The sea calmed down overnight and we had a really good night. We awoke well refreshed to find the ship had made good progress. After breakfast we went outside for the first time for two days. It was cold, but well worth the effort. We saw plenty of birds flying around and have now become quite blasé about seeing all sorts of petrels, albatrosses, prions etc. We only seem to bother with new species!
Before lunch, we watched a video, The Longest Night, about over-wintering in Antarctica. It set the scene for the experiences later in the day. Just after lunch the first 'Iceberg' was sighted (it was only about 1 m2). A little later, Cathy spotted a large berg on the horizon. We estimated it to be about 400 to 500 metres across (given that it was 15 miles distant as measured by radar).
It was only a couple of hours later when we were sitting in the bar that we started to see more sea ice. We went up to the bridge to have a better look and while we were there the Russians became quite excited at the sight of some real ice and deliberately drove the ship through the first floe they could find (they said to clean the bottom of the ship). We stayed on the bridge looking out at the ice until it was time for dinner. After dinner we returned to the bridge to find that the pack ice was getting quite dense. We soon started to see lots of snow petrels, and we also saw a group of Arctic (yes, Arctic) terns. We went out on deck for some time (over an hour) in temperatures of -1C and took lots of pictures/video of the ice being broken up. After a while we decided to go down to the bar for a drink, since nothing much more seemed to be happening - the ship was simply pushing its way through the ice. After some time Josh and his wife came in and Barbara asked if anything had changed, she told Barb nothing had changed. Barb said 'no penguins then?' she said 'no penguins' and immediately Rodney came over the PA system to say "Emperor on the starboard side". Barb and I jumped up and ran out on deck (it was -0.3°C) and looked at the penguin until the ship had passed by; we were frozen as we only had on our sweatshirts. A little later we were called out again for Adelies, but did not see them. We then decided to go up to the bridge to have a better look (and to be able to go outside dressed in proper clothes) where we saw two more Emperors.
The pack ice seemed to be rather dense and the ship was making only slow progress. We hoped we would get down to the continent with enough time left to see plenty of penguins, but the weather and ice seemed to be conspiring against us.
The night was spent in the pack ice and the sea was so calm that we did not realise we were on a ship. We spent our best night so far. The only problem was the constant daylight! Before breakfast I went on deck and saw a solitary Adelie on an ice floe - the only penguin spotted all day. Breakfast was, for the first time for many days a cooked affair, reflecting the calm conditions.
Unfortunately we had made little progress during the night, the pack ice was just too dense for the ship to make any real headway south. Accordingly, as Rodney announced at a special meeting at 10:00, we turned back north with the intention of heading west after clearing the pack ice and going around the Balleny Islands to Commonwealth Bay where the crew were confident we would find the coast clear of ice. We were disappointed that we would not get right into the Ross Sea, but we still had a very good chance of seeing an Adelie colony, and a reasonable one of finding an Emperor colony; further our chances of seeing Chinstraps were improved as the only known place where they are found in this area is at the Balleny Islands.
We both spent a lot of time on the deck as the ship manoeuvred its way back through the dense pack ice. It is quite astonishing how it is possible to take a ship through such dense pack. We hope that the photographs and video we have taken will show the difficulties involved. We attended a lecture by Terry during the morning in which he highlighted the problems faced by the early explorers. Terry's lecture was by the far the best we have had so far as he conveyed his own enthusiasm without either assuming too much or too little background knowledge, but left each of us wanting to go away and read up on the whole subject much further. In particular he highlighted the roles played by Mawson and by the Ross Sea party of Shackleton's abortive attempt at the trans-Antarctic crossing.
In all the lecture served to remind us how much we rely on our modern technology: how could any of us conceive of surviving outside for even a few minutes let alone a couple of years here without the comforts of the ship? We were also reminded of the perversity of nature in preventing us from getting any further south than early explorers like Cook despite us having a modern ice strengthened vessel and a pair of diesel engines!
The day afforded many opportunities to get to know our fellow passengers better. At breakfast Elsie collared us (in the nicest possible way) to ask about visiting Lundy on an impending trip to the UK. We ended up offering to help her and to take her to Slimbridge if practicable. After lunch we had an open house visiting our suite! and went to visit a standard double cabin. Over dinner we had a long chat with Cathy about the difficulties of presenting science (in the context of conservation) to the public. After dinner we had a session with the Japanese learning how to make origami penguins.
The weather remained good throughout the day and we took several good pictures of the pack ice as we progressed slowly northward. We saw many new birds and a Sperm Whale. In all it was another active and most interesting day.
We had another good night, so much so that by now we were finding it difficult to wake up in time for breakfast! We found that the ice had impeded our making good headway overnight and that it had been decided to try heading further north before going west to try to find clear water.
During the morning we watched a video on Adelie Penguins, to which our 'Adelie' also came. Our fellow passengers joined in the fun and there were some excellent penguin impersonations - especially from Fred and Hetty. Several seals (Crabeaters) were sighted and the video was temporarily suspended for a period.
After lunch we finally could begin to see an end to the pack ice. The end was marked by a particularly impressive iceberg. Rodney decided to launch the Zodiacs to let us get a close look at the 'berg. But the conditions once again conspired against us; the crane failed to operate so it was not possible to get the Zodiacs into the water. As we were waiting for the Zodiacs we spotted a Minke whale on the starboard side, but only saw it's back; it stayed on the surface for a couple of minutes, but then disappeared below the water.
As we continued on our way, Stephen called out (in a typically quiet Japanese way) 'Adelie Penguin' and we saw a juvenile standing alone on the pack ice. Thus Barbara at last got to see an Adelie in the wild. We decided to call our penguin 'Flo' since we had said we should name her after the place where we first saw an Adelie (on an ice floe as it turned out).
The atmosphere on the ship now started to become a little hysterical (cabin fever - as one said). This evening we all started betting on whether a particular iceberg(s) in the distance was one, two or more separate 'bergs. I said two, Barbara said one (most said one with a few two's and Cathy and Jim said three); it turned out to be three when we finally got close enough to tell.
The next morning, Christmas Eve, was rather depressing, we had only made poor progress overnight and Rodney decided to turn south to south-west in a final attempt to break through the ice now that we had cleared the Balleny Islands. However the situation did not look at all good. The ice seemed endless and thick and the time available too short for us to reach the coast before we would have to turn round in order to get back to New Zealand in time. We both were depressed and disappointed at the prospect that after all the planning and anticipation we would not after all even see the Antarctic Continent, let alone visit Adelie or Emperor colonies.
Two 'guest' lectures were scheduled today: before lunch it was Bob on his mountaineering exploits in climbing Mount Vinson solo. It was a good, if a little brief, talk, well illustrated with slides. After lunch we heard Gerrit on the topic of the weather systems of the world. In the question session at the end I was dragged in (as the other physicist aboard) to discuss the earth's magnetic field.
After Gerrit's lecture we saw four Adelies from the bridge, but did not have the time to get any photos.
Being Christmas Eve, there was a party. A few of us (John, Cathy and Mame - together with Helen and Elsie who drifted in) decided to write and perform a revised version of the twelve days of Christmas based on Antarctic themes. This went down very well and at last seemed to have helped in breaking down the remaining 'Dutch - everyone else' barriers. Hidemi and Tomoko produced a penguin suit and we all had a turn wearing it. (later as a parting gift Hidemi gave us the suit as they said Pete looked so good in it - we think the real reason was they didn't have enough room for it as they had bought so many souvenirs!). Fred talked to us about his travels and showed us a picture he had taken of Chinstraps which had been turned into a postcard.
As the party was beginning to wind down Rodney announced an Emperor Penguin. We raced to the bridge, collecting the cameras on the way (and fighting with the captain to get up the stairs!) to see an Emperor on the ice. After the ship had passed by, Barbara persuaded the captain (via Rodney) to turn round for a second look, and for a lot more good pictures. As we were all photographing the Emperor, Shirley noticed an Adelie on the other side of the ship - in fact there were two - so we all had a good look at them and plenty of opportunities to take good photos.
Shortly after midnight, we were called out, by John, just after I had gone to bed and Barbara was in the bathroom, to see three penguins. They turned out to be juvenile Adelies and we got a good look at them.
