by Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA scientist and co-coordinator of MOSAiC

We ran into the floe. Directly. While scientifically we decided it would be best to moor to the floe along the ship’s port side to facilitate CTD operations, others onboard have been concerned about the Polarstern’s ability to hold its position alongside the floe in the face of ice pressure. We’ve, of course, experienced a lot of pressure thus far, which has been a great challenge at times. And so, the decision was made to instead drive straight into the floe and attempt to embed Polarstern. This type of position, the thinking goes, would allow the ship to be effectively protected from some of the ice forces by the floe itself. Polarstern cruised out from our parking spot from the last days and navigated around the floe to the south and then east, then cruised full speed ahead directly into the SE flank of the remaining MOSAiC floe. The ship was eventually stopped by the very thick ice, ridged and chunky. Backed up for another go, trying to embed further, but no such luck. The floe was not allowing such an entrance, and instead a crack opened up to the port side and another chunk of the floe broke off. Ever smaller the floe gets. In the morning the captain maneuvered the ship so that the starboard side was along the ice floe, and we will stick in this position and see how things go.