During the previous eleven winterings, we used snowmobiles to travel on the ice from Vagabond. For science and for our leisure. This year, conditions are pushing us to do without.

Reduce our expenses. These practical machines cost at least € 10,000 to purchase, consume a lot of gas and oil, and require regular maintenance.

Nearby scientific sites. The three sites defined for the 2019-2020 winter scientific program are in the bay of Arctic Bay (6x3km).

Lockdown. Visits between families have been strongly discouraged since March, whether in town, out on the ice, while traveling or camping. Participating in a fishing derby, for example, 8 or 10 hours by snowmobile from the village, loses much of its meaning if you have to stay confined near your tent.

Effort and sharing. Aurore and Léonie have grown well, it's a pleasure to walk or ski together, with the help of our dogs Stone and Miki or kites to haul our pulkas which guarantee our self sufficiency. We certainly don't go as far as by skidoo, but we chat on the way and listen to the birds!

Similarly for diving and water sampling, we do not have a powered auger or chainsaw so we drill through the 160cm thick ice with a hand augers and tuks. Contact with the ice is more intimate, and no need to go to the gym!

Finally, solar panels and new boat batteries are allowing us to considerably reduce the use of the generator. Our diesel consumption is around 7 liters per day for energy, heating and cooking.

This year, no snowmobile. If we want to discover new landscapes, it is with our feet.

To mark and celebrate my 50th birthday, we are leaving with 3 pulkas and Stone the dog, on foot or on skis, to a nearby bay.

The preparations are not like those from the previous years camping weekends, when the qamutiq could be filled up without worrying about weight! Eric and I are pulling a pulka each, Léonie is driving Stone the dog and sometimes helping him to pull his sledge, the heaviest, while Aurore plays the cheerleader in front, delighted with our little outfit. At the end of Arctic Bay's bay, the wind settles and swells behind our back, blowing the snow and pushing us forward! Several snowmobiles pass us then Tom with his dog sled. We discover them gathered in a small bay of the coast, sharing a tea according to the custom on Sunday evenings on the sea ice. But we are in quarantine, so we only exchange some greetings from far and continue. After 3 hours of walking we cross the hummocks and the wind dies slowly to let us set up the tent on an idyllic bank.

The next day, walks and idleness. We happily live again the feeling of freedom offered by these wild camps and in the evening, Léonie surprises us with her culinary prowess well hidden in the cooler (which is used to avoid freezing) to celebrate my half century!

Once a month, there is a fieldwork that we could not have done without Eric: collecting coralline samples by 15 meters deep and checking the various sensors allowing us to follow the growth conditions of this algae, whose strata are so revealing.

In other words, organizing a dive under the sea ice.

So this fieldwork cannot wait until the end of our quarantine. Even without any external contacts, without snowmobile and without thermal auger. Just with our little arms.

First step, making a hole through the 1.70m thick ice, large enough for Eric to pass with all his diving equipment. It takes us up to 7 hours with tuks, two of us. The tuk is this metal axis extended by a sharp edge which allows you to cut the ice, little by little. Eric ends up with a kind of super-tendinitis at the wrist, while I get painful hand muscles.

The next day, Eric looks still valid for diving. The small fishing tent is set up next to the hole to warm up the man and his equipment, before and after the dive. Léonie helps Eric with his installation inside while Aurore helps me to re-open and clean the hole, fitted with a skimmer. Then everything rolls smoothly. During a dive almost without free flow (icing), Aurore perfects her "diamond circle" nearby, then Eric comes out, happy about the dive. Once the hole is covered with snow and the diver dressed again, we share the well-deserved cake, happily tight in the small red tent.

My mom Brigitte passed away yesterday, April 23rd. The grandmother of our daughters Aurore and Léonie, and also the one of Vagabond, left for her longest journey.

At the same time, exactly, I took off aboard a Twin Otter from Station Nord to Eureka, an exceptional flight, totally magical. For almost five hours I flew over breathtaking landscapes north of Greenland and Ellesmere Island. I will never forget this flight which brought me home while my mom flew away for good.

Brigitte knew that Vagabond's crew was about to gather a few hours later. She knew that after a long separation of five months for Mosaic, this very spectacular international scientific expedition on drifting ice, our little family could carry on with our more modest missions, faithful to Vagabond's spirit.

For the past two months I have been negotiating to get back to Vagabond as quickly as possible, staying in the Arctic, without going through anywhere in the south. A bear even passed by early yesterday morning, as if to make sure that I had left the mission. From one boat frozen in the ice to another, from Polarstern to Vagabond directly, objective achieved!

Aurore, Léonie, France, Stone the dog and the pulka were there yesterday beside the runway, when Kenn Borek's plane landed. What a reunion! It was then on foot on the ice that we went to Vagabond, from where I was finally able to communicate more easily with my relatives confined in France. So many emotions in one day.

Today we are serenely starting on a quarantine on board Vagabond, while continuing our scientific work. The only difference from our usual wintering lifestyle, we have to wait before visiting our friends in Arctic Bay, the neighboring village.