crpierce
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Phase Change Observations
(Jan 7-8, 2026) Once the sea ice began to thin, our progress improved dramatically. The ice breaks into pancake-like floes with open water between them, making a deeply satisfying thud as the ship nudges them aside. We’re entering the polynya—an area of relatively open water surrounded by sea ice—near Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers. These
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Stress Concentration at the Fracture Front
(Jan 4-6, 2026) I was sleep-adjacent in my bed at 05:15, aware that the boat was shaking in a new and not-so-subtle pattern. Every so often there was a dull thud against the hull. We’d encountered sea ice for the first time. Sea ice is frozen seawater, often snow-covered, that can blanket large swaths of
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Finite Boundary Conditions
(Jan 2-3, 2026) A New Year is often greeted with the promise of new beginnings. On the boat, it seems to have almost the opposite effect as we settle deeper into the routines of our small, floating bubble, chugging across the Southern Ocean at a steady twelve knots. Most mornings I wake up around 0630
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Science Talks Amid Another Temporal Discontinuity
(New Year’s, 2025/26) The first iceberg of the voyage came this afternoon. The first one is exciting, although in a few days icebergs will be as predictable as negative feedback from “Reviewer #2” (science inside joke). Calm seas and reasonable weather made for excellent deck viewing from the bow. This one was especially impressive—roughly 1–2
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Groundhog Day
(Dec 28-30, 2025) Time is a bit of a construct on the ship. The date doesn’t matter much, and time of day mainly exists to keep the meal schedule from collapsing. This became especially clear when a voice came over the PA—first in Korean, then in thickly accented English—to announce that ship’s time would change
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Initiating a Southward Velocity Vector
(Dec 27, 2025) The note on the ship’s whiteboard next to the galley indicated a safety briefing at 1300. I assumed that would indicate departure just afterward. I was reminded, as usual, what happens when you assume. The ship started moving at 10am, shortly after breakfast. I barely had time to make a quick goodbye
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Christmas, With Error Bars
(Dec 25-26, 2025) We board the ship on Christmas Day – Koreans are apparently insensitive to our Euro-centric holiday schedule. Walking across the gangway for the first time feels a little surreal, but not unfamiliar. I was on this same boat four years ago for a similar cruise, and in many ways, nothing has changed.