Day 67

  Diatomic layer

  Iceberg with black deposits, I've no idea how can happen.

Most of the watch was spent crunching through heavy ice again. The best guess is the prolonged period of easterly winds weve had has blown it all off the land as it is 2 or 3 year old ice. Its not that the ice is much thicker than the stuff we were breaking to Halley but it is much harder, the older the ice the more the salt and oxygen gets squezzed out of it, this has the effect of making it much more able to absorb impact, so its harder for the ship to break. We had resorted to slowing down, nudging into it then powering on to push the big chunks out of the way.

The way to measure the age of the sea ice is by looking at the diatomic layers in it. One band equals two years, two equals three, etc.

By the end of the watch we have broken out into open sea again.

Arriving in Cape Geddes tonight at 2100 local time (GMT -2)