By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We spent yesterday sheltered in the ice, at a place called “refuge”. We moved here two nights ago to enjoy the calm afforded by the sea ice as the latest Bering Sea storm raged over us. Today the weather has moderated and we sampled across a […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We’re racing a storm across the Bering Sea, going 15 knots between stations to try to get as many done as possible before the storm catches us from behind. Fifteen knots feels really fast, Healy shudders a little bit as she goes. The wake is white […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 Today the sun did not rise. We have come so far north that we have reached a latitude where the sun did not come above the horizon on this winter day, where night lasted for 24 hours. We were treated instead to a few hours […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We are now, finally, in ice. The ship is shuddering along, not breaking ice but rather pushing floes of pancake ice aside. When occasionally we break into a lead of open water, the ship glides unfettered, seemingly not moving because there is no irregular bumping and […]