Expedition August 26 to September 1, 2007 by Humfrey Melling Previous | Next Third Report on Progress On the morning of August 26 (Sunday) CCGS Henry Larsen was back in Smith Sound. Despite a low overcast, the helicopter was able to take two persons ashore to re-activate the weather stations at Pim Island and Cape Isabella. The guy wires and hold-downs were repaired, the data loggers re-connected to the sensors and the reference direction for wind was checked. We added a 70 A-h battery at each site; with the additional capacity, the installations may continue to log weather data throughout the dark months. In the afternoon, we revisited Foulke Fjord to recover the pressure recorder moored there last August. We were able to communicate with the sub-sea transponder but the mooring did not surface after the release was activated. The two attempts to grapple the mooring, before the FRC was recalled in growing fog, were unsuccessful. The ship continued southward overnight towards Grise Fjord in heavy fog. On Monday (August 27), the fog cleared sufficiently at Grise Fjord to pick up Sasa Petricic (CBC correspondent) by helicopter. We completed a CTD section across Fram Sound upon our arrival there in the late evening in the face of ice, a 40-knot wind and a strong tidal current coming down from Cardigan Strait. We were at the site of oceanographic moorings in Cardigan Strait first thing on August 28. The release and recovery of the mooring on the east side of the channel was flawless, completed in 15 minutes. However, all attempts to establish communication with installation on the west side were unsuccessful, perhaps because of high background noise associated with the ship's machinery and the 3-knot current running at the time. The ship was forced off the site by rapidly drifting ice. However, we were able to complete a CTD section across the strait at the mooring line and another in the evening across the channel leading across Norwegian Bay towards Cardigan Strait. Deployment of the ice-floe team was not practical with the fog and poor visibility. The ship drifted in ice overnight. On Wednesday August 29 the fog had lifted and visibility was good under overcast skies. The ice-survey team was deployed to a floe north-west of Cardigan Strait first thing, with Sasa Petricic along to film the activity. Plans to return to the reluctant mooring in Cardigan Strait were abandoned in declining visibility with snow showers. A short CTD section across the channel leading across Norwegian Bay towards Hell Gate was completed during evening hours. On Thursday, despite a thorough effort, we were not able to recover the second mooring in Cardigan Strait. We tried to contact the mooring's transponders from the ship at various ranges, and subsequently deployed the transponding control unit in the FRC to escape high ambient noise around the ship. This mooring is presumed lost, most likely to mechanical failure. We subsequently proceeded to deploy ADCPs at two sites, one on the axis of the channel and one on the western wall. There was an unfortunate delay of 1-2 hours at the axial site when the power cable from a battery case to the ADCP was damaged while lifting the mooring; the cable was removed and re-spliced. Following completion of a CTD cast in Hell Gate, CCGS Henry Larsen turned eastward into Jones Sound. The only activity on August 31 was the 11th survey of a multi-year floe, this time a relatively thin and decayed floe in Lady Ann Strait. By early evening we were heading south towards Lancaster Sound. A hydrographic section at high resolution across Lancaster Sound at Cape Warrender was started shortly after midnight on September 1 and completed before 11:00. This is an important reference section in the eastern Canadian Arctic with first observation made in 1928; it has not to my knowledge been occupied for at least 10 years. We were rewarded with an interesting view of a very active interaction between the Arctic outflow and west-flowing Atlantic waters of the Greenland Current. On completion we continued on to Pond Inlet, dropping anchor in the evening. With no seats available on flights to the south until September 4 (Wednesday), we have three days to fill here, one on board ship and two ashore, after CCGS Henry Larsen departs for fuelling at Nanisivik. Then we only get as far as Iqaluit before waiting another day for a flight to Ottawa and beyond - the joys of the Arctic. This has been a difficult and frustrating field expedition. Our success at picking up the trophies of past initiatives definitely leaves something to be desired. However, we have done well in our new initiatives. We have an array of 16 moorings in place for the IPY. We have gathered valuable survey data on the thickness and strength of 11 multi-year ice floes - floes which are startlingly large, thick and strong when viewed in the context of shrinking multi-year ice coverage in the Arctic. We have also completed a wide ranging hydrographic snapshot of the north-eastern Canadian Archipelago from Hall Basin to Lancaster Sound. This is a good beginning. I look forward to being back here in 2009.