Break free
"I want to break free...
I've got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free"
- "I want to break free" by Queen
We met at the marine lab for breakfast and then walked down to the dock to check the ice conditions. It was a little better than the previous day but still kind of borderline. We might be able to get the boat out, but it would require some work. I asked the skipper, Erlend, what he thought, and we settled on a strategy: use manpower to break up some of the ice near the dock so we could free the zodiac boat, Polarsirkel. Then we could use the zodiac an icebreaker, driving it around the harbor to break apart the ice and free Teisten. The zodiac is specifically designed for polar work and is essentially unsinkable - just what we need right now.
For ice-smashing tools, we scavenged some metal table legs from the marine lab. They were about a meter long and hollow, square in cross section, with a rectangular foot at the bottom. Rows of holes ran down the sides. We tied a rope through the holes on each leg, so that we could secure the table legs to the dock and avoid losing them in the water.
We walked down to the dock and set to work. Erlend and Marine, the marine lab coordinator, used the engine of the zodiac to scoot forward and backward in place and break up the ice immediately around the boat. Two team members, Xiaoshou and Hongju, and I used the table legs to break up the layer of ice around Teisten, while our colleague Sam chipped away at the ice around the zodiac.
As we worked, I started noticing that each one of us was using our table leg in a different way. Four people had the same tool to solve the same problem, and we came up with four different solutions. Hongju used the flat rectangular foot of the table leg to enlargen ice holes around Teisten by chipping away at the edges. Xiaoshou threw his table leg like a weight, making cracks in the ice every time it landed. Sam held onto the flat rectangular foot and used the narrow end of the table leg to perforate the ice. I used the foot of my table leg as a pick ax to cut holes in the ice behind Teisten. Contrary to the saying, great minds do not think alike!
Eventually, the zodiac was free, and Erlend was able to use it to break up even more of the ice. Sam and Marine rode in the front of the boat to provide ballast, and Erlend used the hull as an icebreaker. He would drive the boat up onto a piece of ice and then pause while the weight of the boat plus Sam and Marine caused the ice to break underneath the hull. He did this several times and was able to clear the area around Teisten in about 10 minutes. It took another few minutes to drive around the harbor and make a path for the boat to get out.
We were all extremely excited to have Teisten free! We loaded our gear onto the boat and set off for our first day of sampling!
I've got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free"
- "I want to break free" by Queen
We met at the marine lab for breakfast and then walked down to the dock to check the ice conditions. It was a little better than the previous day but still kind of borderline. We might be able to get the boat out, but it would require some work. I asked the skipper, Erlend, what he thought, and we settled on a strategy: use manpower to break up some of the ice near the dock so we could free the zodiac boat, Polarsirkel. Then we could use the zodiac an icebreaker, driving it around the harbor to break apart the ice and free Teisten. The zodiac is specifically designed for polar work and is essentially unsinkable - just what we need right now.
For ice-smashing tools, we scavenged some metal table legs from the marine lab. They were about a meter long and hollow, square in cross section, with a rectangular foot at the bottom. Rows of holes ran down the sides. We tied a rope through the holes on each leg, so that we could secure the table legs to the dock and avoid losing them in the water.
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| Hongju and Xiaoshou breaking up sea ice from the back deck of Teisten |
As we worked, I started noticing that each one of us was using our table leg in a different way. Four people had the same tool to solve the same problem, and we came up with four different solutions. Hongju used the flat rectangular foot of the table leg to enlargen ice holes around Teisten by chipping away at the edges. Xiaoshou threw his table leg like a weight, making cracks in the ice every time it landed. Sam held onto the flat rectangular foot and used the narrow end of the table leg to perforate the ice. I used the foot of my table leg as a pick ax to cut holes in the ice behind Teisten. Contrary to the saying, great minds do not think alike!
 |
| Erlend using Polarsirkel to break ice in the harbor |
We were all extremely excited to have Teisten free! We loaded our gear onto the boat and set off for our first day of sampling!
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