February 17, 2009
All,
News of Today (based on Emails from Olaf and Julie and calls with Olaf, Pavel and Doug)
- The first relatively calm day at Lake E since long!
- Ice thickening was continued at site D1 by Paul, Anders, Chico and Olaf. 10-15 cm water was spilled, which will likely freeze completely in the next 48 hrs. Pad ice thicknesses currently range from 1.6 m in the northern to 1.7 m in the southern part, so that the minimum ice thickness needed should be reached once the new water is frozen.
- Doug et al. continued to check the container contents - everything so far is fine. Same is true for the Physical Properties container from AWI, checked by Catalina and Dietmar.
- Three containers are still in Pevek. According to Gutov, these are not included in the contract he has with CPS. Fortunately, the content (mud, smaller diameter pipes for deepest part of the drilling, AWI cargo) is not urgently needed at Lake E, however, the problem has to be solved soon to get the cargo delivered in time.
- Other bits and pieces (downhole sonde, sleeping bags etc.) are currently assembled to become shipped to the lake with the next party starting from Moscow on Sunday. This includes 250 orange and 50 black flags purchased by Julie to be mounted to the bamboo poles for better visibility. Together with the additional poles still stuck in Pevek customs (but hopefully released soon!) this shall enable shuttling even in stormy weathers.
I hope the weather holds, thus allowing to transport the remaining freight and start mounting the platform soon.
Cheers for now, Martin
