Dispatch 21: Hope you’re hungry!
Jennifer Kosty (Yale University)
October 8, 2026
13:30 local, 75.45◦N, 151.09◦W
Conditions:
- Windy
- 100% sea ice cover
- -6.9◦C
- Sunrise: 10:14 PDT (local)
- Sunset: 19:27 PDT (local)
- Day length: 9 hours, 13 minutes
We require a lot of food to fuel our long days of work up here in the Arctic. Luckily, the galley crew and stewards take amazing care of us, preparing 3 hot meals and plenty of snacks every day! I thought it would be fun to start today’s dispatch by walking you through a typical day of eats on the Louis.
Breakfast is served from 7:30 - 8:30 am and always includes made-to-order eggs, bacon, beans, hash browns, and fresh muffins. Today’s breakfast menu also included toutons, a traditional Newfoundland dish made from fried bread dough. Around 11:30 am, we break for lunch, which today consisted of roast beef sandwiches, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and stuffed peppers. I was also excited to discover that today’s soup-of-the-day is butternut squash, the perfect fall comfort food! Tonight’s supper will include a nacho pasta bake, western sandwiches, mixed veggies, and fries. Supper is served from 4:30 – 5:30 pm, so it is common for people to enjoy a late-night snack as well. I asked around at lunch and learned that people’s favorite snacks on board include buttered toast, grapes, watermelon slices, Oreo cookies, and ice cream sundaes!
Science-wise, today’s focus is on more CTD-rosette work. The night watch had an eventful cast at CB7 early this morning. They were fighting against strong winds (30-40 knots!), a swift current, and fragmented, fast-moving ice pieces. The initial cast had to be aborted around 300 m due to unsafe conditions. The bridge crew then repositioned us within a larger opening in the ice, but the night watch still had to end their second attempt early. We are currently steaming at a slow 6 knots towards CB5, where the day watch will hopefully be able to complete another cast tonight. Fingers crossed that the weather calms down before then!
