[BlueGerbil]

February 27, 2010: 129th short message (10:14 a.m. CET)

F1 broke really badly into the snow. It sunk more than one meter into the snow. Underneath is water. It took us three hours to get it out again.

We are still at that place, trying to get over the crack that seems to be underneath. We move forwards half a meter and another half a meter with the help of sand sheets. It wouldn?t be possible without the sand sheets. We shovel, winch, pull, etc. It?s drudgery with no end.

Just now there was a little bit Russian romantic when we made a fire, made some tee (as well as coffee), cut some bread, ate some onions and sausage. We heard that Russian soldiers are doing it just like that.
Now we are trying to continue. It?s best if you just forget that you are in the middle of a bay on ice with 16 tons of weight. Then it?s fine. But if you think about it, you get queasy, even though the ice is about 80 cm thick.
Just now the wind slowed down, which caused the snowflakes to remain on the ground and not get swirled back in the air. For a couple of minutes we were able to see the lights of Jandrekinot in the far distance.

February 27, 2010: 130th short message (11:24 a.m. CET)

How does it work, what we are doing here right now?
Tires 0.1 in the front and 0.2 in the rear.
First we try to get F1 through the deep snowfields by shoveling and with sand sheets. Then we winch the F! trailer with the rear winch on F1 from about 80 meters away to about 40 meters away. Then we use the F1 trailer to winch F2 and trailer and also help with sand sheets because otherwise F2 would also break in. Drudgery, but that?s the only way to do it.
Without the awesome winch system with pluggable winches in the front and rear: zero point zero chance. This is the only way to get the modified trailers with skid and one-axle-operation through it. The modifications were worth it. The material by Roka and BPW is great.

..........

February 28, 2010: 131st short message (00:22 a.m. CET)

Have been on the ice of the bay for 24 hours now. It is an unbelievable drudgery. F1 and F2 broke completely into water traps. 200 m in 13 hours. What a bummer!
We were able to free ourselves from the worst water trap. We didn?t sleep since 10 a.m. yesterday morning. The team is doing well and mentally strong.
On it goes.

February 28, 2010: 132nd short message (07:13 p.m. CET)

By now we have worked for 36 hours non-stop. As described, we got right into the water traps that we have been warned of and had to free ourselves from them. But there?s no other way than the bay. Therefore we have to get through it.
Especially the winching, next to the continuous shoveling and carrying of sand sheets is exhausting In order to winch F1 we need ice anchors. They consist of an about 80 cm long, round piece of wood around whose middle is tied a winch rope. Then we sink the piece of wood at right angle to the traction direction inside a snow hole which we have dug all the way to the ice. We add three additional ice stakes into this 80-100 cm deep hole and thus secure the piece of wood. Then we knock it as deep as possible into the ice on which the wooden piece lies. Due to the fact that there is water on the ice, this is a wet issue. The gloves freeze within seconds.

February 28, 2010: 133rd short message (10:29 p.m. CET)

6 a.m. After having slept at least for a couple of hours, we take off again. Right now the temperature is -35?C. Therefore we hope that the water froze a little bit more so that we will be able to drive and not winch.

March 01, 2010: 134th short message (07:22 a.m. CET)

We are currently at N 64?51.821? / W 172?43.365?.

Yesterday evening we managed to place both cars and both trailers together on a secure section of ?watersnow?. Then we fell into a deep sleep. Later that evening, when two Skidoo drivers and Vladimir and Jefgeny came from Providenia to visit us, at least I only noticed that while being half asleep.
Today everything worked out better. The low temperatures of the night caused the aspic-mixture to freeze. The new Wrangler MTR can prove their strengths once again and let us progress.

This watersnow is due to three huge cracks which form every year in the bay. Two of them are diagonally to the bay, one is parallel. On the photos that we will send, the third crack will be visible. The cracks are about 40-60 cm wide. The third crack, for example, had only about 10 cm of ice at one spot.

What caused us to slow down today were seal holes. Seals need air to breathe. But considering that everything is frozen, nature came up with an amazing instrument and gave the seals ?super breath?. With their super breath the seals aspirate holes into the ice in order to get to the fresh air. More or less circular holes form, which fill up with water. If it snows for a longer period of time, the holes blow over and a delusive layer forms.
We got caught in many of them today. Once we hit it with a front wheel, once with a rear wheel, once with a wheel of the trailer. There have to be many of those colleagues here.
If you drive over the holes with enough speed and break in, it will pull out you axle. This is because the holes with water and snow on top will cause an about 1.5 x 1.5 meters wide hole to arise. Therefore we have to go very slowly. This way we might still break in, but nothing will be damaged.
And it?s better not to try and close the holes by shoveling snow into them so that we can put sand sheets over them, because then it might be that you find the next hole with the next shovel and break in with your feet. And then you are wondering why you are suddenly 60 cm lower (this happened just like that).

March 01, 2010: 135th short message (07:30 a.m. CET)

5 p.m. We just arrived at the mainland and thus in Jandrekinot. Awesome!
We are all happy to have made it through the bay. Great team!
Right away we were welcomed by a Skidoo. A father with two boys. Immediately after the police arrived. We were welcomed very friendly, they checked our paperwork. Everything alright.

Now we drive into the village and leave right after. The weather is great, but it will get really bad again. Due to the amazing and very accurate weather forecast of the German Weather Service, two hurricanes are expected. One will start on Friday. Until then, we are planning to have made a good part of the section towards Lavrentia.
Anyway, we are trying to reach a settlement before Lavrentia. If we can?t make it, we will have to stay in the cars during the hurricanes.

Let?s see how bad the section will be.

March 01, 2010: 136th short message (07:06 p.m. CET)

3 a.m. We are progressing well. We just finished a little pass behind Jandrekinot and slept for three hours. We are already driving again because we have to make use of the weather. We are winding between two little mountain ranges and crazy snow drifts that are hard as concrete.

Current position: N 64?58.172? / W 172?25.621?
The team is doing well.