9 July 2014 (2 am), by Matt Shupe, [80N, 70E]:
We’ve just entered the ice, accompanied by a few birds. The marginal zone is a collection of small floes, usually less than 10-15 meters across, sprinkled about in the water. The Oden, our icebreaker, has hardly slowed. Down to about 9 knots from 11 knots. The flows are small and thin, posing little difficulty. But they do shake the ship as we ride over them, and I’m guessing some are having interrupted sleep. Surprisingly there are only four of us on the bridge to experience this awe inspired moment.
A few interesting features about the marginal zone. After about an hour of fairly consistent ice coverage, there was a band of relatively more open water with somewhat less ice. Then, upon entering the more consolidated ice, we were greeted with a band of thicker fog. In the marginal zone there were also a few very big ice islands that stuck multiple meters out of the ocean, with much more depth hidden below the surface. These were not sea ice, but must have calved off of glaciers from nearby islands. Also, as we progressed through the initial ice floes there were many with tracks. Polar bear and fox. Only one set of the later, but probably 20 sets of the former.
