Written Friday, 14 December What an unreal day. In the morning probably nobody would have thought that the day might have such a spectacular end. Since yesterday we were just going back and forth in the same spot and not going anywhere all day long. It was not clear at all when we would reach the shelf ice edge to supply Neumayer station with vegetables, fruit and other things. Until 2 o’clock in the afternoon I was minding my own business, working away, and then looking out the window just by chance: lots of white, but there were a few little black dots. Penguins? Yes! Not just one but lots of them!!! In...

Written Thursday, 13 December Today is the fifth day since we have started to fight our way through the sea ice. Last night our average speed was about 6.2 knots, and slowly but surely we are approaching Neumayer station. The happy expectation among us is tangible, as the hour comes near with our arrival in which we may leave the ship and have a go at the ice. Fifty-three biologists, oceanographers, geologists, chemists and meteorologists are being let loose in the pristine world of ice. And the thicker the ice becomes and the more powerful the ramming of the ship against it, the heavier the intermittent snowfall, und the more frequent the sightings of crabeater seals (a seal species living here) and Emperor penguins, the more the right index finger is tingling above the shu...

Written Wednesday, 12 December My goodness, I have not seen this much ice in my whole life. The diffuse light blurrs the horizon, and without sunglasses I would indeed go blind. While Polarstern is working her way through the ice toward Neumayer Station, the Dutch scientists are flying daily transects off the ship to survey the ice. Besides the pilot, two members of the Dutch team are sitting in the helicopter, and each day they are taking along a guest investigator to count and survey animals. I was lucky to be the first to fly because by chance my name ended up on top of the list of helicopter guests. ...

Written Tuesday, 11 December Already for the second day now, we travel through the seemingly endless pack-ice landscape of the Southern Ocean. We passed the ice edge in the night from 9th to 10th December. Passing the ice edge is a magic moment for many of us on board. This expedition is already my 5th trip to Antarctica. Assuming a certain habituation to emotional ice moments, I was still overwhelmed by the impression that awaited me the moment I stepped on the bridge and saw the ice for the first time this year. That was right before midnight, yet a dim light still revealed the frozen landscape far into t...

Written Monday, 10 December As part of the Southern Ocean - Continuous Plankton Recorder (SO-CPR) program, zooplankton samples have been annually collected on a dedicated Polarstern voyage to the Antarctic continent and back over the last 4 seasons or so, including this one, and I am the responsible scientist. Zooplankton are sensitive to environmental parameters such as temperature, movement of currents and water quality. Due to their sensitivity, short life spans and fast growth rates plankton populations respond rapidly to environmental change, and consequently make excellent biological indicators for climate change and pollution. ...

Written Sunday, 9 December It is nippy outside- later I see on the computer screen that for the first time we have temperatures below freezing. Later, during the evening meeting, Harry reports that we crossed the circumpolar current and have reached the Weddell gyre. Another 24 hours, and we are in the ice! When I go up to the bridge about half an hour before lunch, we are moving towards two icebergs that lie like twins in the calming sea, probably broken apart only since a short while. We will travel right through the middle and reach them probably in about three quarters of an hour. Every now and then, the...

Written Saturday, 8 December On Saturdays I often sleep in and read the newspaper. However today is a normal working day at sea, thankfully more relaxed than the intense sampling during the previous 48 hours. There is an opportunity for consolidation — to stack samples, review data sheets and computer records, compile photos and their metdata and generally just catch up. The underway data continues and the Continuous Plankton Recorder is sampling the zooplankton as we go. The weather overnight was stormy and the Polarstern altered course from south to south-west to avoid the worst swells. Under these condi...

Written Friday, 7 December Finally: we had our first deployment. 3,000 m of water underneath. The first benthic station at 52° 2.31’ S and 0° 1.20’ W. Benthos is the seafloor, and we are investigating the life there. Finally: One sampling gear after the other was set over the side. Wind and seas were clement. Temperature just above freezing. Ideal working conditions. We, that is Annika Henche and Gritta Veit-Köhler of the Senckenberg Institute in Wilhlemshaven and five other colleagues working with samples from the multicorer. The multicorer — MUC for short — looks like a moon lander that is sent ...

Written Thursday, 6 December Today is St. Nicholas Day and my birthday. Saint Nicholas has been busy during the night, and yesterday he actually came all the way from Holland and brought us beautiful stationary with expedition stamps, and on top of all that he had even written a poem! Last night I could not wait for the morning after all, so I curiously looked at all the little presents my loved ones had smuggled into my sea chest (it was shortly after Midnight and therefore already the 6th :-). I got some really nice surprises and enjoyed them very much, and when I got on deck this morning to see what my fe...

Written Wednesday, 5 December The time has finally come, we reached the first station. Yippiiieeeh... after a week of setting up the laboratories, trying to find one’s way on and below deck, fighting and winning against sea sickness and, above all, suspenseful waiting, we were quite surprised when we went on the work deck after breakfast. Like gnomes the crew has put our gear from the C deck onto the work deck with the help of cranes in the very early hours of the day. ...