ALTEX Arctic Cruise
October 7 - November 7, 2001
Tromso, Norway to the Arctic Circle
Logbook
October 30, 2001: Day #24
Mike Pinto writes: CTD operations continued into mid-afternoon when the Healy’s Captain decided that the ice was getting too thick to continue north and the operations were suspended. Meanwhile, the news on the buoy heat generating pellet problem wasn’t looking promising. Armen Bahlavouni speculated that the oil bath used to transport the pellet safely may have reacted with the lithium compound and prevented the seawater reaction from starting. Without the reaction, the burn through the ice test could not be conducted.
The ice buoy group did take the opportunity to test the duration of the buoy’s communication link just before dinner. The plan was to drill a hole in an ice floe and leave the buoy to transmit data and GPS location to the ARGOS satellite for 4-5 days. Bill Kirkwood and DJ Osborne were lifted onto the ice under the watchful eyes (they hoped) of the Coastguard sharpshooter and they used a power auger to drill a home for the buoy. Armen placed the buoy in the hole and we headed south for the next CTD transect.
