Our path so far has been an interesting one. The design of MOSAiC was to follow the Transpolar Drift, to follow in Nansen’s footsteps. With tons of modelling and observational analysis led by Thomas Krumpen, we selected our starting location and developed a reasonable idea of our projected or expected drift path for the year. But then right from the start we drifted to the south…. Headed towards Siberia! After what seemed like too long, the movement finally started to bend around to a more northerly direction. But shortly thereafter we got stuck in a persistent weather pattern that would send us strongly to the west. Day after day Jens, the onboard weather forecaster, would present the forecast: E-SE winds. Each day taking stock of our location we would see a major westward shift, with some amount of N shift. Over time we headed towards the edge of our forecasted drift zone. We really don’t want to go too far to the west, as this will push us towards the Russian exclusive economic zone, which would limit our ability to conduct science and/or would set us up to get pushed out of the ice way too early in the year. But now finally….. in the last few days we get a big wind shift towards southerly winds, bringing warm air… a shockingly comfortable -14C out. But also pushing us to the north quickly, after circling back on our previous path. To the north and east we go with favorable wind forecasts in the coming days to help push us back into the middle of our projected drift course… and back closer to the North Pole. Onward!