Leading the way

Over the past few days, winds have shifted to the south and east.
This has blown open a lead into Pine Island Bay which has not been
there since the start of the cruise. As I write, we're about to
enter the lead, which cuts between thick sea ice and fast (i.e. stuck
to the land and not going anywhere quickly) ice. I will probably be
asleep and not around to see if we make it, but chances look good if
you believe the satellite pictures from the past few days. This is
either a coup or an sneaky trick by the gods of weather and ice. It
is possible that the opening closes while we're in there, and that
our other ambitions outside the immediate region of Pine Island
glacier are hindered. Worst case scenario, we're stuck for a while.
I think we have enough desserts to make it through the winter though,
so don't worry about me.

We got a little preview of the oceanographic conditions in some
troughs which we sampled on the way over to PIB today. Basically
everywhere below 500-600 m is around 1.2 degrees C. Cold (still
freezes my hands when sampling), but way warmer than necessary to
melt ice. Our big questions are: where does this water go near the
ice shelves, how does it get there, and what drives it and the flow
of any meltwater which forms when it hits the ice. The CTD casts and
samples we'll get will provide clues which we'll put together as they
are analyzed. It's a frustrating part of this experience that we
can't know more about what we've collected earlier, but such is the
speed of progress (and observational science).