12:30 a.m.
The sun is peeking out, and a wonderful rainbow is cast around the ship from the spray.
Tomorrow we hope to make landfall and start painting onsite. Hope to share some insights into the process of starting a painting on site. In the meantime keep the hatches battened down!

5:30 p.m. and sun is shining. Waves have eased as we turn by the South Shetland Islands.

-- David

Breaking Waves at the Bow, Drake Passage November 16, 2006

Cape petrels from the porthole, Drake Passage November 16, 2006

The Studio and Models, Snow Hill Island November 11, 2006.

More Information:

Winsor&Newton's Tips for Painting Watercolor in Freezing Temperatures

There are a couple of interesting options to lower the freezing temperature of water in the extreme latitudes. Some compounds affect the colligative properties of a solution. In real-world language, that means that there are things that you can put into water that will inhibit how water does what it typically does. Thus, there are things that can be added to lower the freezing point (which will also, by the way, raise the boiling point, too). Salt is a prime example: it lowers the freezing point, which is why it's used to melt sidewalks in January. It also does, as you well know, funky things in a watercolor paint layer.

Another option is to add a bit of glycol (either ethylene or propylene). Both will significantly lower the freezing temp of water although there is a downside: the 'feel' of the paint will get a bit slick, and the glycols will take a period of time to fully evaporate from the paint layer.
 
You could also try adding some glycerin, which will drop the freezing temperature, although not quite as much as the glycols. And glycerin will also act as a humectant, holding moisture, as well.
 
Here are a couple of cool (pun fully intended!) tables that show the freezing point of glycol-water and glycerin-water solutions as a function of the percentage of the added stuff. Note that a solution containing 20% glycerin (with 80% water) drops to a freezing point of 23°F. A solution of 20% of one of the glycols (with 80% water) will freeze at around 15°.

As you can imagine, these are conditions that don't often get tested!

Artists & Writers Program in Concert with the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation has a division that makes it possible for artists and writers, as well as scientists, to be part of the U.S. Antarctic Program. Artists work at U.S. stations and camps, often alongside scientists, but sometimes on their own.  The premise of the program is that artists will create pictures or accounts that will educate as well as delight and thus broaden Americans' understanding of this remote and mysterious region. Applicants who are chosen by a peer review panel will receive field support, including air travel from the United States.
Applications are available at the National Science Foundation's Web site at www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm. For a list of artists and writers who previously won grants, visit www.nsf.gov/od/opp/aawr.htm.
 
Birds of Antarctica
David McEown reported seeing fulmars and Cape Petrels in flight. Fulmars have wingspans of four feet; the petrel is much smaller. The petrel's name derives from the legend of St. Peter, who miraculously walked toward Jesus's ship on the Sea of Galilee. Petrels are ship-followers; they sometimes feed on carrion. They breed in cliff ledges and can live up to 20 years. To see pictures of Caper Petrels and to hear their cry, visit www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/birds/petrels.shtml.
Antarctic fulmars, who look a little like big gulls, are related to the albatross. To read more, visit the same site (www.antarcticconnection.com/antarcitc/wildlife/birds/petrels.shtml) or go to http://birding.about.com/od/birdsfulmars.