Paul is away at sea until 2nd June. The reality of this statement suddenly dawned on me this afternoon as I scribbled a note to stick on my office door. I have less than 48 hours left on dry land! On Wednesday afternoon I will join the Norwegian Coast Guard ship KV Svalbard and head towards Fram Strait where my friends at the Norwegian Polar Institute and I plan to collect measurements to determine how much freshwater (from precipitation and melting ice) is flowing out of the Arctic Ocean. I’ve posted a map below that shows roughly where we’ll be going.

The ship is alongside in Breivika (Tromsø’s docks) at the moment and I went to have a look on my way home from work this afternoon. My first impression is that it has very few windows! – but that’s not all bad with 24 hour daylight. I should have internet access onboard and plan to post some more updates from much further north…