Friday, February 24, 2012

Sunrise 4:06 Sunset 10:30 Morning 0/32F  Afternoon 0\32F. Cloudy/snowing AM stiff SW wind

Clay's Photos

Debbie's Photos

Today felt like the very coldest day, but it was probably just the snow blasting into our faces!

This morning we sailed through Neptune's Bellows to Telefon Bay inside the caldera of Deception Island. It is a still active volcano. There is no wildlife living inside. There is some around the outside of the cone though. In fact, there were maybe hundreds of thousands of penguins all the way up a high cliffside just outside that entrance to the caldera. Inside it is such a protected harbor that it was used for whaling processing and scientific research until the last eruption in the late 1960's.

We were the first group ashore again. So we had to be up early to get breakfast at 6:30, watch the narrow entrance to slip into the caldera and then go ashore at 8am. It was a very different day. It was mostly black sand, cinders and stones with the white snow over it. It was very stark and lifeless, eerie. It was our easiest landing by far. The walk probably would not have been too bad uphill to view the most recent crater, but for a stiff, cold snowy wind pushing into our faces. The wind was so hard it would actually push you back or sideways from time to time. We did not walk past the first crater. The steeper walk to the next crater may have been easier because you took a left turn and had the wind at your back, but we were done!

At 11am, we started our sail out. The sun had emerged, partly cloudy skies but the wind must have stiffened because now the entire bay was covered in whitecaps. It wasn't like that for our zodiac trips ashore.

This is the shore stop where the geothermally heated waters are, as you may have figured. So, this is the stop for which we were instructed to bring swimsuits and water shoes. Now we weren't wild about that, but if we weren't prepared and missed an opportunity, we might feel bad, so we brought them. At last night's briefing, Nico did not mention it. So, when he opened for questions, those were all the questions and it became quite clear that he and his expedition staff did not do water adventures with passengers. In fact, he stated it was rarely possible and that in the case of cold water plunges, that it was now illegal. A few of the others piped up with the gist of if it wasn’t illegal that it ought to be because everyone was going to take photos of people in bathing suits that shouldn’t be wearing them and posting them on Facebook. I don’t know if any of this was true, or whether they just don’t like doing it and so they don’t. Well, it was probably true about Facebook, by which I assume they meant just posted on the Internet in general. In any event, there were a bunch of disappointed people, who had used precious luggage space and weight for no reason. It really didn’t matter to us, Clay used his swim trunks as treadmill shorts, my suit is no weight really and I wore my Mary Jane Crocs anyway.

The only thing listed in the program today that was not a meal or a landing was Relaxation with Sara in the Theater. Since it is only on deck 4 and we were sitting still, I decided to go. I was the only passenger who came! Now on other cruise lines we've sailed unless at least 3 passengers show up class is canceled. Sara carried right on and I got a private work over. She pretty much gave a mini-massage/chiropractic workout! She cracked my back on both sides and I felt great for the next couple of hours. By the time we returned from our last landing, I was having back spasms. Oh, well.  I plan to have Clay rub some Tiger's Balm in there before bedtime and hopefully that will fix it. In an update, my chronic hip pain has been gone ever since Sara’s laying on of the hands. I have no taken any anti-inflammatory drugs since we got home. It is a miracle!

No events during lunch which featured great big crab legs and fish soup. I ate more iceberg lettuce and pasta, plain since it came with mushroom cream sauce. Every day they have had 3 different salad dressings, I mean really different, I have never seen a single flavor repeated!

Shortly after lunch, we arrived at Livingston Island for our final landing. We split 4 ways this time because there is plant life here and they want to try even more to minimize our impact. So, you would land at either Walker Bay and walk to Hannah Point to tender back to the ship, or the opposite. There were some pretty good sized swells coming here and we could hear them booming off the back of the marina as we waited. So it was a bit scary, but we were told to expect Chinstrap penguins, giant petrels, elephant seals and 2 nesting pairs of macaroni penguins. We saw all but the Macaronis, so it was the most variety of animals we had seen in one place with all the others there, like skua, Gentoo, fur seals and Giant Petrels. We saw a juvenile skua and a fluffy Giant Petrel chick. I got some video of a penguin feeding chase. We saw Elephant seals and fur seals fighting. I got video! Again, too bad no sound because they were really noisy! The seals were molting and it evidently makes them both lazy and testy.


It was interesting to see the tiny grasses and mosses, as well as the fossilized tree bits, which they say means trees once grew here.

We walked on the dry half of the island; we sailed by the side that was ice-packed! The sun returned with a vengeance this afternoon and would just about blind you even with the big special sunglasses. The wind however did not abate even a little, it was brutal. This was everyone's favorite landing! It was also our last. I am not usually a big fan of short cruises. But, I make an exception for Antarctica. This is a grueling, exhausting, physically challenging trip with some rough sailing and long flights before and after. I think I would just cry if I thought I had another week of this. I am glad of what I've seen and that I finally set foot on the Antarctic Continent. And you can stick a fork in me NOW 'cause I am done!



We plan an early night tonight and then over the next 2 days sailing back to Ushuaia we hope to watch some of their movies on demand. After we got back to the ship and before it departed Walker Bay, we went up to Deck 5 where they sell photos and a DVD of the trip that their photographers sell. All the pics they took of us were pretty awful, so no sale. But we are buying the DVD and 2 CDs of scenic photos and animals because they were very good and we have no idea if we've taken any good photos ourselves and we don't expect to do this again, so we're just going to eat the cost. The DVD is 60€. The photo CDs are 35€ and 45€. I don't know the cost of individual or group photos because we didn't order any.

Another set of shipboard notes. Wine, sodas and beer are included at lunch and dinner. Though they do have a charge for the minibar, at the bars and they try to sell wine packages. Bottled water has been complimentary throughout the ship and they keep a couple of 2 liter bottles stocked in the cabin. There is a cooler in the lobby of deck 3 that has smaller bottles of still water that you can help yourself to as well as in the fitness room.

I think that is it for today. It has been an incredible trip!

Clay's Photos

Debbie's Photos