Clear, bright sunshine this morning. Good job, though, since our first obstacle of the day was open water. The lead which had halted our progress yesterday had grown overnight from a few meters wide to twenty meters. To get over it, the only alternative was sledge ferrying.

Two empty sledges were bound together, side by side, to form a raft. Then Jermi and Henkku got on board, dressed in their dry-suits. Using snow shovels as paddles, they reached the other side, drawing a rope across the lead. Then began the ferry service: pulling floating sledges back and forth over the lead, until all gear, sledges and men were on the other side.

The whole operation took two hours, but the Expedition was safe and dry, on the opposite shore of the lead.

Today we set a new distance record: 12.2 km. We skied until eight o'clock in the evening. The temperature in the shade was – 30 C all day, but in the sunshine it was already 10 C warmer.

All is well with the Expedition.