Looks like the fast refreeze is slowing and I have to wonder where the heat is going, perhaps it's being transferred to the depths of the Arctic Ocean maybe?
Fast refreeze is slowing quite probably because it is running out of sea surface close to -1.8C.
Where is the heat going... yah, I did ask that. Still not sure. Heat would not be going *into* the Ocean at this stage of things in all probability. At the very least, the balance of exchange would still be net positive to atmosphere and from there, out of the system entirely. The heat released to produce the ice... I'm not sure, but I'm beginning to think (and agree with other commentators) that it is heating the atmosphere. While the water is "warm" at depth, exchanged heat could still exit to the atmosphere quickly enough to permit pan ice to form.
The trick may well still be (as was the case in 2014), not so much that ice is forming, as much as it is ice thickening sufficiently to resist the return of melt conditions in 2016.
I suspect that in spite of overturning heat from depth (see: various discussions and articles about turbulent flows at mid depths) that we still have a significant reservoir of heat being retained from the melt season, and re-capping the interferes with it being vented. I don't think that will retard ice growth and thickening in specific however. That particular problem I think will tie back to how much heat and moisture is imported from lower latitudes. Reflective of that will be snowfall depths on the ice itself, which is another hindrance to ice formation.
Enough musing on my part; most all of what I've mentioned at this point is pure speculation.