The last 24 hours now seem like a distant memory. Yesterday lunch time we were listening to Christmas carols as the snow fell outside. Last night we were heeling over in the middle of a force 9 under only bare poles, taking it in turns to hang on for dear life whilst watching out for icebergs. Between 2 and 4 the sky began to clear, and we even had a glimpse of a northern light as we weaved our way through endless bands of ice.

This morning, I have spent a good few hours totally mesmerised by our setting. Since first light when the moon and Venus were stunningly bright, we have watched the sun rise from the mouth of an idyllic fjord, not a breath of wind or a cloud in the sky. We then did a couple of circumnavigations of a breathtakingly sculpted iceberg, which, in my scientific wisdom, I think looks just like a Mr Whippy!

On that note, I can’t stay inside any longer, having rested and emptied my camera, and topped up my coffee levels, I’m off to take in some more of this awesome scenery.

It’s great to get your messages, I wouldn’t have wished the last eight days upon anybody, but now I really do wish you could see this!

Even so, when I turned in for a few hours sleep, we were still under the impression that later this morning, we would be in the shelter of the coast. Unfortunately we are now heading north of northeast, 020?. Yes, you’ve got it; we are indeed heading back in the direction of Spitsbergen.

As you already know, the ice has come further south this year than usual, and is still covering the entrance to Scoresby Sund, our proposed destination. We were planning, therefore, to follow to ice edge south to the nearest accessible fjord. The problem is that the ice has also spread east, blocking our path southwards. Strong southwesterly winds that we have been experiencing recently are likely to be the explanation for this.

So, all that we can do for the moment is keep the ice on the right and hope that some time soon we get to Greenland. Music is keeping the spirits up for now, but we really do need to find land soon.

Anyway, as promised an update on the science of the Greenland Sea… the good news is that we found the East Greenland Current early this afternoon, marked on the surface by many lumps of ice! This is a very cold current that carries cold, fresh water southwards from the Arctic Ocean to the Atlantic to balance the warm water flowing northwards. Today’s picture is another cross section of temperature, but be aware that the colour scale is very different – we are looking at much colder waters on this side of the Fram Strait.

Starting from the left, the warmer than expected water that I mentioned yesterday is shown in red at the surface. This represents surface warming through exchange with the atmosphere of the central Arctic surface water. The large red section in the centre of the image represents Atlantic water which has been cooled upon contact with the colder Arctic water and cool atmosphere. Because it has cooled it has sunk below the surface and occupies depths between 50m and 100m. The blue section to the right indicates where we reached the East Greenland current, and the temperature plummeted accordingly. The surface water was as low as -1.7?C, which is only just above the freezing temperature of seawater (-1.9?C). This was another very good reason not to fight our way through the ice to Scoresby Sund.

There are no concerns about our findings in terms of long term changes in the oceans. Our observations in terms of ice movement and surface warming suggest that abnormal weather patterns are a greater issue at the moment. This is a valuable transect of surface data that will form part of a longer time series and help us to understand the role of the oceans in our changing climate.

So, nearly time for some kip, but not until I’ve finished enjoying some traditional Toureg singing from Aminatou – at least then I can dream I’m in the African Sun! We’re still heading east, but here’s hoping that we’re round the corner of the ice tongue soon and heading for land – the science has done well and it’s high time for some art!

Emily )

Many a time throughout the voyage so far, I’ve really had to stop and remind myself that we really are sailing (albeit with an occasional helping hand from the engine) across an incredibly remote and very important piece of sea. The Fram Strait, between Spitsbergen and Greenland is the only deep water connection between the entire Arctic Ocean and any of the rest of the global oceans. For this reason, changes in the currents here are strong indicators of change in both the Arctic environment and the large scale circulation of the oceans.

In truth, my first morning this morning started with my 2am watch. The two hour stint of helping to steer and hoist sails with my watch mates Shiro and Simon passed quickly as we were busy taking a sample for much of it. Throughout the voyage, Carol, Simon and I have kept up regular samples to build up a picture of surface currents along the route. Each time, we stop and lower an instrument which records temperature and salinity to 200m, so that we get a profile of the water column. The image shows the first half of this cross section, using our first 6 profiles. Looking south, with Spitsbergen on the left and the Greenland Sea on the right, it shows the cold water at the surface in dark blue, flowing in from the cold Arctic waters that travel north along the west coast of Spitsbergen. The central section in red shows the warm core of the West Spitsbergen Current, which flows adjacent to the coastal current and transports heat northwards from the Atlantic Ocean. As Simon has already explained, there does not seem to be anything abnormal about the properties of these waters this year.

The central and western section of the transect, however, seems to be warmer than has been documented in recent literature, and it is quite possible that this is linked to the abnormal ice patterns that we are seeing this year. I’ll send an update on that one tomorrow, once we have finished the full transect. That’s all for now though, dinner is calling! Love to family and friends, thanks RJV for your comments, it’s great to know you’re reading this )

Emily.

A cross section of temperature (degrees Celcius) with depth and distance from Spitsbergen.

Emily Venables
Oceanographer (UK)

Emily is an oceanography Ph.D student, working on the impact of mixing between warm Atlantic and cold Arctic waters. She worked for a year on the physical oceanography of the West Spitsbergen Shelf, with data she collected on a three week cruise in 2005. She has since been to sea monitoring the change in currents affecting the Arctic, between Iceland and Scotland, and will return in August this year to the Greenland-Scotland Ridge to monitor the mixing processes between these currents.

www.sams.ac.uk