After leaving Petermann Island the the day before, we were to encounter heavy pack ice on the journey to this Ukrainian base.
Monika had been talking to other ships throughout the day, none of which had managed to get as far south as we were aiming.
One of the ships which had 'cut us up' earlier in the day had attempted the journey and had advised us it was impassable
which through the gauntlet down, so to speak!
the skill of our captain was amazing, determining if the pack ice ahead could be broken, or nudged to one side and slow but
steady progress was made. Unfortunately, all the channels leading towards the base where blocked with heavy pack ice, so
we carried on further south to come at it from another angle. When we finally arrived, members of the Grigory Mikheev Crew
took provisions onshore & we were to wait til the following morning!

We awoke to find the pack ice had moved into the bay & surrounded us. Initially it looked like we wouldnt get to the base,
but the crew decided to give it a go. Were we in for an adventure! The Zodiac drivers skillfully zig zagged our little rubber
boats backwards and forwards, nudging small bergy bits and grumblers out of the way. We even had to use the oars to push & float
larger chunks clear. After what seemed like hours, we were so close to the landing point, but still out of reach.
Our driver spotted a possible channel, and a large bergy bit was hefted clear, opening the way for us all to pile through!

The base was previoulsy owned by the British and was called Faraday. The personnel showed us around and we even got to look up
in the loft space, to see the machinery used to first observe the depletion of the ozone layer!
Unfortunately, the pack ice was moving further into the bay, so having visited the impressive bar & tried the homebrewed Vodka,
we had to head back to the Grigory Mikheev. The return journey was as fraught as the inbound trip, including getting my arm crushed
against the side of an iceberg, trying to protect one of the elderly french ladies on the Zodiac, when the boat skewed sideways into it.
(No damage done to the iceberg or my arm!)