Journey to The North Where North Ends — Part 2 Breaking Ice

Day 4

The program paper said today the 50 Years of Victory will encounter some hard-packed ice. Lo and behold, we woke up to an ocean of whiteness and emptiness.

Emptiness expanded your entire horizon. A real sense of how small we are in the presence of Mother Nature. The fog from the morning lifted just after breakfast. Perfect weather and ice condition to do our scenic helicopter flight.

Donning our landing gear (in case of emergency landings) we were invited to board the helicopter just after lunch. After some shuffling and buckling, the helicopter took off. As we gained some heights, we were able to observe the all-powerful 50 Years of Victory breaking through the hard-packed ice. I have no doubt that only this beast of a ship can get us to the North Pole.

However, the arctic packed ice would give in without a fight. Towards the evening, the ice got thicker and thicker; thick enough to stop our ship. What do you do when you fail? Try again. Captain backed up our ship to charge at the packed ice one more time. On and on the two struggled. The competition between ice and the giant icebreaker went through the night. Well, it is arctic, what can you do?

Day 5

We woke up to even thicker pack ice. So thick that the ship was going only 5 knots through the night. With the fog rolling in, we were heading to a whiteout. We have now passed the 86 degree mark which means only 240 nautical miles away from the North Pole. The exciting news became the topic of discussion throughout the day. A poll was even set up to estimate the time of arrival.

After finishing the morning Polar Bear lecture, I went back out again hoping to find some traces of animals. However, the animal tracks seemed to be sparser and sparser as we progressed north. Only a confused seabird and a single track of polar bear footprints were observed today.

Commanding the world’s largest nuclear icebreaker is no easy task. To answer some of our questions, Capitan Oleg graciously agreed to meet with us for a short Q and A session. During the 20 minute session, we were not only able to ask him more personal questions about his career, but also the ship’s history. Capitan Oleg also told us that he will be the Capitan for the new generation of icebreakers which will replace our ship to be the new biggest nuclear icebreaker in the world. A worthy nomination for a man who rescued a supertanker twice in width compared to his own ship.

After the Q&A session and dinner, our 50 Years of Victory was finally in a semi-whiteout. We could barely see anything from the bow. However, even in conditions like this, the officers and crew were still able to continue onward without too much struggle. A true testament to their skills and knowledge.