The Expedition is yet again unanimous. We ceremoniously declare: `Today was a brilliant day´.

All day long the going was good. Visibility could have been better, but the icescape was fairly smooth. A big plus was that the recent full moon is actually working to our advantage.

It is a known fact that the full moon causes strong currents in the Arctic Ocean beneath our feet. These currents tear and torture the ice, opening fresh leads and raising obstacles to our progress. In our area of the Arctic ice-sheet, the moon has given birth to many new leads, many of them going generally North, and most of them covered already with rubbery ice. This ice was strong enough to ski on, but only just so. On one occasion the lead skier went through the ice and took a dip, but all that was needed was a change of clothes.

To round off the day, the sun came out during the final leg of the evening. We pitched camp in wonderful weather. The men were all smiles: we have again posted a record day's progress: 28.4 km.

Many of our readers have wondered how we can measure our distance traveled with such accuracy, when the terrain is so difficult. The answer is simple: Global Positioning System, or GPS. This satellite-based system gives us a precise position fix (latitude, longitude) whenever we need it. Having pitched camp for the evening we check our geographic position, and compare it to yesterday evening's camp location. From these two locations, it is easy to calculate the distance between the two camps `as the crow flies´, so to speak. So the distance we post each day in this diary is absolute; it does not take account of, for example, movements of the ice, or detours around obstacles. The actual distance skied on any given day is 15 to 20% greater than the distance posted.

In summary, the distance traveled on the day is an exact measurement of how much closer we are to the Geographic North Pole.

All is well with the Expedition.