Jökull - 01.12.1969, Page 85

Fairly dense ice all around the ship and as far
as seen in radar. The ice is moving eastwards.
MARCH 1968
Following SW-erly ivinds in the Denmark
Strait during the last toeek of February and
the first week of March very open pack drifted
to the coasts of thc NW peninsula and daily
ice reports were received from the 3rcl to the
14th. In the second half of the month the
drift ice moved closer to the N coast with
strong N and NE-erly winds and daily reports
were also received from the 18th to the end of
the month. During Ihe last days the ice in-
creased, both off the NW coast, where ice was
reported as far south as Hvallátur, and at the
N coast which was more or less blocked by ice
at the end of the month.
As can be seen on Fig. 3, important changes
took place in the amount of ice between Ice-
land and Spitsbergen in March and the be-
ginning of April. The area covered with close
pack between Iceland and Jan Mayen increas-
ed greatly, mainly due to strong N ancl NE-
erly winds, but at the same time the area
covered with close pack between Jan Maven
ancl Spitsbergen decreased nearly twice as much,
probably also due to warm and saline currents
from the Norwegian Sea.
Of the many ice reports received only a few
can be quoted below:
3/3 Scatteied floes and strips were reported
3 miles off Ritur, 5 miles off Straumnes, 20—
27 miles WNW of Kópur and on shipping
route from Galtarviti to Isafjarðardjúp.
4/s Coast Guard Vessel observed an ice strip
froni Kögur and as far N as seen. Single floes
and dense strips were from Kögur to Ritur
and as far seawards as seen. Dense strip 400—
900 m wide, along the shore. Navigation not
much impeded 0.5—1.8 miles off headlands.
5/3 The conditions according to ice recon-
naissance by SIF are shown on Fig. 4.
s/3 M/s Litlafell reports: Scattered floes on
sailing route off Ilorn. No ice on shipping
lane from Hælavíkurbjarg to Straumnes. The
ice edge is approx. 6 miles off Kögur. A strip
is ashore at Ritur ancl lies front there towards
N about 1 mile off Straumnes, but then turns
towards NE.
Fig. 3. The solid line show's the boundary of
close pack ice early in March and the broken
line early in April 1968.
11/3 ÆSey reports: Continuous ice seems to
be across ísafjarðardjúp from Arnarnes to
Sandeyri. Single floes are closer.
13/s Ice reconnaissance by SIF: Numerous
floes ancl some strips were observed on sailing
route off the NW coast from Kópur to Deild
and single floes from Látrabjarg to Kópur. An
unusually long tongue of very open pack ex-
tended from W to 10 miles off Kópur. An-
other tongue of very open pack was about 15
miles off Ritur and Deild, and a tongue of
open pack was 25 miles N of Kögur. Off the
N coast the ice edge followed a more or less
E—W-erly direction although with several
tongues and inlets. The edge was 40 miles N
of Horn, 33 miles N of Grímsey and 35 miles
N of Melrakkaslétta. Coverage was mainly 4—
6/10 but N of Grímsey 7—9/10.
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