With the current crew composed by Aurore 10 years old, graceful dancer, Léonie 13 years old, fortunately a budding scientist and me, artist, almost 50 years old, we managed to deal with a small part of the scientific program, at the cost of trials and errors that Eric would have never known.

By a beautiful afternoon all our little troop snorts with dog, pulka filled up with all the necessary equipment, and good mood to the nearest site, 2.3 km away from the boat. Perky, we pierce the sea ice with three auger holes, break with the tuk the remaining ice between the holes (the longest part!) to make only one big hole, in order to send to the bottom the Niskin bottle re-tamed before. After having taken the precious water from the bottom of the sea and covered with insulating snow our little messy site, one hour of happy walking brings us back to the boat, where serious things begin. With Léonie as queen of the lab; I'm just helping her. Carbon, mercury chloride... duly gloved and equipped with pipette and syringe, she filters, she does a good job... until the last drop available, but there are still two samples to collect! Rage, disappointment, three hours of work outside to do only half of the job...

In addition, we understand that the water samples must be taken from the two dedicated sites on the same day. First, find the second site. Loaded with my unshakeable memories, I'm leaving light for a reconnaissance. My goal is also to train the dog Stone to pull a skier, before harnessing a pulka. 12 km and three hours later, after a lot of sweating due to the dog training, I'm back on board, empty-handed. I didn't see the pile of ice and the pole that should have been there! Two days later I leave with a GPS, re-tamed too, and arrive right on the so hoped vision. With a tuk and an auger, I can make the holes in advance, and admire Stone's progress as a tractor.

Finally arrives the big day, we are ready. This morning, leaving Léonie and Aurore at their boat-schooling, the pulka loaded and the dog in front, I cross the bay and open the three holes before realizing that the tuk has disappeared! I turn back alone on ski, following our footsteps, but Stone tears off his ice screw and joins me. I tie myself to him as good as I can with the hanging ice screw and travel almost the entire way back to Vagabond before finding the tuk. Back to the holes I get angry: this time I lost the ice screw! The dog drags the large block of ice he is attached to like a ball, slowly but surely around me ... This water sampling is not easy. Back at the boat, ice screw found, Léonie officiates in the lab-kitchen, I nibble a ready lunch then set off again. Three hours later I am back from the second site, after an incredible field work: all went perfect! It is 6:30 pm, Léonie has finished the lab work and we have finally managed to do a day of water sampling as it should be!

In Arctic Bay all is fine, the Corona virus (Covid 19) is spreading slowly, people here know about it thanks to Internet. They don't see it like an obstacle, but more like something big, but they don't panic, they stay calm. We don't know exactly when neither how dad will come back... It's hard but we keep hoping and we think he will be on priority. Christian (photographer) who joined us since the beginning, left on March 20th together with Maude and Mathurin (actors) who where supposed to stay until March 28th. It is strange to find ourselves alone, three of us, so quickly. Initially, this was suppose to happen after Maude and Mathurin departure... No!!! Not even!!! Never because dad was suppose to be back 2-3 days after Christian and us...

Today, March 12th, the sun rose for the first time on MOSAIC since October 5th. But he stayed behind the clouds, and the strong winds cracked the sea ice right through the working area, spectacular. No instruments neither any scientific installation was damaged, miraculously.

So I'm still on board the German icebreaker Polarstern. My colleagues from Leg2 finally left on March 6th, heading to Norway, on board the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn. They should arrive in Tromso early April with one month delay from initial plan. I decided to stay with Leg3 team because I was offered to take the first flight from the MOSAIC spring airborne campaign. Then I should arrive in Longyearbyen in Svalbard, beginning of a long journey to Arctic Bay in Canada where ma family is waiting for me on board Vagabond.

The first flight was scheduled to land today on the ice near Polarstern, but all aircraft engineers are currently in quarantine due to the corona virus! My return from almost the North Pole is delayed until further notice... The virus impact is definitely worldwide.

Polarstern became the northernmost vessel during an Arctic winter, reaching 88°36'N on February 24th, 2020, during her transpolar drift. While the Kapitan Dranitsyn did the northernmost navigation during an Arctic winter, up to 88°28'N on February 26th, 2020.

The Leg3 team arrived full of energy, after a very long voyage from Tromso, and the crew change was efficient and faster than the 40 tons cargo transfer (supplies and scientific equipment) which lasted one week due to the extreme cold (-40°C, down to -60°C wind chill).

The crew change on board Vagabond, overwintering near Arctic Bay, was much faster: half an hour! Since March 3rd, France, Léonie and Aurore, are setting up again and they started the artists' residence with Christian Morel.

Georges, the Pilatus pilot, did a good job with a technical flight due to the cold weather. It was -35°C when we arrived in Arctic Bay so he stayed only half an hour not to let the Pilatus freezing, before to take off with Louis who as replacing us on board Vagabond. No long handover of instructions, but just enough time to sing Happy Birthday to Louis for his 30th birthday and share his birthday cake with friends at the airport!

After four months of absence we find Vagabond almost unchanged, a bit more ice inside and nothing but white all around. Sumptuous. We organize ourselves in this cold that we must get used again. A major difference with the other years: we are three girls and a boy but it's not Eric, unfortunately kept on the Polarstern icebreaker with no fixed return date, much further north than us!

Christian, the first artist in residence on Vagabond this year started and ... amazes aficionados of the Facebook page of the village with his light painting photos: the "models" hurry to take their turn! And ourselves, we shift towards the night that Christian needs for his photos, night that goes back 10 minutes each day. On board we take our rhythm, French school in the morning, before some tours in town where the inhabitants of Arctic Bay warmly meet us again.

After half a dozen nights at -39 ° C, the days are not pretty hot and we still don't stay outside for hours at a time;)