SEA STATE: 7  Sea "heaped up", white foam blown in streaks

(What a difference! Suddenly we all must make sure everything is tied down and secure)

10:00  Position: 79^o52.7'N  10^o11.1'E

It felt like we were shunting the whole of the Arctic's ice last night! We battled through thick floes until nearly midnight, the ship swaying to port then starboard as she rode up onto ice slabs then plunged down into the crevasses opening around her. The blowers were venting gas up the funnel - a great roar every minute as they pushed water to and fro in the stability tanks to help our passage through the locked ice.

At 11:40pm we dropped to two big engines and by about 1am were finally sailing in open water once more.

Should be back in satellite range soon so I can get some photos out. It's blowing at about 35 knots outside, air temperature has risen above zero at last and the snowman Pauline built out on the foredeck is hanging in - though his head has fallen off!

Science is logical and systematic. Experiments are designed and carried out, results are analysed for patterns and often conclusions are drawn. What this trip has reminded me is how difficult the biological sciences can be. You don't just sit in a lab, add chemical A to chemical B and wait for a reaction. You have to go out into the animal's environment (or plant's in the case of the microalgae). You have to find the animals. You have to discover a way to watch and record their activity.

SAMS scientists who came up here last year saw no polar bears. Imagine if they had been polar bear researchers - no results. This year the ship's total is 24, and still counting. The work the scientists on this expedition have put in - to get samples, to prepare them, to study them in the tiny labs on the ship - is enormous. I hope in the next day or two that we can share some of the findings from this voyage.

Back soon.