Gentle breezes from the east, south, and south-west did not disturb the hardening floes.
Soon they would be able to cross from the solid shore ice to the drifting floe.
They found a small floe of level ice close to the beach, which appeared very lately formed.
We then passed over four or five small floes, and across the pools of water that lay between them.
On occasion, icebergs were embedded in those floes.
The large size of the floes, and extensive ridging, probably make them more likely to persist until molting is complete.
These also link to tidal cracks, the floe edge, moving ice, and polynyas, as influenced by wind and current conditions.
