It is early in the morning, the aroma of my second cup of after-breakfast coffee is pleasantly wafting through the room. Next door in the mess room the clatter of dishes is telling stories of busy work, and when drawers are opened, the familiar sound of the closing mechanism can be heard that keeps them from springing open in heavy seas. Heavy seas- that is something we have not had in a long time. My photographs from the transit through the roaring forties, which sure did live up to their name back then, look like they are from a different life. Outside ice and calm, deep blue water are shimmering in the clear sunshine of the Polar summer.

So what is going on, anyway? Many stories are offered. “We are going around in circles.” “What, is this just ot do something- anything?” “No, we are widening the channel.” “Oh no, we are standing again.” The discussion, not much clouded by knowledge and experience, goes back and forth among us waiting scientists. A sense of community is a buffer for many feelings, disappointed expectations, impatience. For every one who has a day of given up hope for at least a few days of scientific work, there is somebody looking into the future with unbroken optimism or at least eyes kept open for the beauty of the Antarctic. Even though, one must say, the scenery has not changed all that much lately.

At the end of this day Hartmut, the meteorologist, will say after a look at the large area of crushed ice “All will end well”. Coming from an experienced Polarstern traveller, this sentence has some consolation to it.

Adressing the long-term future of the whole project, which we all started with much courage to try something new, will have to wait until the time is right. For now we are pulling results together and present them to each other. This is not always as easy as it sounds. Last night the benthologists were hard pressed now and again to understand the diagrams of the colleagues from the water column, and in a few days it will be the other way round. But our conviction to bridge these gaps has grown even stronger during the time shared on board ship, and the experience of collaboration being possible will change our way to look at science for the rest of our careers.

Brigitte Ebbe, Senckenberg

Image 20080113_Polarstern_in_ice_BEbbe.jpg
Polarstern backing up in a track of freshly broken ice
Location: 70°30'S, 8°11'W

Image 20080114_ice_and_water_BEbbe.jpg
ice floe showing beautiful colours above and under water
Location: 70°30'S, 8°11'W