Antarctic Cruise Diary : 19 December 2006

If you want to know more about our Antarctic Expeditions and Cruises, you may enjoy reading this Antarctic Cruise Dairy, a real account written by one of our staff researchers, of the cruise that they enjoyed in December 2006.

• Antarctic Expedition Cruise Starts From Ushuaia
• Cruising To Antarctica
• Cruising Through Drake Passage
• The Cruise Arrives At Pleaneau Island
• Peterman Island And Yalour Islands
• Cuverville Island And Neko Harbour
• Danco Island And Wilhelmina Bay
• Deception Island And Half Moon Island
• The Cruise Leaves Antarctica
• Return To Ushuaia

ANTARCTIC excursions, DECEPTION Island and HALF MOON ISLAND

19 Dec 2005
Position: Lat: 62°.59’ S  Lon: 60 °.29’ W
Air Temperature: +0.8 °C

Gently rolling across the Bransfield Straight Deception Island pearled into view streaked with pink luminous sunshine, through the partly cloudy sky.  Volcanic brown and red walls towered above us as we maneuvered through Neptune’s Bellows, the narrow opening in the volcanoes caldera that allows access to the inside of this active volcano.  We dropped anchor at Whaler’s Cove and spread across the loose cinders of the volcanic beach. The former whaling station is an eerie place with abandoned buildings, buried machinery and whale skeletons scattered all along the bay. A large elephant seal was too relaxed to be bothered by the islands visitors, just glancing up occasionally to check what was happening. And a trio of Chinstrap Penguins waddled through the steamy shore as though they were staggering back from the local watering hole.
Deceptions Island’s most recent eruption in 1970 still held steaming heat for us today as the perfect tidal level left the shallows near shore warm enough for a quick swim, by a few hardy souls.

We spent a few hours underway en route to Half Moon Island tucked away at the eastern end of Livingston Island.  Towering ice cliffs and jagged peaks create the backdrop for this small, glacially sculpted, particularly inhospitable outpost.  The Island consists of a rocky crescent, strewn with a Chinstrap Penguin colony at the northern end, an Argentinean research station in the center and a small rocky outcrop at the other.  The windswept overcast skies poured a light mist with intermittent snow flurries. Amongst this Antarctic mood a humpback whale circled the ship a few times while we disembarked into the zodiacs.  Once ashore a few exercise hungry folks trotted off toward Camara station with the intent to climb to the highpoint of the island. An attempt that ended with bombardments from nearby nesting skuas about halfway up. Most of us stepped carefully through the loose rocks and scree to watch the Chinstrap Penguin parade, even encountering a few Elephant Seals slothing on the beach. 

The wind increased and the snow began to fly again by the finishing time of our excursion.  Bundled up, and after scrubbing the guano from our boots we climbed into the zodiacs for the final time.  The clouds closed in as we zipped back to the ship saying our farewell to Antarctica before journeying back across the Drake Passage.