Record

Apparently we are through the worst of the ice and we are going to make it! It’s been an amazing day trying to find thinner ice and breaking our way through thicker ice when necessary. In places the ice was 4 to 5m thick. The ship would grind forward until it could go no further then back up before accelerating. The momentum was enough to break through.

The extra shows how beautiful the ice is but cannot possibly convey the noise of the ice cracking and the power of the engines. Apparently the engines were up to 70% of their full power so we still had some capacity in hand!

We are currently the most northerly ship in the world and the captain celebrated in true French style by cracking open enough magnums of champagne for everyone on deck to toast the achievement in style. He also played “Northwest Passage” by Stan Rogers which I found haunting (I can’t work out how to attach the YouTube clip on my iPhone).