10.27 UTC. Skipper Peter Gallinelli just sent a message reporting about the expedition’s current status:
“Good morning, NANUQ and crew are in good health and mood. Even though progress is very slow, we manage to get closer to the edge of ice. The drone has been particularly useful in providing priceless routing information where ice charts give only approximate data. We are now in dense pack Ice again and waiting for conditions to improve. Fresh snow covers the summits above 800m altitude. It is likely that the scientific agenda will not be completed at 100%, but I’m glad that activities have begun from the very beginning, allowing to collect many novel observations. What will be the plans for the next days will depend on ice and wind conditions. As the Greenlanders would say ‘Time and ice are the only masters’. Time (sila) means also weather, signifying that weather and time are completely intermingled. I’m very much occupied in taking care of navigation and NANUQ, so please forgive the scarce updates. Kevin is helping in sending regular updates. Keep in touch and all the best,
Peter and crew.”
UPDATE AUG 7, 13.48 UTC. Kevin Monneron sent a message to Polarquest headquarters, hereby translated from French into English: “We came out of the ice we follow the edge of the ice and we will throw anchor to repair a rudder that has broken with the ice”. At that moment NANUQ was heading south at 10 km/h groundspeed (5.5 knots) Latitude: 68.164458 (North), Longitudine: -28.883721 (West)