Ship's Position at 12:00:

• 68°14.2' S 5°28.4' W
• Course 85°; Speed 3-10 kts
• Air temperature 4°C; Wind 15 kts; Direction 110°
• Weather: Snow, cloudy; Visibility 1-4
• Ice Cover: 10/10
• Distance covered past 24 hours: 209.5 nautical miles

The expedition leader's morning announcement tells us cheerily that we're 500 nm from the next penguin colony (on the continent). Very funny! The pace of life on the ship has shifted noticeably; people are lying in, skipping breakfast. Delicious pastries in greater variety but smaller sizes appear. After breakfast I sit talking for an hour with a couple of passengers, then go to the geology talk on patterned soils and periglacial environments; tag and sort photos after that; then a half-hour "Russian lesson" with Kara (who also has Czech!) and then go up to the bar, meet M, and buy her a bloody mary. Debbie the bartender decides to finish off a bottle of vodka on us and we end up with about twice the regulation quantity in each glass. Um. Unfortunately no steak for lunch: chicken bouillon, chili con carne (thoughtfully small serving) with a few corn chips. Again less than full dining area, people skipping meals to regulate food intake.

GPS track becoming interestingly dendritic, as the ship has made several attempts to get S and post-lunch is going more E to ESE. Not sure where or how we can come toward land in such heavy, heavy ice as this. The 209.5 nautical miles traveled in the past 24 hours have included much backtracking, so we've not made much progress.

I sort and mark photos in the afternoon — the serious photographers on board say it takes as long as, or even twice as long as, a trip to sort out the photos from it! I believe it. The afternoon watercolor painting class is well attended; we practice washes, all using blues and purples by some chance. Then we paint washy mountains and a washy iceberg. I sort more photos after that, read a bit, and then go over to the bar an hour before dinner for a bit of company — and it's empty! Last night it was packed, but tonight — where is everyone? Is there something going on? The bar staff and Kara, the marine biologist on staff, think everyone's asleep, passengers and staff alike.

Saskia has the ship's shop open. I think the bar needs livening up, even if I'm going to have my cocktail hour drink alone, so I go over and borrow her giant stuffed penguin — it's supposed to be an Adelie (we think) but it's at least 2x life size. I put it on the bar and in short order the bar is filling with people who look in and come in to see the penguin. V comes in and she and I bring our rockhopper stuffed penguins in as well, announcing that it is a penguin party. A staffer brings in his little stone penguin from Ushuaia too. The large penguin is nicknamed Shackleton. We speculate that the rockhoppers could use peanuts for nesting. It cheers us all up a bit. D and I consider taking the round Quark (free) tins of mints out on the ice for shuffleboard, hockey, or curling.

The rumor is that there are 2 other icebreakers in the area. One is German and has been trying to get to Neumeyer station for a while; the other is Japanese and trying to get to Syowa. If the KK teamed with either, together they could probably beat the ice, but although the KK ran across another icebreaker's trail today — while backtracking, and rumor has it that the captain was annoyed that the officer of the watch did not notice it on the way into the ice that halted the ship — the whereabouts of these others is unknown. The helicopters have been out several times looking for better ways through. The GPS track for the day shows more forays south, followed by backtracking and travel north and east, with another attempt south, and another. If the ship were on a resupply mission, the strategy would be to just sit in the ice and wait: it moves around and changes every day, so leads open and close. However, time is short. The expedition leader's evening announcement doesn't sound optimistic about landing in the next day or two.

We've seen a scant handful of emperor penguins and seals on the ice today, Antarctic petrels, and snow petrels. The ice has not enough open water to encourage the wildlife to hang around!

The ship spends a week at sea at the end of the trip, traveling from the continent to Perth, so the present delays in the ice are eating into on-shore time in an unrecoverable way.

Clocks forward an hour tonight!

Is to travel hopefully better than to arrive?