We are now on day 10 of the cruise. We spent it parked near a likely ice floe of about 2x3 km size and are considering it as a site for the central observatory. Surveys will continue tomorrow. Most of the other sea ice we've encountered in the area is thin (~30 cm) and soft, soaked with seawater, and thus not very promising for an ice camp. The underside of the ice is brown with diatom growth, hosting a few small fish which attract the occasional sea bird.

If things look good and we decide to stay the site setup will be a complex, 6-phase process over the period of 7-10 days to survey the area, set up a security perimeter and install infrastructure. During that time, Federov will set up the distributed network sites.

We've been making slow progress each day setting up instruments on the ship - started working on inlets and cabling for the bow tower today.

The sun is just peeking above the horizon for a few hours each day, when you can see it, but dusky lighting persists for about 12 hours. Most days it's foggy or snowing lightly. Temps have been -6 to -8°C with light winds.