Hard Live in the Arctic.

This is a six-days-working-week. We were diving under the ice again taking sediment cores because strong wind made it impossible to go by boat. Nico, our French diver, left us on Monday and took a photo from upstairs.

Dive Site - Ice Hole, Ny-Alesund Harbour

Serripes, Serripes and Serripes collecting at Brandal… this bivalve is hiding in the sandy bottom being afraid of walruses that easily take around 400 of them for breakfast. While I was starring at the bottom concentrated on taking six of the small sediment cores for Bonnie a walrus was starring at me hanging at the surface…puffing and taking my sun away. Actually, that was the only thing I recognized, strange noises and a shadow which I though would be a cloud, boat or something…”well they would asked me to come up if there was a walrus”, I was thinking. But as he or she was just interested and did not want to play with me, they kept me underwater.
On our way back the tide performed a nice extravaganza starring ice plates embedding our boat…the same today.

Enclosing.

So we walked on the plates pulling the boat, we transformed it into an ice breaker and we were patient… it took us one or two hours to get through. Bloody hell of gorgeous ice formations melting during a dance between blue and white.

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Hard life in the Arctic.