Morale Cruise

After the icebreaker has done it's job and created a channel in the ice big enough for the supply vessel and the oil ship to pass trough, they leave to fulfill other contracts. The Coast Guard vessel takes over and keeps the channel from freezing over again. After many requests from the community, this year the NSF has requested the Coast Guard again to provide us with cruises on their ship. People were able to sign up for this (person number 666 to sign up was Satan, I didn't know he was on station) )and after a lottery were placed in either the first shift or the second or on the alternate list.

View from the Polar Star Coast Guard ship.

Sheri was on the alternate list and was lucky enough to have enough people not show up (there were some parties the night before and some people might have drunk a little too much to be able to get up early or stand the motion of a ship). I made it to the second shift.
The boat took us far into the channel (unfortunately not all the way to the ice edge/open water) and even did some real-live ice breaking. Along the way we saw lots of seals, some penguins and several minke wales. You can imagine how excited people were.

Minke wales and seal

Lovely view of castle Rock A Russian cruise ship