The Ivan Papanin Ship is in Crown Bay
All unloading activities at the Norwegian site are now finished. The Ivan Papanin cargo ship left 5°East and the Norwegian Troll Station on December 19th. Following the satellite maps, the ship navigated without any trouble through the sea ice and reached Crown Bay on Sunday December 21st. Alain Hubert and his traverse team thus set out to the coast on Saturday to meet the ship and unload the cargo.
The ice conditions were good and the ship was able to make good progress through the ice around Crown Bay. The ship is still ahead of schedule even though it did, in the end, take longer than expected to unload the cargo at 5°East...
The fact is that there are still some hard times ahead: the ship's unloading must be finished before the big storm moves in on December 26th... According to the forecast, high winds are expected, which would make the unloading process impossible to proceed. They are thus working around the clock: Alain and the traverse team started working at 5 am this morning.
Picture: Ivan Papanin - © International Polar Foundation