After one week of bad weather (temperatures around zero, snow fall and rain), sun is shining again. The ground is showing up more and more, and it is now possible to walk a bit along the shore, where seaweeds, whales bones and timbers can be seen again. What a pleasure to walk without ski or snow shoes! More and more water ponds on the ice pack, still solid around us. Also our feet were soaked on our skis yesterday when we tried to reach the open water, 9 km from Vagabond, attracted by the nice sound of the waves; but few cracks dissuaded us from going to the edge. If the ice thickness lost only 4 cm during the last month, almost all snow melted and ran out to the sea by cracks and seal holes. Ice pack is then much lighten, and is now about 15 cm above (measuring free board). A CTD cast also shows the quick evolution of temperature and salinity of the sea, very different from the surface to the bottom (95m). A lot of seals and birds, they don't seem to be in a hurry to see their preferred icepack going and drifting away ...