A visit to the crow’s nest

The Sun through the observation booth. Photo: S. Samimi

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By Charles Bruntte |

82N, 143E. We wake up to a radiant Sun and a calm sea. This is a very pleasant surprise after a few days of high waves that challenged everyone’s tolerance to motion sickness. Today the wind is low and the air is not too cold. Samira and I take this opportunity to pay a visit to the Kraehennest: the crow’s nest. It is an observation booth located about 5 meters above the Bridge. We put on safety harnesses, secure ourselves onto a safety line, and climb up a ladder up to the nest. Inside of the observation booth there is a chair and some space to work. A door gives on a small deck so that one can walk around.

We get outside and witness a jaw-dropping scenery. The Sun is in line with the bow of ship, and the reflection on the open ocean gives the impression of a highway made of sunshine that leads the way for Polarstern. We hear a loud humming at the back of the ship. One of the helicopter is taking off for some airborne sea ice measurements – everyone wants to make the best of this sunny day! Polarstern is roughly 50 nm from any ice, so the helicopter comes in really handy for reaching sea ice while we are in the open ocean for geology stations. We resume watching the horizon and the different activities on the decks below. We stay in the crow’s nest for more than an hour, it’s such a nice place to take the pulse of what’s going on in our little patch of ocean. We will return for sure.

Charles Brunette
McGill University

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