Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 08:23

Ms. Welch - we enjoyed the video of the waves crashing over the bow. Very scary. We also liked watching you learn the hand signals.

Emilia: is there someone who is the official cameraperson who is taking all the videos? I liked the video about the pancake ice. Is it one solid piece in the winter? I like the bongo nets too - I can see where they get their name.

David: how fast is your boat going?

The Majersiks

Simone Welch

Hi Majersiks-I am so happy to hear from you again! I'm glad that you liked the videos- don't I look silly? :)  There's not an official cameraperson for me.  I just give my camera to anyone standing by and say, "Here, videotape this please."  There is an offical photographer for the expedition.  You should check out his pictures- they are way cool.  I'm even in 5 or 6! His website is www.polardiscovery.whoi.edu.  Then you look for the Bering Sea expedition, (I think it's expedition 5). He is going to show a few animal photos at the presentation on the web scheduled for Friday too.  
Emilia- The ice floes ARE basically in one piece all winter. There are some cracks that form as the wind moves the ice around and pieces bump into each other but we've been places where you can't see any water no matter how far you look.  We even saw some of this a few days ago and it is MAY!
David: The boat moves pretty quickly for it's size.  Sometimes is goes 13 knots which is nautical miles per hour.  This is only when we aren't having to "back and ram".  Backing and ramming helps when the ice is so thick that we can't get through on the first try.  We back up...go forward...back up...go forward until we have made a crack large enough to create a "lead" that we can travel through!  Neat, huh?
Miss you guys!  See you soon!  Talk to you even sooner- Friday!
Ms. W

Simone Welch

Oops! Not Friday, tomorrow! The days of the week don't really mean anything out here so it's easy to get confused.  Talk to you even sooner!