Early July, the bloom is finally happening! Field work time is extended, we must do everything possible to collect data and samples of the event coveted by the entire GreenEdge team, sea ice permitting.

July 6th: last ice cores, last optical profile, taking down the weather mast, and pulling back the cabin towards the mainland.

July 7th: last skidoo ride between Vagabond and the village, and first dinghy ride!

July 8th: dismantling the floor of the tent, storage on land (Old Broughton).

July 9th: recovery of the Oceanetic buoy by dinghy nearby Vagabond.

July 10th: last GreenEdge team on site! Retrieving the ADCP. Enjoying a break on land, on the way back, fire heather, smoking and tasting fish.

July 12th: great weather, two of us, Jay and me, are heading to the former ice camp to do a CTD profile and to get water samples with a 8 liters Niskin bottle. France is then looking after the filtrations in the lab.

July 13th: Thomas and Simon are flying south, Joannie is now alone with us (Vagabond) for the final stretch.

July 14th. Before heading out on thin ice, we attach an empty jerry-can on the back of each skidoo for more buoyancy, just in case. The thinnest ice area is out of range of the VHF radio relay: we put the satellite phone in the sled. This one is unlikely to go through the ice and can even hold a snowmobile and keep it from drowning! Sporty driving, it is necessary to speed up once in a while to cross a hole or a crack. I keep some distance with Jaypootie, sometimes he indicates me to go further to the right or to the left. Once we get south of Broughton Island, the ice is much better, still good for another eight or ten days.

Great weather again. Jay is butchering a seal hunted along the way, while I'm winching down the CTD to 360m. I'm having some raw seal meat, still warm, using the hand winch in the same time! Looking at the results on the computer, we find that the strong fluorescence peak is slightly less compared to the previous station (July 12th). So we didn't miss the maximum of the bloom!

Once water samples done, and two more seals caught (Jay gives me some time to practice with his scope), it's time to go, melting is fast. Relieved, we get back to our starting point (old Dew Line beach), it remains for us to cross the 20 meters of open water separating the ice from the shore. Full throttle. "The fun part!".

While we finish storing snowmobiles and sleds for the summer, France is doing the latest filtrations in the lab and Joannie prepares photos and short films. Fifty people are then coming to attend her talk at the community hall. End of GreenEdge 2015!