Arctic notes from an icebreaker

Ekaterina Gracheva

Ekaterina is a news correspondent with RT who was lucky enough to join an Arctic expedition onboard a nuclear-powered icebreaker, “Rossiya,” along with prominent Russian polar explorer Artur Chilingarov. She now writes a travel log to keep all those interested up to date with how the expedition is going.

15 October, 2010, 18:39

North Pole-38 mission launched

The cake is ready. A big one. The farewell party or the North Pole-38 opening ceremony (whatever you prefer) is about to start soon. Minding that polar bears are big fans of condensed milk (and rumor has it that they can eat it even together with cans), we expected guests in white fur to come over. However, they didn’t turn up or, maybe, it was too dark to spot them. Anyway, our two...

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14 October, 2010, 18:36

The final countdown

The unloading operation is almost complete. The North Pole-38 mission will be officially launched tomorrow morning. The dogs, Dick and Dina, who were among the first to “jump ship” as soon as the ladder was lowered on Monday, now don’t seem to want to leave the vessel at all. Every second person here feeds them every half an hour. Plus it’s so warm on the ship! The dogs...

13 October, 2010, 18:32

The three bears Arctic style

Our first guests – three polar bears came over. Curious animals, they approached the vessel at dawn, regardless of the dogs that were running on a nearby floe. Perhaps the thought that they were on one ice floe and the dogs were on another made them feel secure?! I presume those were a mother and two kids. Quite huge kids, actually, and very, very good runners! When the helicopter went in the...

11 October, 2010, 18:28

Setting up the station

Outside temperatures are -14 to -15 degrees Celsius. At daybreak on Monday, Day 10 of the Arctic expedition, polar explorers started unloading their equipment and supplies on a drifting ice floe they will call home for the next year. It is located in the Chukchi Sea about 600 km north of the Vrangel Island, at 76.05°N 175.34°W and is 7km x 12km. About 1.5 meters had melted away during...

10 October, 2010, 18:27

The right place

“We have found it!” Artur Chilingarov announces that the ice floe for the North Pole-38 floating station has been found. A couple of hours before the briefing started, a flag was fixed in the ice to mark the successful ending of the first part of the mission. “Why is the flag red, not a Russian tricolor?” I wonder from my seat. “It’s nostalgia about the Soviet...

8 October, 2010, 18:24

In search of a parking slot in the Arctic

Explorers continue searching for the “it-ice”. Ten ice fields have been already inspected, but they don’t meet the requirements. Most of the ice floes are too young – less than a year old. They are thick enough, but not flat enough to for a floating station to be installed on them. What the expedition is looking for is an ice platform (minimum 5 x 9 kilometers) and...

7 October, 2010, 18:16

Fyodorov: a floating laboratory

At dawn our “delegation” of polar researchers led by Artur Chilingarov, and journalists docks with polar scientists onboard the “Akademik Fyodorov” icebreaker. The vessel had set off from Arkhangelsk on July 28 and is heading to the Arctic on a 100-day expedition to demarcate the Russian continental shelf. The “Fyodorov” is the flagship of the Northern Fleet,...

2 October, 2010, 20:35

Sailing Off

It was a traditional marine send-off. Without major pomp and stuck strict to the schedule. The “Rossiya” nuclear powered icebreaker left Murmask port at 10:40 in the morning. First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov personally came to Murmansk to meet members of the 2010 Arctic expedition and wished them good luck in the open waters. An orchestra played the traditional Russian folk...

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