Blog

Photos

Eric Brossier

Picture session with the moonshine, which is giving us more light now than the very soft midday light still existing when clear sky. All lights on, Vagabond was in a festive mood yesterday night, one month before Christmas! Soon online.

-25 degrees but no wind for the last 2 or 3 days, also we need to break the magic silence and run a bit more the generator to charge the batteries, the wind generator doesn't move.

NB: thanks for all your messages! SMS from 24/11 around 19:30 was deleted by mistake, before reading it...

Empreintes

Eric Brossier

This morning, polar bear and fox prints next to the hull, though we didn't hear the dogs during the night... and later today, while walking around on pack ice, we saw a polar bear running away. Inglefieldbukta is still busy these days! Tonight the moon is back and soon, she will not disappear for about 10 days. Temperature is -21, or -40 with chilling factor, and 10 inside.

Visiteurs

Eric Brossier

Around 3:00 pm today, suddenly in the sky, a powerful light coming towards us! Soon we can hear the noise of the helicopter landing on the shore nearby Vagabond. The 2 pilots and the secretary of Airlift are bringing coffee and chocolate, this is only a training flight. Next time, if we need anything, we must not hesitate to ask, now they have our exact position! The nice break doesn't last long, back to our wintering after this totally unexpected visit.

Hallucinations

Eric Brossier

In the semi-darkness, it is hard to see the difference between a shadow, an ice block, a moraine's relief or a polar bear... But less visitors for the last few days.

The new procedure for sending your SMS is working! Thanks a lot for all your warm thoughts.

Nouvel espace

Eric Brossier

Here we are, ice pack thickness is more than 30 cm, and is now resisting to strong winds. Dogs have been on ice for 3 days, and we are getting use to our new space, huge, perfectly flat and immaculate, except many polar bear prints and few polar fox prints. Safety and various equipment are gradually placed on ice, and we have more room on Vagabond's deck. With the midday soft light today, we walked with the dogs almost to the glacier front, where we were sailing with the dinghy last month. Amazing!

NB: SMS have not been well received for the last 5 days, end is systematically missing, please start your message with signature.

Solide

Eric Brossier

Sea ice seems to resist to gale now, but the dog houses didn't stay on ice more than few hours. After enjoying a calm moment running a bit with the dogs, and scaring away a polar bear even before seeing him in the semi-darkness, Jin and Frost went back on board last night, another gale is blowing.

Aurores

Eric Brossier

Bad radio propagation, daily weather reports to Longyearbyen station are difficult, but wonderful northern lights have been illuminating the clear sky for the last 3 days. Young ice is already 18 cm thick within less than 2 days.

Tempete encore

Eric Brossier

Strong winds are still blowing, 3 days now, barometer dropped down to 968 mb yesterday. Temperature is about -15 C, but wind over 100km/h are not included in our Wind Chill Factor tables. Equivalent temperature is probably around -50 C. Depending on wind direction, ice is pushed away or forming and getting thicker very quickly. This is not disturbing our dogs, staying out of their dog houses very often, neither the polar bears, as we can see them sometimes in the night passing close to boat. Let's hope for a better weather for the 20 skippers of the Vendee Globe sailing race, we listen to the departure yesterday on RFI radio.