Today, we had the normal drill of waking up, sticking a swab up our nose, then eating breakfast. If our captain took us to the correct spot, we would arrive at Deception Island today, doing a landing, then going to Half Moon Island in the afternoon.
The captain delivered on his navigation skills and we approached Deception Island later in the morning. Deception Island is an active volcano, which last erupted in 1970, and it does so about every 50 years. That means that an eruption is due ANY TIME NOW. Hopefully, it will hold off until we are done playing. The island is about 9 miles wide, has formed a caldera, and is the only volcano in the world that you can sail into. There is only one way to get into the caldera (Whaler’s Bay), which is through Neptune’s Bellows.
As we approached Neptune Bellows, everybody went outside to get pictures of the stunning views. Soon we were in Whaler’s Bay and anchored outside an abandoned British whaling station.
The staff started to call everybody by their color group to go to the mudroom and prepare for the landing. I was called, got dressed up, boarded the zodiac, and was off to the beach. It sounds weird calling our landing places “beaches” because I don’t know about you, but I think of a Bahamas kind of weather when I think “beach”.
When we landed, I noticed a few things. The first was that the water was not as deep as the other landings we did. The second was that the rocks were much finer here than on other beaches. Lastly, if you looked across the beach, you could see infrared/heat waves rising from the ground. I suppose this was to be expected as we were standing on an active volcano!
A guide met us as we disembarked from the zodiac and gave us one of two options. We could go left with a guide to the abandoned British whaling station, or we could venture out on our own to the right where there were a few Norwegian ruins. Left looked quite a bit more interesting, so off with guide David I went.
[[Picture of Antarctica fur seal]]
As we walked toward the ruins, I spied a couple of Antarctic fur seals lounging on the heated beach rocks. They looked very content and really paid no attention to us as we marched by them in awe. As we neared the dilapidated structures, David pointed out furnaces where the whale blubber was processed, tanks where the processed blubber was stored, the office building where all of the accounting took place, and an old airplane hangar. The hangar was quite large. He explained that there was a dirt airstrip off in the distance that was used for information-gathering flights over the mainland.
After getting pictures of the airplane hangar, we walked up to the summit of a large lava flow. It was about half a mile long and it was quite narrow and steep. Once at the top, the views were incredible! After hanging out there in the wind for a little bit, I descended and started walking back to the zodiacs. Which brings me to another sub-plot I have not been telling you about. . .
Antarctica POLAR PLUNGE
Jeff Adams is a little bit competitive. The first boat running of the marathon had 102 runners partake in a polar plunge. Make no mistake about it, Jeff wanted to beat them and encouraged EVERYBODY to do it so that we would have bragging rights. We had to sign a waiver to do the plunge, but nobody had ever been hurt in the process. I took one and intended to do the plunge. However, when I got up this morning, I was not feeling it. We were supposed to wear a swimsuit under whatever clothes we wore for the landing. At the end of the landing, you would undress to your swimsuit, do the polar plunge, dry off with a towel, and then be taken back to the ship IMMEDIATELY. Since I was not feeling it, I did not put on my swimsuit and I just wore my regular running tights (much like spandex/compression shorts, but they go all the way down to my ankles).
As I descended from the summit of the lava flow, I have to admit – I was having remorse at wearing my swimsuit or bringing the waiver. I was TOTALLY feeling left out. I walked back to where the zodiacs were taking people back to the ship. I decided to walk over to the polar plunging people to root people on. Several of my newfound friends asked me if I was going in. Dejectedly, I told them that I did not bring my waiver. They all expressed their disappointment, and my remorse level went through the roof. I saw Paul, and he asked if I was doing the plunge. I told him that I did not bring my waiver. He smiled and said, “That’s alright, we have extras just for people like you. Just go see Karen over there and she will take care of you.”
Joy ran through my body, and I think I actually RAN to her to get signed up. I did not have a swimsuit, but I would pull my tights up to my thighs and plunge that way! I was ecstatic as were all my friends. I took all of my clothes off (save for the tights) and up to the water I went. off I went. The only requirement for a polar plunge is that you had to get your hair wet. I ran into the 35-degree water expecting the worst. As the water got up to my shins, I said to myself, this is COLD! When the water got up to my knees, I just dove in. I remember hitting the bottom with my chest/stomach and I swam a few seconds underwater, then popped back up. “That was not TOO bad”, I thought. I was SO excited to have just done a polar plunge – in ANTARCTICA! Talk about some major bragging rights 🙂 I got out of the water and got my picture taken with an Antarctica Marathon finisher medal. The wind was blowing somewhat, so I grabbed a towel. Once I was dried off, the temperature was not actually that bad. I kind of stood there enjoying the breeze and thinking how “nice” out it was. I definitely overhyped the plunge in my mind.
As soon as I got reclothed, a seal actually swam out of the ocean, stood on the beach, and watched us. He looked bewildered as to why we would be going INTO the water and not staying out of it. He would hop several steps, and look at us again. Perhaps he wanted to join the party. Here he is observing us.
[[Pic/Video of seal watching on polar plunge]]
When it was all said and done, we had 109 people do the polar plunge! We beat the first boat!
Half Moon Island
Back on the ship, we set course for Half Moon Island and had lunch. Half Moon Island has a colony of chinstrap penguins and many seals. I was excited about this because I had only seen one chinstrap penguin this far in our journey.
Not long after lunch, we were called to the mudroom to prepare for the landing at Half Moon Island. When I landed, I noticed there were five fur seals, a bunch of chinstrap penguins, and a boat that was abandoned in 1968). It was a pretty cool sight with all three things in one frame.
I made my way to the chinstrap penguin colony and got some good pictures and videos. Chinstraps are closely related to gentoo penguins and often live together. After getting pictures/videos, I walked along the beach toward the rendezvous point. There were a bunch of adolescent fur seals chillaxing on the beach. They played a little bit.
I made my way SLOWLY back to the zodiac because I knew that this was my last adventure on any kind of land in Antarctica. I took it all in and sadly boarded the zodiac.