Cruise narrative

Sunday 18. March

Loading of equipment in Longyearbyen at Nykaia around 10:30. Arrial for dinner at 16:30.
Departure around 20:00 with some open water tests in Isfjorden.


Monday 19. March
Mounting of new flux-meter at the ships bow, ready after lunch. First tests inside of Axel Øya in Van Miijen fjorden.
Logging as we steam east, ice edge well inside of Axel Øya. CTD mounting and testing.
Setup of Helohut, had to be modified. Test RDCP.
Stop in position 77 50.167 N and 16 32.307 E for beam test for SINTEF.
Sea ice sample, and deployment of GFI flux meter on the ice at 23:30 overnight.

Tuesday 20. March

Collected GFI Flux from the ice, steaming east to Svea to do ice navigation tests for DNV.
Request to break ice for 'Green Frost' is accepted and we have to wait 1 day. Decides to make an
ice station in Van Miijenfjorden. 77 48.552 N and 15 56.999 E. Deployment of Helohut, turbulent clusters,
RDCP and MSS. Also GFI Flux meter.

Wednesday 21. March

Depart from ice station at 01:30 to meet 'Green Frost'. Breaking ice and removing ice from the dock in Svea.
Back to ice station at 11:30 to recover instruments and people. Flushed instruments and stoved for going south
around Sørkapp. Attempts on having open water tests for SINTEF, too much waves. Drifting bouy, not possible to
recover. RDCP data chekcked and OK.

Thursday 22. March

Very thin ice in Storfjorden. The DNV EM-instrument readings says 5-20 cm ice thickness nearly all the way north.
Steaming at 10-13 knots. CTD and GFI Flux station at Storfjorden sill at 150 m depth. Engine trouble, drifting for
2-3 hours, thus late arrival et Freemansundet ice station. Deployment while night falls. -1 deg C, Strong winds, 15-20 ms/s. Snowdrift.
50 cm ice thickness on fast ice. Freeboard -1 cm (water level 1 cm above on snow). Lots of sluch below ice.
MSS sensor faults, TIC's and RDCP are fine, strong currents, 90 cm/s.

Friday 23. March

Departure from ice station, leaving TIC's, Miles, Johan and a ship officer as polar bear guard. A female bear with two cubs.
Profiling south westward with MSS and CTD, and UNIS flux meter. One meteological balloon profile. Profile mast of Aanderaa
instruments from the ships crane. Got to about 40 m depth, takes time to run three instruments at each station.
Some sea ice/grease ice samples taken. Return to ice station as dusk falls. Decides to recover all instruments apart from RDCP.
Strong winds now, 25 m/s. 3 bears. Starts longer profile out towards deepest part of Storfjorden.

Saturday 24. March

Got to 140 m depth during the night, logging only with UNIS Flux meter, and then using CTD and MSS as we steam back
towards Freemansundet. About 20 cm ice thickness here still, up to 1 m thick in places, increasing in thickness as we aproach
Freemansundet. Barbeque on Helideck, Rugby match. Recover RDCP at 23:00.

Sunday 25. March

Beam-test by SINTEF and ice naviagtion, but could not get through Freemansundet as planned. A 7 m thick ridge stopped eastward
progression effectively. Photography on ice.  Talk about our activity in the OPS room. CTD + MSS station in the deepest location
of Storfjorden. Then profiles across the outflow with high resolution 500 m. Almost no ice here. Fairly big waves. About 250 m drift
at each station.

Monday 26. March

3 MSS stations, then impossible to use MSS as KV Svalbard needs speed (about 4 knots) to remain normal on the
wave direction, and the ship rolls extensively when it is paralell to the wavecrests. Very little ice around Hopen
on the sattelite SAR images. Decide to make an ice staion east of Edge Øya. Steaming north in a polynya created
by the strong winds from south west.  3 project leaders on the bridge between 23 and 24 finally makes a stop in fairly
thick ice after alot of discussions, we stop the ship by a 1500 m big floe.

Tuesday 27. March

Test drilling shows 40-60 cm ice thickness, so we make the last station here. Quiet conditions now, and we are
done before lunch.  Quiet in the ocean as well, low currents. A warm layer, but deep down at 120 m depth.
Sea ice measurements, and ice cores. KV Svalbard stayes by the camp.  - 6 deg C and little wind during the
night, and we make shifts to work through the night.

Wednesday 28. March

Recover ice station after breakfast, has worked well, but too exiting data.  Packing and cleaning of equipment,
stowing away. DNV + SINTEF has their last ice navigation tests. Only slush/frazil around Hopen when we pass
so it would not have been possible to have an ice staioin here.

Thursday 29. March

Inspection of Russian vessel north of Bjørn Øya. And a visit to the station ! They serve coffee, have a tour, and the brave
among us becames members of the swimming club. Interview on NRK 1 'Kveldsåpent'.

Friday 30. March

Group discussions on what we have achieved, start writing a popular story for Bjerknes Times.
Exchange of notes and images.

Saturday 31. March

Arrival Tromsø at 08:00