Fifty-seven people spent Christmas aboard a cruise ship that has become stuck in the ice in a remote region off the coast of Antarctica and rescue vessels are at least two days away, Australian maritime officials told ABC News. 
 
 The Russian-operated Akademik Shokalskiy, an ice-strengthened vessel built in 1984 for oceanographic research, became stuck in the ice about 1,500 nautical miles from Hobart, Tasmania, and issued a satellite distress call early this morning, Andrea Hayward-Maher of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. 
 
 “We’ve been in touch with the master of the vessel, who says they are beset by ice,” spokeswoman Hayward-Maher said. “They are basically trapped or stuck in the ice and can’t move.” 
 
 Passengers are believed to have enough provisions to wait out their rescue. One passenger tweeted that all on board were fine and their “spirits high.” 
 
 “We’re in the ice like the explorers of old! All are well and spirits are high. Happy Christmas,” Australian professor Chris Turney tweeted. 
 
 The ship is too far from land to send aircraft or normal rescue vessels, Hayward-Maher said. Three ships with ice-breaking capabilities in the region have “been tasked with helping,” but they are all a two-day sail from the stuck vessel,” she added. 
 
 “This is quite a complex and lengthy search-and-rescue operation because of the remote location of the area,” Hayward-Maher said. 
 
 Of the 57 souls on board, 22 are crewmen and 35 are passengers. The ship cruised to the site of a 1911-1914 expedition of British explorer Sir Douglas Mawson, according to Expeditions Online, a travel agency that sells tickets for the cruise. ||||| Day 19 – The AAE has met heavy ice Posted by Chris - 26 December 2013 
 
 Following our successful visit to Cape Denison, sea ice remained clear, allowing our science expedition to proceed to the Mertz Glacier and open water polynya on the other side of Commonwealth Bay. Good conditions allowed the team to reach the Hodgeman Islets to continue our science programme and make comparisons to our findings around Mawson’s Hut. We managed to collect a range of samples for three of the science teams on these rarely visited islands; a fantastic result. The distance from the land to the sea ice edge is only 5 kilometres, providing an excellent test of the impact of the large sea ice extent around Cape Denison. Supported by volunteers on board, our teams investigated marine mammals, ornithology, glaciology while oceanographic work continued on board. Kerry-Jayne Wilson of the Blue Penguin Trust found the penguin colony on the Hodgeman Islets is thriving, demonstrating the distance the Mawson Hut Adelie penguins have to travel is a major factor in the fall of numbers. Tracey Rogers of UNSW also obtained the largest number of seal blubber samples on the expedition while Eleanor Rainsley collected geological samples that will provide an invaluable insight into the history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Returning to the Shokalskiy, conditions started to close in and we quickly loaded the vehicles on to the vessel. 
 
 Unfortunately proceeding north we found our path blocked by ice pushed in by an increasingly strong southeasterly wind. On Christmas Eve we realised we could not get through, in spite of being just 2 nautical miles from open water. We hoped the conditions would change but we have experienced several low pressure systems over the last few days which have held the ice fast. We just wanted to let all our family and friends know there is no risk to the vessel and everyone is well. Yesterday the team celebrated Christmas and morale is high. We have called for assistance due to the anticipated continuing southeasterly winds (with forecasts kindly provided by the Australian Antarctic Division at Casey Station and Meteoexploration). 
 
 We have been informed a Chinese ice breaker called Snow Dragon (Xue Long) is currently en route from Freemantle to the Ross Sea and will be entering the pack near our location tomorrow. We have also learnt the French vessel Astrolabe is travelling to our position to provide support and will be arriving shortly after Xue Long; the Australian ship, the Aurora australis, has also been sent from Casey and will be arriving later. For regular updates we will be posting details on Twitter @profchristurney, +Intrepid Science at Google+, and the Guardian Antarctica Live website. The BBC World Service are also embedded in the team and broadcasting a weekly programme on the expedition (including updates on our work) on Discovery. We are using the Inmarsat satellite system to provide live communications while we are in the field. 
 
 We will be keeping this blog updated. Thanks to all our supporters and look forward to seeing you all soon. ||||| A RESCUE mission is still underway to help passengers on a Antarctic-bound cruiseliner which has been trapped by ice after a storm. 
 
 There are 50 tourists, including Australian scientists and explorers and 20 crew on the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which is on a Spirit of Mawson voyage along the edge of Antarctica. 
 
 They are in no immediate danger, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). 
 
 Those on board are said to be in fine spirits. 
 
 "The ship is reinforced against ice and well adapted to the conditions," said Alvin Stone, spokesman for voyage operators. He said those on board were in fine spirits and were enjoying Christmas. 
 
 Mr Stone said the storm was well-timed as those on board has just returned from a 60km trek across pack ice in Antarctica. The ship had sailed from New Zealand to visit several sites. The AMSA received a distress call on Christmas morning. 
 
 A spokeswoman said three ships had been sent to assist but it would take at least two days for the nearest vessel to reach the remote location - about 1500 nautical miles south of Hobart. "It's in quite a remote part of the world," she said. 
 
 "But we have everyone safe. The vessel isn't in any immediate danger." The ship's voyage is part of a research expedition to commemorate the centenary of Douglas Mawson's exploration. 
 
 Expedition leader Chris Turney didn't seem too bothered by being stranded. 
 
 He posted this Vine video of the ship on Twitter. 
 
 We're in the ice like the explorers of old! All are well and spirits are high. Happy Christmas from the AA... https://t.co/dIiKBnP6rz — Chris Turney (@ProfChrisTurney) December 25, 2013 
 
 He wrote in a Christmas Day tweet: "Heavy ice. Beautiful; light wind. Only -1degC. All well. Merry Xmas everyone from AAE." The privately funded expedition includes a trip to Mawson's Huts on Antarctica, which had been inaccessible for many years because of an iceberg.
– An Antarctic adventure cruise has become stuck in ice after a storm, and rescue ships are at least two days away—but to judge from the dispatches from the ship, the people aboard don't seem to mind. The Akademik Shokalskiy sent out a distress call yesterday, News.com.au reports, but a spokesman for the Spirit of Mawson, which organized the voyage, says the Russian ship is "reinforced against ice and well adapted to the conditions." The ship is believed to have enough provisions aboard to hold out. Reports differ on how many people are aboard—News.com.au says there are 50 tourists and 20 crew, while ABC has the numbers at 35 and 22—but those "tourists" include scientists, explorers, and historians. "We're in the ice like the explorers of old! All are well and spirits are high. Happy Christmas," the expedition leader tweeted. In a blog post, the ship said it was just two nautical miles from open sea, but powerless to get closer. The timing of the storm was actually fairly fortuitous though; if it had struck earlier, it might have caught the adventurers in the middle of a nearly 40-mile hike across pack ice.