We left you two days ago with quite a tricky situation. It was becoming increasingly important to effect a changeover between Charlie and Delta, firstly because Charlie's food was running very low, and secondly Delta had finished their training and were eager to get going. The problem was a combination of poor weather and difficult ice conditions where landing strips are few and far between.

On Sunday night Penguin Charlie camped for a few hours only, just to take in a meal and sleep briefly before continuing on their search for an airstrip which had already been going on for two days. The pans of ice had either been flat but short, or long but bumpy. A radio call was taken here at base camp at 03.10 am to say that they were walking north again to look for a strip. At 05.50 they came up again on the radio to say that they had found a strip which they thought would be just be adequate to land a twin otter.

Although the weather was still poor it was expected to improve , so Delta was "scrambled" once we had the all clear from the air carrier, at 7.30. Two litres of water has to be boiled per person so that the outgoing team has its own fluid for 12 hours and can hit the ice "running" without having to stop for fluid. In practice it takes 8 hours to reach the team on the ice after a refuelling stop at Eureka weather station, so changeover didn't take place till 18.00 and was further delayed when a very sympathetic pilot rejected Penguin Charlie's airstrip, and then spent an hour circling trying to find an alternative flat strip of ice that was long enough.The fact that it took him an hour in a plane to find an adequate area shows the difficult task that the team had to undertake.

Precautions had been taken with food and fuel in the event that a landing could not take place - Delta had on board four days of supplies ready to be dropped out of the cargo doors. This would certainly have produced a smile on Sue Riches' face as she said she was now down to her last tea bag, and it had already serviced five cups of water.

All's well that ends well, and the changeover was effected when finally the plane landed, thanks to the combined skills of Carl and Ami, the two pilots, albeit two miles from Charlie's position. I understand that the tent was dismantalled in record time, and it took a quarter of the time to travel to the plane as normal.The Penguin baton was handed over, an awful lot of very genuine hugs and tears were shared, then all too soon the plane left leaving Penguin Delta alone on the Arctic pack ice. It must be one of life's moments of realism when that plane takes off, and you know that this is it - the plane has gone, and we're on our own in the middle of a frozen ocean. We wish the Delta team, Juliette May, Sarah Jones, Rosie Clayton and Andre Chadwick good luck, good speed and good health.

Due to the time taken to complete the change over it was not possible for the pilots to to fly back to Resolute on the same shift, so an overnight stay was made in Eureka. There Penguin Charlie were given the heroines' welcome they deserved, a shower, clean sheets, and a fresh meal by the men who man the station. The guys at Eureka have been generous to us and we really appreciate it, though I'm sure they appreciate the women passing through just as much.

So, Charlie arrived back here at around noon and had a very quick turnaround to catch their 6.30 pm flight with Canadian Airlines, which brought in with it Penguin Echo, the final team. There were great scenes in the airport terminal when the two teams met, briefly, and exchanged useful tips. For Echo seeing a radiant healthy looking Charlie team must on the one hand give them confidence but on the other remind them that their job is still to come and they have to put the final block in place to complete what others have done before. Penguin Echo is made up of Caroline Hamilton, Pom Oliver, Zoe Hudson and Lucy Roberts.

Tonight Penguin Delta's Argos position was 86deg 30 min North, 62deg 15 min West. This is a great start, nine miles on their first day leaving 210 miles to go and 205 miles behind them.