A hot-water drill developed during the past 2 years at Alfred Wegener Institute was used to penetrate the Ekstrom Ice Shelf several times near the Georg von Neumayer Station. The drilling operation was successful, and the initial large diameter (>35 cm) allowed easy access to the ocean. One hole was used to install an ultrasonic echo-sounder which recorded the ablation at the ice-shelf bottom continuously. Another hole was used for emplacement of a thermistor string throughout the 237 m thick ice shelf for ice-temperature measurements. Several CTD profiles in the 175 m deepwater column, and the analysis of water samples, provided valuable data for the understanding of ice-shelf-ocean interactions.