Since exiting Bellot Strait we have been heading south through the Franklin Trough.  We have been in the ice for over 40 hours and have covered almost 170 miles. The most noticeable part of ice navigation is the vibrations that constantly shake the ship and the occasional loud thud.  You get used to it, but it is a relief when you reach clear water and things get really quiet.

 

The dot with the circle is our position as of Tuesday Morning.  The upper blue dot is the NG Endurance (our sister ship) at the entrance to Bellot Strait.  They are following us thru the passage, taking advantage od our pathfinding thru the ice.The channel above our position is the Franklin Trough.

Ice Navigation

There is a lot of stoping and starting.  Several times we have encountered ice so thick that our forward progress stops and we have to back out and search for a mother seam in the ice. This chart show where we tried to follow a seam in the ice and ended up stuck in a ridge of ice and had to back out of it and tru a different route through.

Often we will stop the ship and send up a drone to find routes thru the ice.

Here is a screen shot from the drone camera showing potential seams in the ice.

I have a video of usb crushing ice but it may be too large to upload from the ship.

Curious Polar Bear

In addition to stopping for ice, we also stop every time we see polar Bears on the ice.

While breaking thru the ice we came upon this guy who at first was checking us out and attempting to cross in front of us. Suddenly he decided he wanted nothing to do with us and ran away as fast as he could.

 

 

Also spotted a mom and cub, but they were pretty far off so the picture is not very good.