At sea - still on passage to South Shetlands
5C, 20kt winds, gentle swell no sun - due to the effect of the circumpolar currents and the Peninsula itself, we are seeing very few big bergs now. a little bit of local ice but nothing more.
Gym in morning before breakfast but another lazy morning – skipped a couple more lectures - busy reading a summary of the early Antarctic explorers - but still managed a couple of hours on deck watching the islands slide by in the mist and cloud - and still plenty of Humpbacks
After lunch we arrived at Deception Island which is an active volcano with a huge internal caldera which forms a safe anchorage and was home to a whaling station for many years and then became a British Antarctic survey base until an erruption in 1970 caused the place to be abandoned.
Initially we anchored on the south west corner of the island off Baily head which has one of the largest colonies of Chinstrap Penguins in the world - currently around 50,000 breeding pairs but declined from twice that number in the last 20 years or so.
Unfortunately, there was a heavy surf breaking on the landing beach so we had to settle for a long zodiac cruise with Wayne instead, around the outside of the island, chasing after a couple of passing Humpbacks, watching the Chinstrap Penguins porpoising on their way to and from the beach
and getting close into some very small coves
before eventually cruising round into Whalers Cove and landing at the site of the British station,
where we found a couple of charter yachts and a number of Leopard seals relaxing on the beach - thankfully some distance from the landing site. There was a distinctly eerie feeling about the place as we wandered among the abandoned buildings with clear evidence of recent eruptions and a misty atmosphere.
Apparently the pair of Gentoo Pengiuns figured that they could move faster than the seal on the shingle beach.
After lunch we arrived at Deception Island which is an active volcano with a huge internal caldera which forms a safe anchorage and was home to a whaling station for many years and then became a British Antarctic survey base until an erruption in 1970 caused the place to be abandoned.
Initially we anchored on the south west corner of the island off Baily head which has one of the largest colonies of Chinstrap Penguins in the world - currently around 50,000 breeding pairs but declined from twice that number in the last 20 years or so.
Unfortunately, there was a heavy surf breaking on the landing beach so we had to settle for a long zodiac cruise with Wayne instead, around the outside of the island, chasing after a couple of passing Humpbacks, watching the Chinstrap Penguins porpoising on their way to and from the beach
before eventually cruising round into Whalers Cove and landing at the site of the British station,
where we found a couple of charter yachts and a number of Leopard seals relaxing on the beach - thankfully some distance from the landing site. There was a distinctly eerie feeling about the place as we wandered among the abandoned buildings with clear evidence of recent eruptions and a misty atmosphere.
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