On and Away

(by till)

An abandoned Russian mining settlement presented a great backdrop for the grounded Polargirl. A handful of Norwegian inflatables were circling the stranded cruise ship whilst a tiny coastguard vessel was pulling valiantly at its bow when we arrived at the scene. We attached a line to Polargirl's backside and the Arctic Sunrise pulled forcefully for about 10 minutes - then the grounded ship slipped backwards into freedom, an audible sigh of relief all round and thankful Norwegian sailors waved us goodbye. We've set sail again and are now heading north - first destination:  79. 32' N, 0. 40' E. This might be the last internet for a few days (and quite honestly, I'm not completely unhappy about that). So I leave you with a few impressions from the ship's hold:

bare science in the hold

Will Trossell and the Arctic Sunrise's Indian Emblem

the filmmaker Stephen Nugent

SOS on the radio

An hour ago everyone was happily plodding along, the AUV, or robot, or fish as the crew like to call it was hanging over the side of the ship, working her way through her standard warm-up exercises when the radio sprung to life: a small local cruise ship was calling for help - it had run aground 10 miles south of Longyearbyen and the Arctic Sunrise, being an (almost) mighty icebreaker turns out to be the strongest ship in the area. So the engines were rapidly fired up, the anchors pulled in and right now we're on our way to hopefully save the `Polargirl' (no panic though, apparently all passengers are safe and sound). That's all we know for now, internet might go any second so I'll just quickly post this. Do not worry though, because Captain Haddock has taken over the helm: