4 February 2020 Slow Going

Slow Going

We plan our days around waypoints - the locations where the ship pauses to allow for data to be collected. We have stopped at waypoints for the deployment of the floats and for the CTD (Conductivity and Temperature with Depth) sampling, and will soon be arriving at waypoints for taking sediment cores. Our next waypoint is the northernmost edge of the Edwards Islands, which are located about 174 nautical miles from our current location. And if we keep going at this rate, it will take us just 294.3 hours to get there!

The data display in the winch control room on the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer shows that the boat is traveling at 0.5 knots. Continuing at this rate, it will take over 294 hours to reach the next planned destination.

Why so slow? Because right now the world looks like this:

Low visibility and heavy sea ice slow the pace of the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer as it makes its way towards the Edwards Islands on the northwest coast of Antarctica.

Or it sometimes improves to look like this:

Heavy fog makes it difficult to differentiate between the ice and the sky, and almost impossible to see looming icebergs in the distance on the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker in the Southern Ocean.

The captain is using radar to tell him where the big icebergs are located, but he still has to make decisions about the best path through solid sea ice. It is incredibly slow going as he tries to determine where the ice ends and the sky begins. We are hopeful that the weather will change for the better and that improved visibility might allow us to pick up the pace just a little - although the energy required to clear a path through the ice will keep us crawling along at a snail's pace. Even at 6 knots, which is about as fast as we can travel right now, it will be close to 30 hours before we arrive at the next waypoint.

Radar on the bridge helps the captain of the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker navigate through clusters of icebergs, even when visibility makes it difficult to see any distance in front of the ship.