A strange whistle in the fore part of Vagabond was intriguing us. Then we realised that the door of the battery compartment was not anymore rubbing on the floor, meaning that the volume of the tank underneath just decreased. The water left froze at the beginning of the winter, creating an overpressure in the tank, and a small leak suddenly allowed air to go out, simply whistling.

The stem lifted up more than 10 cm. Because of the storm blowing when our icepack was created, early November, we could not get the anchor back. Tension in the chain was increasing, and we were getting worried about it, also we felt like we should loosen some chain. Surprisingly, Vagabond lifted up in her icy cradle, it was time to act! This is because the icepack is sinking gradually, under the weight of the snow, pulling down our chain trapped in ice. About the anchor at the end of the chain, we will see what will happen when pack ice will break up...

When snowing, temperature is increasing, and ice accumulated around every windows (34 total!) start melting. It is then time to remove this ice, before flooding on board. This is what we just have been doing for a while, back from our longest trip (5 hours on skis to do a hydrological survey off the entrance of Inglefield Bay).