We found a cozy little ice natural harbour, almost exactly the same size as Northabout.

Ben Edwards, crewmember whole expedition Laptev Sea 12 Aug

So, we’re tied to some ice again.  After I wrote to you last we found that we couldn’t get through the ice to the east and we had to wait around a bit.  So what we did is we found a nice piece of ice and tied ourselves to it using rope and crowbars.  We organised an anchor watch with things that you had to do each twenty minutes to make sure we were still secure and safe.  Four hours later a section of the ice we were attached to became separate from the rest of the floe and we had to leave.  We then spent the next three hours motoring west.  It was miserable.  We had twenty five knot headwinds with sea spray and the tide against us.  We did a maximum speed over the ground of three knots, so of course all the time we were sailing was during my watch.  We eventually found a piece of ice that looked good for tying up against.  We did that but were confused as to why the ice didn’t seem to be affected by the wind or the waves.  After we were secure Nikolai explained that we were attached to ice that had formed on top of a bit of protruding land, which means we are totally secure.  About fifteen minutes ago we left our berth, the wind had come round and we were being blown onto the ice.  What we did was we sailed round the same piece of ice and found a cozy little natural harbour, almost exactly the same size as Northabout.  So thats where we are now and where we intend to stay until the ice changes.  I’ll write to you tomorrow if there’s anything to write about, in the meantime, bye.