Looking out the window, there is a small amount of daylight still visible behind the thinner clouds. Very deep navy blue, but there nonetheless. I assume that we are now very close to the Antarctic Circle.
I simply can't believe the amazing coincidences that led up to our stop this morning on Deception Island. When we were planning for this trip, we looked at many different cruises through many different cruise lines. Most of them only visited the Antarctic Peninsula, where we are now (or near it, at least). This cruise was the only one that we found that went to the peninsula and to the Ross Sea and McMurdo Station. But, this cruise did not list Deception Island on the itinerary, which was a little disappointing to me.
However, when we reached Punta Arenas, one large group of passengers lost their luggage due to a mixup at the airport. Instead of being delivered to our ship, it was delivered to a Russian cruise ship that was also cruising the Antarctic. That ship left for the Falkland Islands. When we got to Ushuaia the next day, the relations between the Falklands and Argentina prevented us from having them shipped to us, so these people have been without their luggage for several days now, borrowing from other people and using a small amount of money given to them by Orient Lines to buy clothing in Ushuaia.
Yesterday morning, we were told that we would be diverting our cruise to Half-moon Island instead of Hope Bay, because the Russian ship was going to leave the lost luggage at the Argentine station there for us to pick up when we arrived.
Yesterday evening, we were told that we would be adding a new stop to the itinerary, since our trip to Half-moon Island allowed it. We would be able to add Deception Island to our schedule for the morning. They said at the time that we would be landing at Whaler's Bay, which is not an area that swimming is advisable at, unlike the hot springs at Pendulum Bay. But it was still thrilling to know that we'd be visiting the active volcanic caldera that makes up Deception Island.
When we arrived at Deception Island this morning, shrouded in snow and haze from the steam generated by the warm water, we discovered that there was another ship anchored in Whaler's Bay already. We couldn't go there after all. Instead, we ended up visiting Pendulum Bay, and we would be able to swim after all!
We cruised around much of the island's outer shore (more cliffs than shore), and then passed through Neptune's Bellows, the caved-in opening in the wall of the caldera, and into the interior of the volcanic island. We passed Whaler's bay and the encroaching ship (the Explorer, which was violating an agreement by being there), and went back to the back of the inner lake to Pendulum Bay, where we could clearly see the two new peaks created by the eruption in the late 60s. We could also clearly see the wreckage of the Chilean Base that was there before the eruption, and which was destroyed by it.
We watched the other passengers depart and return on the Zodiacs, and, when our time came, we rode out on a very fast, very comfortable and generally stable Zodiac to visit the island for ourselves. Since both Grandma and I had packed our swimming suits, we had them on and ready for a dip in the hot springs.
When we landed, we were told by Nigel Sitwell who met us on the shore that the tide was high, so the hot springs weren't actually as near to the shore as usual, so it wouldn't be very warm. But, we had already decided to do it.
We first walked along the beach to a small glacial river, where the runoff from the melting snow field on top of the island was trickling down into the bay. It was eroding the volcanic ash and stone bed, which made a fairly soft gravelly bed at least several feet deep along the beach. We noted a few of the atypical rocks that must have been flung out of the volcano when it erupted. These were reddish and had lots of air bubble holes in them, so they were ejected very quickly from the volcano, while the rest were slower probably.
Then, we made our way up the hill at the middle of the bay to the ruins of the Chilean base. It was amazing what the volcano had done there. Most of the base was buried, but some was sticking out and was all torn up, broken, or burnt. The concrete supports were still standing, with metal rods sticking out and twisting up away from the concrete. There was a concrete doorway that had collapsed as a unit face-down on the ground. Metal beams were twisted out of shape, and all of the wood that filled in the structure was broken off about a foot or so from the supports, with what might have been burn marks along the edges.
From there, we walked down the center of the beach, avoiding the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) area, which was surrounding a pool of steaming water with lichens of algae growing on the nearby gravel. It's of special scientific interest because it will hopefully give some insight into the colonization process of fresh islands. In this case, this part of Deception Island is still considered "fresh" because of the recent volcanic eruptions, that totally renewed the upper layers of the island.
At the beach, we took off our winter clothes and stripped to our bathing suits. We had been preceded by a small number of people, all gasping and shivering, and we went down to the beach, walking across the gravel which now felt very sharp and uncomfortable under our bare feet. We were guided to an area where the gravel was emitting a lot of heat, heating the water some, and I waded in then dove backwards. The water was almost icy cold. There was too much cold water for the hot spring to heat. After some sputtering and momentary convulsion from the chill, I swam back to shore, found the hot water, rolled there for a second or two, and got out. Dana and Grandma took my picture while I was in the water. (Dana, of course, was the third person in the water that day, and very proud of it! She was laughing and having a great time.)
Then Grandma made her way in briefly, with cameras flashing, and then we both dried off slightly and got back into all of our warm cloths. When we were finished, we went back to the nearest Zodiac and took a ride back to the ship. After a brief visit to the bathroom to switch from bathing suit to boxer shorts, I can now watch the last Zodiacs returning to the ship. The ship has blown it's horn for them: three long blasts to signal it's desire to leave the area.
Lunchtime!
We are just passing Livingston Island, and I took a Panorama picture of it. It's much larger than I expected. I thought at first that we were looking at part of the Antarctic Peninsula. The way the clouds hug the tops of the glaciers and mountains, it's impossible to see how high the island goes. It's just sea, then rock and glacier, then... Who knows? There's an icy majesty about the view that can't possibly turn out on film, I'm sure.
Just before this, we watched penguins hopping around in the water, just like dolphins. Swimming along, bobbing up and down through the water. Very fast.
We also watched a Russian Ship pass by in the reverse direction. This was actually the ship that carried the luggage of about 40 of our passengers to the Argentine station at Half-moon island. I noted several of the passengers on our ship waving gratefully to the Russian ship. As a side note, the Russian ship was being used as a tourist vessel, which probably carried mostly American passengers.
While we were waiting for our turn onshore, we saw several humpback whales a ways away from the boat, sounding and rolling in the waves. They were too far away, and didn't come out of the water enough to photograph. It wasn't very exciting in person, either.
I also watched the crew transporting the lost luggage from the Argentine station to the ship. There was quite a bit of it, and they had to carry it all from the station down across the snow field and the beach to the zodiac rafts, two of which had been reserved for this use. I'm sure that the passengers who got their luggage back here were very grateful and relieved.
While we rode out to the island, we saw Chinstrap Penguins swimming in the water of Half-moon Bay right next to our Zodiac. They were within ten feet at some times, and I was worried that we might even run them over.
When we landed, there were Chinstraps all over the beach, and several fur seals nearby. We stayed away from the fur seals, since the Antarctic Treaty System clearly states that we must remain 50 feet away from them at all times.
The beach, and in fact all of the island that we visited, was covered with large stones mixed with mud, and a great deal of Penguin guano. Growing between the stones in most places was a very small lichen or moss. Something green, anyway. I'm trying to start a habit of taking at least one closeup picture of the ground at each place we visit to give an idea of the difference in the terrain, which seems so far to be greatly varied.
We saw the wooden ship that Lars-Eric described to us yesterday in his adventure story, up on the beach, high up away from the water. It was falling apart and rotting away.
The penguins on Half-moon Island were for the most part oblivious of the visitors from the Marco Polo. They went about their business, walking between the various large penguin groups, hopping onto and off of large rocks and up and down the rocky paths on the island, and bantering with each other in the rookeries. Some of them walked around a lot, sometimes stopping to stretch themselves vertically and make breying sounds: probably some form of demonstration. Others lay on their stomachs and eyes us nervously (or sleepily) as we walked by. In the rookeries, they nipped at each other to protect their territory and brayed at each other to demonstrate their power and attractiveness. The rookeries made a lot of noise, but those on their own were for the most part quiet.
On the top of the island, mostly on the far side from the ship, we found another group of fur seals, sillouetted against the bright sky. They were mostly just lounging around, but a couple of them were up and moving around, surveying the area and the others. Again, we stayed away from them.
The rookeries had thousands of penguins in them, covering entire areas of the high rocks and hilltops of the island, and the lower areas covered with lichen.
On the far side of Half-moon Island, there was a spectacular view of the glacier-covered Livingston Island, which contrasted very well with the rocky, lichen and penguin infested island that were were on.
Before that, we had had a briefing by Lars-Eric on Port Lockroy and Paradise Bay.