Crossing the Arctic Circle

Location
Latitude: 70 degrees, 18.5865 N
Longitude: 006 degrees, 52.3700 E

Weather:
Air temperature: 5 degrees celcius; Sea temperature: 7 degrees celcius; calm sea; solid grey cloud cover with occasional rain.

We left the North Sea some time in the night from the 15th to the 16th of June and when I woke up yesterday morning, the weather had turned from being bright and sunny to being grey and cloudy. We have left the North Sea behind us with all its oil rigs and have entered the North Atlantic after briefly spotting the Norwegian coast on the horizon yesterday. For the last two days the weather has not changed and the JCR is continuously plowing through an ocean which looks like molten lead and on the horizon there is no difference in color between the sky and the sea.
At 5.30 pm yesterday we crossed the Arctic Circle (66 degrees, 33 N)! Despite the dreary weather some of the crew and most of the scientists met on "monkey island", the highest platform on the ship right above the bridge to celebrate our crossing and to have a couple of beers. Despite the latitude and the cold which it accompanies, some of the scientists still wear shorts and flippflopps! Most of us had put on our jackets and fleeces though. last night the sun didn't set anymore and because of the grey clouds, the light didn't change from 10 pm in the evening to 4am in the morning. Some of the scientific crew find it hard to work with continuous daylight because they can't sleep very well. I must admit hat I really enjoy the continuous daylight.   This afternoon we had an emergency exercise. It started with a mock fire alarm. All the scientists assembled at their muster stations and then we were told that in a real fire, we'd be expected to help bring the fire under control. We were then taken to the aft deck to learn how to use fire hoses. The exercise was a lot of fun as it is quite hard to hold the hose steady because of the extreemly high water pressure and a couple of people did get wet which cause some amusement.
Its little events like crossing the arctic circle and the occasional emergency drill which break up the monotonous routine of working and eating that govern the days on a ship.
All in all the cruise is going quite well and everybody is having a great time aboard the ship.