19 April 2016
The frozen Arctic Ocean
Elevation: 1m
Latitude: 89°43’57″N
Longitude: 146°40’15″E
Weather: Sunny and breezy
Temperature: -24°C with wind chill
Distance covered today: 19.8km
Distance to North Pole: 30km
Ed is feeling: Very excited

We are getting so close to the top of the world it is amazing. It is also
unrelentingly freezing and a hard slog to ski what was over 10′ (minutes)
latitude today. As we are at sea effectively drifting around on the ocean
it is appropriate that every degree of latitude is exactly 60 nautical
miles (which is 60′ minutes = 1 degree latitude). We have been wondering as
we ski along what the force would have to be to move a mass of sea ice
roughly 3m thick and the size of Europe at the drift rate of 100m/hour –
phenomenal! We also wished we had an ice drill and could cut ourselves a
fishing hole! Today we crossed lots of long small 30cm cracks in the ice
where you could see down to the newly frozen ocean about a 1m below. I’ve
lucked out and got chilli con carne again tonight!