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The Ivan Papanin cargo ship started making its way through the sea ice on Friday December 14. She was anchored to the sea ice near Breid Bay around 7 pm that night. The exact location has been named Crown Bay (70°S 23°E), because of the shape of a nearby iceberg.

The Ivan Papanin ice-class cargo ship carrying aboard the 120 containers of the Princess Elisabeth Station reached 5° East on December 11th. She is progressing smoothly towards the South and is expected to come into Breid Bay around December 14th.

Working on top of the Nunatak is not an enviable job: the wind comes in from the east and constantly blows your way. Some time ago, the thermometer on top of the rocks indicated -24 degrees Celsius, with gusts of wind reaching 50 km/hour.

Alain and Dieter have been measuring geodetic points for the National Geographic Institute of Belgium, and are happy with their results to date. Geodesy is the study of the size and shape of the Earth, its field of gravity, and such varying phenomena as the motion of the magnetic poles and the tides. Apart from having measured existing points that were left by the Japanese expedition of 1985, they have also installed new measuring points for a satellite survey.

At the end of November, the Ivan Papanin arrived in Cape Town for a last stop-over before leaving for Antarctica. The ice-class cargo ship filled up on fuel and food supplies for the crew and loaded the last containers full of frozen goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, gas for the vehicles at Utsteinen, wood and other small elements of use on the building site. The Ivan Papanin left South Africa on 1 December.

Another day in Utsteinen, another day of work. Greeted by the sunlight early in the morning, the working men climb out of their tents as early as 6 am.

Scheduled over 4.5 months, the BELARE 2007-2008 expedition aims to build the Princess Elisabeth Station's outer shell and set up the seven remaining wind turbines.

The building team has been working away securing the anchoring points of the station and making headway on constructing the garage. Alain Hubert and a few other team members have retrieved some useful material from the abandoned Japanese station, Asuka. The Ivan papanin should arrive at Breid Bay in less than a month.

After having won the prestigeous Blue PLanet Prize in 2004, Dr. Susan Solomon was granted the Georges Lemaître Prize 2007 for "her pioneering role in the discovery of the ozone hole and her deep commitment to science in the service of mankind" on November 6th.

With a work schedule ranging from 7 am to noon and 1 pm to 7 pm, work is progressing at a fine pace in Antarctica. Sunday, however, is a day for relaxation, laundry and travel.