From: Haley Smith Kingsland, Stanford University
The “Aloft Conn” camera shot this image as the Healy passed through the ice belt early Thursday morning.
62° 36’ N, 168° 29’ W
, June 17 — On Thursday morning, about 240 nautical miles south of the Arctic Circle, came an update from Captain William Rall: “I need to be careful what I ask for. At 1:00 a.m. last night/this morning, at about an hour BEFORE sunset, the Healy slowed to 7 knots to pass through a belt of ice. The ice was broken up with no pressure, the biggest pieces were only about the size of a truck. It may have woken up some of the light sleepers, and I did see a couple excited scientists up on the bow taking pictures. We still expect open water at our next planned science station which is at the narrowest part of the Bering Strait, although a wind shift can always change that and blow some ice in.”