Day 5

During the night the majority of the ice disappeared from the starboard side and within the fish hold. There is a long, wide gash in the fish hold. Water is surging in. It sucked one of the supersacks that was partially full through the gash. There are foam pieces just south of the boat on unstable shelf ice and in the water just below it. We will not be able to collect it until the shelf ice move further back.

A large portion of the ice also disappeared off of the stern of the vessel. Explosives may be used to move one large chunk of ice. Paul and I chopped ice off of the deck. The vessel is now largely ice free and now the water surges against it with a lot of spray.

The 1” cable planned for the highline was not large enough, so Dan has ordered a new cable shipped in. Do not know when it will show.

At 10:30 Dan was ready to set the explosives. By 11:30 just as Dan was preparing the holes in the ice and developing the shape charges. Mike and Juan came out and stationed themselves at appropriate distances from the vessel. Dan ran lines a ways from the vessel and the remainder of us went up the hill. When Dan was ready, he asked Mike and Juan for an all clear for sea mammals. None were in sight and Dan set off the charges. Very unspectacular, a flash and some smoke. We inspected the cuts and Dan was pleased.


Some of the ice at the stern broke and much of it was weakened. We expect to find a lot of the ice gone on Thursday. Magone’s crew continued cutting and chipping more foam. One crewmember began removing the numerous lines, wires and other attachments on the mast. We collected them as they came down.

We staged supersacks beneath the route of the highline and filled them with the garbage bags of items that we removed from the OC. This is a particularly good move as it appears the weather will become windier. We filled 11 sacks with the material. The sharp pieces of metal from the stove, frig etc will go up in cargo nets.

We finished most work by 5:00 p.m. and waited for Dan to return with more explosives. He returned after 7:00 p.m. and set a new charge below the one he had previously done on the port outer false hull.

When it was set, Juan and Mike went on lookout for marine mammals. Several seals had swum into the area and we waited for them to leave. The charge went off and accomplished the goal. Broke at 8:15 p.m. and headed for the vehicles.