ICE looms out out of the horizon like a piece of homework that you’ve been trying to avoid doing by moving to India only to find that school exists there as well

Ben Edwards crew, 18 Aug

We’re still running into ice, aaaagggghhhh!  We’ve had patches of clear water just large enough that you can’t see the other side, just large enough that you start to think maybe we’ve seen the last of the ice, and then it looms out out of the horizon like a piece of homework that you’ve been trying to avoid doing by moving to India only to find that school exists there as well.  Hmpf.  We’ve put in three new tracks today each one further south than the last in the vain hope that we’d finally escape the ice by running away from it.  Unfortunately it seems that ice is a vindictive substance and refuses to leave us alone.  Despite this we have still managed to head in a vaguely easterly direction and looking at a world map, it looks like the North East Passage is nearly done.  From then on things will hopefully be more comfortable.  Less ice, less distance to do than we’ll already have done and so on.  Okay, alright, I’ve just learnt that recently, very recently, ice has moved in from the north to the North West Passage, which means we’ve got lots more of it to look forward to.  Shniblfrinshinifbnrr.

Ben