9 May, 2003

Weather: very nice. Clear an daround -10 but in the sun it feels like 50!

Camp Life: I am sending this a day early as we are striking camp tomorrow. That was also the plan for today, but as you read we were Kangstered. The weather report for tomorrow sounds better so we are organizing camp and preparing for a couple of shuttle flights to our next camp. The Otter will fly to our next camp, drop off new supplies and then return to our camp to pickup drilling equipment. After the drop, they will return to camp and pick us up and return to Kangerlussuaq. We will get to take a shower and smell good again for one day. It may sound funny to hear this on your end but I am a little reluctant to go to a nice warm room in Kanger. At this time I am in the groove of living in the cold weather, my gear is working well and I might feel depressed leaving a nice warm place.

The land of the midnight sun:

When you look at a globe you will notice that if it is correctly set that it is slightly tilted to one side. During the summer, the northern hemisphere is pointed toward the sun and the southern hemisphere is pointed away. Within the Arctic Circle, which is above 66 degrees north, people will experience days with continuous light. The longest period of light in a specific day is June 21st the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. If you were in the Antarctic this time of year, the amount of time it would be light during the day would be getting shorter, and on the 21st of June they would experience total darkness the whole day. Simple said, during the winter our lighted part of the day is much shorter than it is in May and June.

At our latitude (68 degrees north) it never really gets dark. The sunsets about 11:00 pm and is rising around 2:30 am, however we never experience true darkness. There is always twilight on the horizon. Thank goodness it is so cold at night that you put your head inside the sleeping bag. The sky is so bright that we have not seen any stars but have seen the moon.

The ice and length of day is so important that the Greenlandic flag designed by Thue Christianson was influenced to it colors and design. Greenland actually is covered by two flags, which are the two flages and which is designed by Thue Christianson??

A little after 11 pm!!

Drying tents in the cold using radiant energy.

The pilots leave 55 gallong drums for refueling during long flights. I am helping turn over the pump to refule our plane.