Deception Island
Today in the early morning the ship approached Deception Island. The sun was sparkling and sea calm, a day made for adventure. The island is one of many in the South Shetland and more or less in the Drake Passage with a constant west wind drift, so very few days offer landing opportunities like today. Bailey Head, on the outside, is well known to be a tricky landing site but today we had a nice easy beach landing and were able to visit one of the larger Chinstrap Penguin colonies on Antarctic Peninsula.
As you climb up the this volcanic island and reach the edge you actually look down into an amphitheatre filled with about 80,000 pairs of Chinstrap Penguins. The beach is always busy with penguins going in the water or coming up. The valley up the mountains has an endless line of penguins marching in every direction.
Still in bright sunshine and with no wind, our captain took M.S. Endeavour through a narrow opening called Neptune’s Belly and we ventured into the caldera to visit Whaler’s Bay. Here a Norwegian/Chilean company manned a whaling operation for almost 30 years. The caldera offered ideal protection for the whale catchers and we landed our Zodiacs at the beach beside a rusting former floating dry dock. Along the beach you can still find scattered items left from the whaling period.
Some climbed the rocks towards Neptune’s Window to get closer views of the nesting Cape Petrel also called Pintado Petrel. This is also the place, according history, where Nathael Palmer climbed to see the Antarctic mainland. Others made a visit to the deserted British Polar Station. It is always very intriguing to listen to the story how this base had to be evacuated during the volcanic eruption in 1969. Some made it up to the air hangar to see the deserted airplane. Deception Island is very important in the history of aviation in Antarctica, since it was here the Australian explorer and adventurer Wilkins made the first ever flight in Antarctica on November 16, 1928.
Deception Island is also the place known for the Antarctic “swim” or better called plunge.” The thermal activity makes it sometimes possible to dig out a small bathtub. We had a few brave souls who took the advantage to try this very strange experience. In the pool the water can be very gentle but outside it is freezing cold.
The afternoon and evening was spent heading towards the eastern part of the Antarctic peninsula. In the Bransfield Strait we got a brief preview of things to come: an endless number of icebergs in any color, shape and size. Now after dinner we are cruising in the Antarctic Sound known as the iceberg alley. It is spectacular!
Today in the early morning the ship approached Deception Island. The sun was sparkling and sea calm, a day made for adventure. The island is one of many in the South Shetland and more or less in the Drake Passage with a constant west wind drift, so very few days offer landing opportunities like today. Bailey Head, on the outside, is well known to be a tricky landing site but today we had a nice easy beach landing and were able to visit one of the larger Chinstrap Penguin colonies on Antarctic Peninsula.
As you climb up the this volcanic island and reach the edge you actually look down into an amphitheatre filled with about 80,000 pairs of Chinstrap Penguins. The beach is always busy with penguins going in the water or coming up. The valley up the mountains has an endless line of penguins marching in every direction.
Still in bright sunshine and with no wind, our captain took M.S. Endeavour through a narrow opening called Neptune’s Belly and we ventured into the caldera to visit Whaler’s Bay. Here a Norwegian/Chilean company manned a whaling operation for almost 30 years. The caldera offered ideal protection for the whale catchers and we landed our Zodiacs at the beach beside a rusting former floating dry dock. Along the beach you can still find scattered items left from the whaling period.
Some climbed the rocks towards Neptune’s Window to get closer views of the nesting Cape Petrel also called Pintado Petrel. This is also the place, according history, where Nathael Palmer climbed to see the Antarctic mainland. Others made a visit to the deserted British Polar Station. It is always very intriguing to listen to the story how this base had to be evacuated during the volcanic eruption in 1969. Some made it up to the air hangar to see the deserted airplane. Deception Island is very important in the history of aviation in Antarctica, since it was here the Australian explorer and adventurer Wilkins made the first ever flight in Antarctica on November 16, 1928.
Deception Island is also the place known for the Antarctic “swim” or better called plunge.” The thermal activity makes it sometimes possible to dig out a small bathtub. We had a few brave souls who took the advantage to try this very strange experience. In the pool the water can be very gentle but outside it is freezing cold.
The afternoon and evening was spent heading towards the eastern part of the Antarctic peninsula. In the Bransfield Strait we got a brief preview of things to come: an endless number of icebergs in any color, shape and size. Now after dinner we are cruising in the Antarctic Sound known as the iceberg alley. It is spectacular!
