WINE, DYNAMITE AND PENGUIN TOUR: 22nd February 2017 – Heading North to Deception Island

22nd February 2017 – Heading North to Deception Island

This little but strange island is in the North of the South Shetland Islands and was undiscovered until the early 1900s. This is an active volcano whose destructive power has wiped out many research stations based here in history.

The landing beach on Deception Island.

The entrance to Deception Island is through a narrow channel with a large rock right in the middle called Neptune’s Bellows, so tricky navigation and also the reason for the name Deception Island as many ships passed right by missing the entrance.

Off the Zodiacs and into the caldera of the volcano to beaches of black volcanic sand, chunks of Ironstone and pumice, the beach was warm and as a result, gave off steam along the beach.

It was also home to several fur seal families that seemed unbothered by our existence except when we walked too near a derelict tub which turned out to be one's home & he came out giving us a very angry reception ! Fur seals can be aggressive so we were all given walking poles just in case we needed to fend them off, but they were far too interested in sleeping and swimming to bother with us.

This wild alien landscape was littered with old buildings, storage tanks and pieces of history were scattered everywhere. Nobody is allowed to remove anything from here but the site is not going to be restored and is to be allowed to fall apart and eventually disappear.
The constructions had developed leans due to the volcanic activity which has rendered the site impossible to use commercially.

The site was originally a whaling station and the conditions here must have been truly terrible but whale blubber was a very significant commercial product so whaling stations were important.

Derelict landing pontoon devoured by
the islands volcanic activity

Later, it became a British Antarctic Research Station but was destroyed in the volcano of 1970s. Later, Britain had heard rumours of an increase in interest in the Falkland Islands and the government then opened it up again a “research” station.

Remnants of commercial whaling in the middle of nowhere.

Lick of paint, it'll be as good as new ....
with sea lions in residence !

Recent volcanic activity destroyed the station again and it was just left to rot leaving a ghostly lunar landscape now only occupied by sea lions, occasional explorers and the graves of a couple of people lost to the deadly sea.
This day, the sun briefly tried to shine though the thin mist of volcanic steam that covered the island. It was the first time we had seen the sun but it was only for a couple of minutes.

Not the prettiest of ships but we loved her
.....especially when we could see it !!

By the time we returned to the ship, there was a major swell and the exits from the RIB’s onto the gangplank was pretty tricky and had to be timed as the ship rose & fell. Not Janette’s favourite landing !!

The final expedition due for the afternoon was cancelled. The sea swell by then was too high for safe Zodiac launch and so our trip to see the final Chinstrap penguin colony in Half Moon Bay and the last one of the trip had to be ditched. Janette had a coronary trying to get of the Zodiac onto the ships steps with the Zodiac going up and down by 2m but she made it in the end although we never heard the end of the episode all night.

No-one felt let down by the weather as we had seen some chinstrap penguins on the last stop where they were living in amongst the Gentoo's. We all felt extremely lucky we had experienced so much on this wonderful adventure, plus we had all had more than our share of the smell of penguin poo !!!

We are now assuming that we are going to cross a stormy Drakes Passage and whilst everyone was in good party mood as we neared the end of our Antarctic Odyssey which surpassed all of our dreams. News was slipping out that later tomorrow, the forecast was for 16m wave height and we would be lashing everything down including ourselves. So now everyone is reaching for their seasick patches, wrist bands, tablets or whatever they have…we’re on our way back to Ushuaia in Argentina arriving in 72 hours from now, one way or another....but who knows what the weather will be like.