At some point in the middle of the night, the wind died and we woke to an eery calm and usually warm morning. It was so warm in fact that I no longer needed to wear my Zeal goggles and nose beak which normally protects my face from frost bite.

The small piece of ice that we had camped on remained relatively intact throughout the night although a long lengthwise crack did develop directly under Neal - although it was only a few inches wide. Regardless, it provided us with more than enough one liners at Neil's expense.

The objective for the day was simply to navigate back towards Churchill as Sunday will be our last day on the ice.

Our morning sun quickly evaporated into an overcast mess of flat light. Normally, these types of conditions would be spirit draining on a North Pole expedition but today it simply made me happy. For Neil and Andrew, practicing here in these types of conditions means a greater chance of success on their adventure.

Train hard, travel easy is my basic philosophy.

We spent the next six hours winding through a variety of pressure ridges and ice blocks. The ice was stunning to look at and I was reminded of how lucky I am to be here.