Cunningham notes, "A good strong twilight at Midnight".

McCormick observes a flock of roughly one hundred Cape petrels following some whales.

Divine service takes place on both ships.

22 January 1843: The ships continue to tack back and forth in a pool of open water.

Crozier goes aboard Erebus in the afternoon, returning to Terror around 8:30PM.

21 January 1843: The ships tack back and forth in an area of clear water about five miles from the land.

20 January 1843: Amid thick ice, the ships attempt to make their way southward, tacking approximately every fifteen minutes.

The ships tack back and forth throughout the day, but make no progress southward.

19 January 1843: Ross decides not to follow the pack any further to the north and intends to force the ships through it towards the area of the coast they had approached on January 9th.

Terror is beset by the ice in the evening; while waiting for her to extricate herself, Erebus takes soundings in 210 fathoms.

18 January 1843: The ships close with the edge of the main pack, looking for an opening, but it stretches away to the northward with no obvious gaps.

After four hours of boring and warping, the ships reach open water. Considering how "our people had been so much harassed night and day for the whole of the last week," Ross puts Erebus under easy sail and allows everyone a few hours of rest.

Around 2PM the ships cast off from the floe and set sail, driven by a southwest breeze.

By noon the ships are in latitude 64° 22' S., longitude 56° 43' W., four or five miles from the Antarctic coast. McCormick writes, "The only change in our position is that we are now outside instead of being inside the chain of bergs and the shore, as we were last week".

Later in the morning, once again beset by ice, the ships anchor to another floe.

17 January 1843: As the tide turns, Erebus casts off from the floe and rejoins Terror; the ships continue to warp through the ice.

Three killer whales surface near Terror. A group of sailors set out to attack them, "Some with Harpoons, others Lances and stragglers with Rifles & fowling pieces," but the whales disappear before the group reaches them.

A large iceberg passes within a yard of Terror's stern. Cunningham writes, "Had it struck us it must have dashed our stern works to pieces".

With difficulty, the ships remain anchored to pieces of the floe; Cunningham describes "the warps snapping like carrots". The tide sweeps the ships in opposite directions, and they lose sight of each other.

In the afternoon, the floe to which the ships are anchored strikes a grounded iceberg and breaks apart. Crozier and Sibbald, returning from Erebus across the floe, have to race across the disintegrating ice to Terror.

Crozier goes aboard Erebus.

The crews kill several seals on the floe.

John Barclay, the young gentlemen's steward on Terror, is punished with 48 lashes for drunkenness and irregular conduct.

16 January 1843: Tightly surrounded by ice, the ships anchor to a floe in the morning.

Although the ships make some progress throughout the day, by the evening the ice is so closely packed that Ross describes it "heel[ing] our ships over considerably and mak[ing] their timbers crack".

On Erebus, the men muster and Ross reads the Articles of War.

15 January 1843: The ships continue boring and warping through the pack.

Around 11:30PM, the pressure of the ice lessens slightly. The ships cast off from the floe, and the crews return to boring through the ice.

Around 9PM the ice presses in so closely that the ships cannot move; they anchor to a nearby floe.

The ships enter the pack in the early afternoon, and begin to bore and warp through the dense ice.

Crozier goes aboard Erebus, and he and Bird discuss a plan of action with Ross.

14 January 1843: As young ice spreads across the pool of open water the ships are in, Ross begins to have "serious apprehensions" that the ships will be frozen in, and decides to force them through the pack to the northward.

Terror is beset by the ice, and her crew warp her through the pack, only freeing her around midnight.

Loose ice drifting on the tide begins to collide with Erebus, and her crew warp her along the edge of the floe until she reaches open water.

A cannister of preserved meats on Erebus is condemned as unfit for consumption.

Erebus drifts eastward to the edge of the pack and makes fast to a floe.

13 January 1843: Surrounded by ice, the ships beat back and forth in small areas of open water.

As the temperature falls, the loose ice amid the bergs freezes into connected floes—"threatening to detain us in our present awkward position for the winter," according to Ross

Ross decides to "lose no more time in this perplexing navigation", and instead follow the coast southeast.

12 January 1843: The ships reach a deep bay surrounded by ice, and begin to tack back and forth looking for an opening in the ice.

11 January 1843: A light easterly wind begins in the morning, accompanied by heavy snow. The ships cast off from the floe and sail southward.

A seal appears on the floe in the evening. A party from Terror chases it, but soon falls behind; Cunningham follows with a gun and shoots it before it can escape.

10 January 1843: The calm continues, and the ships are motionless within the pack.

Crozier goes aboard Erebus.

Terror's crew force the ship through the pack to Erebus, and anchor to the same floe.

The fog clears around noon, revealing the ships beset in the pack ice. Observations place them in 64° 44' S., 56° 53' W.

A mile distant from Erebus, two watches of Terror's crew attempt to warp the ship towards a narrow gap in the ice, but are unsuccessful.

9 January 1843: Still surrounded by thick fog, Erebus anchors to an ice floe.

Before midnight, the ships pass through the chain of bergs into a relatively clear expanse of sea.

The wind drops to a calm in the evening; both ships lower boats to tow them clear of the ice.