Deception Island - Telefon Bay & Whalers Bay - South Shetland Islands

January 6

What a difference a day makes….yesterday warm and sunny, today windy and colder. 1* C

Today was deemed a brunch day so we got up at 7:00 to watch the passage by the Bellows of Deception Island. We had a continental breakfast and kitted up as we were the second zodiac group. There were strong winds and it was a challenge getting into the zodiacs. We had strict ordered not to make a move unless we were told or grabbed to step off the landing stairs to the zodiac. It was like a bucking bronco in the water. We made it quickly and safely to the island.

 

Deception Island is the caldera of an active volcano, which seriously damaged local scientific stations in 1967 and 1969. The island previously held a whaling station; it is now a tourist destination and scientific outpost, with Argentine and Spanish research bases. While various countries have asserted sovereignty, it is still administered under the Antarctic Treaty System.

We were with the 2^nd group of hikers to walk to the top of the caldera. If anyone wanted to they could turn back there and head back to the beach or you could continue on to walk to the very top of the caldera and walk around it and then down into it and out to the beach. We did the long walk. The top was very windy. It was hard to steel yourself not to be blown over, (over 55 knots) while being pelted with volcanic dust.

 Chinstrap Penguin waaaay down the beach

 thin ice on the ground

 

hiking to the top to walk around the rim

 me

 the white part in the middle has a line of hikers looking down at the center of the caldera

 

We saw a few seals and a lone penguin on one side of the beach and we hoped to walk down to where there was a small group of chinstrap penguins (we have seen only a few of these adorable guys), but Shane was radioing for everyone to get back to the ship as the winds and swells were getting rougher. I had to be hoisted into the zodiac (curse of short legs) as the zodiac was bobbing up too high for me to lift my butt up. Once in the zodiac we were instructed that when we got back to the ship we were not to move until the boat operator physically pulled us up.

While in the zodiac we learned what our waterproof gear was for. Waves crashed up over the boat and over our heads and drenched us all. (several times). We could turn our backs but the boat drivers have to face into it. How exciting! We made it safely back onto the ship and peeled off all of our wet outer gear (everything underneath was perfectly dry). We were starving and headed up to brunch. We really felt we earned every calorie we ate after the hike to the top of the volcano and the rough zodiac ride.

We were supposed to have a landing at Whaler’s Bay after Telefon Bay, but despite the winds subsiding and the waves getting better we could not make the landing. With volcanic ash at the bottom of the ocean the anchor just wouldn’t hold. The captain tried several times and finally the decision was made that we had to skip that landing. If the wind had been in the other direction they could have dealt with the drift of the ship, but with it drifting towards shore, the last thing any Captain wants is to get beached. So we were headed back to Ushuaia via the Drake Passage. We’ll see what that brings!

We did have some final views of stunning icebergs on the sail out of the Bay.

 one last Gentoo Penguin

 one last Weddell Seal

 Whaler's Bay from the ship

 returning by the Bellows

 the crew getting the ship ready for The Drake

 Black Browed Albatross

the pic I took of the Elephant Seal with the bag of life vests on the photo board

We now have 2 days to get things packed up. It will be hot in Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls, but we need to have a small layer left out for our partial day in Ushuaia.

Antarctic Peninsula Deception Island

06:30 - 07:30 A Continental Breakfast is served outside the Main Lounge

07:00 Please join us on the outer decks as we sail through Neptune’s Bellows, the entrance to the active volcanic caldera of Deception Island.

TBA We hope to land at Telefon Bay, Deception Island

Deception Island lies northwest of the Antarctic peninsula across the Bransfiled Strait. Telefon Bay lies on the NW side of the caldera inside Deception Island and is home to the crater of the most recent volcanic eruption in 1969. It was named after a salvage vessel that moored in the bay in 1909 awaiting repairs. From a wide, flat, black-sand beach, an apron slopes gently upward to the steep face of the cinder-covered glacier, about 300 meters inland, which extends over an inner caldera rim.

1) Shackleton 2) Worsley 3) Crean 4) McCarthy 5) Vincent 6) McNeish

10:00 - 11:30 Brunch is served in the Dining Room

TBA We hope to land at Whaler’s Bay, Deception Island

Whalers’ Bay is the first bay inside Port Foster as you pass through Neptune’s Bellows at Deception Island. It was given its name by the French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot due to the whaling activities undertaken in this bay in the 1900’s. The site has a flat, cinder beach which extends approximately 100 m (330 ft) inland before meeting the steep caldera wall. The buildings include the remains of the Norwegian Hektor whaling station and a British Antarctic Survey base which was evacuated in 1967 during an eruption. The beach itself is covered in ash and cinder, under which you can see barrels, whale bones and other artifacts.

1) Worsley 2) Crean 3) McCarthy 4) Vincent 5) McNeish 6) Shackleton

17:30 There will be a Recap & Briefing in the Main Lounge

18:30 Dinner will be served in the Dining Room

20:30 Please join Miko in the Main Lounge for his bar talk “Sex on the Beach”

“Strange. There is always sadness on departure. It is as if one cannot after all bear to leave this bleak waste of ice, glaciers, cold and toil…” - Fridtjof Nansen 1912

Sunrise: 03:25 Sunset: 22:53

Now for our last 2 days across the Drake Passage.