill another 4.5 meters of ice core and received more encouragement as the last half-meter of core that came up contained firn that had never melted rather than ice. Flade Isblink is not giving up its secrets easily, and we will have to wait a little longer to get some answers. Meanwhile, I am mindful of the calendar and watching the days slip away. We are scheduled to head back to Station Nord on about June 6 to catch our flight that begins the long journey home. There is still time to get all of the radar data we came here for, but the window is getting smaller. We have about a day and a half of mapping with the depth sounder to do still and then several days of mapping with the accumulation radar. All we can do is hope that the weather and equipment will cooperate long enough to finish the job we came here to do.


Flade Isblink camp at the dawning of another sunny day

Tonight it was my turn for kitchen duty. I fixed pan fried salmon with salt, pepper, paprika, and rosemary, along with lemon concentrate, as well as mixed vegetables and rice with some ginger. I started with two huge salmon filets, fully expecting there to be a lot of leftovers. But by the time this crew had finished coming back for seconds, everything but the rice had been completely devoured.


By evening visibility was down to about a hundred yards