Antarctica 8: Deception Island

As announced we were woken up shortly before 7 for breakfast, because by 8 we passed Neptuns Bellows. A narrow passage leading into the cauldron of the active volcano. The passage is pretty tight because of a rock that's right in the middle and apparently a difficult navigation. But the sight from the front of the ship going into the passage was amazing. Also we've had decent weather for the first time since leaving Ushuaia with sunshine and some blue skies. Our ship landed at Whaler's Bay, an old whaling station that was turned into a scientific station but ultimately abandoned due to volcanic eruptions.
Our group was the second one to go and we were all super excited because it was the last chance to set foot on land. Also there was the possibility to do the polar plunge 🤩 Because the weather wasn't good enough for a zodiac cruise we needed to wait for the return of the first group. When we got there it was a pretty sight with the black sand and green/white spotted mountains in the background. Also the whole area was full of Antarctic Fur Seals resting on the beach and the leftovers from the last station. First we walked through the ruins of the town with a small group of Gentoo Penguins and also some Chinstrap Penguins. The destroyed buildings were used by the seals and penguins for shelter. Afterwards we walked all along the shore next to a huge colony of fur seals. We were told to keep our distance as the juveniles can be a little aggressive. Luckily they left us pretty much alone and we came to a spot with a walk going up the hill to Neptunes Window. We were already a bit too late to go all the way up because we needed to be on time for the polar plunge. But apparently it wasn't that interesting anyways, you could see the open ocean, just like we're going to see the next three days 😬
Then it was finally time for the polar plunge which we have been waiting for excitedly. The beach we stayed at was perfect for it as it didn't have a lot of rocks and was pretty shallow. We went in together but after submerging and doing a few strokes I went back out. Julia stayed in the ice cold water (-1 degrees Celsius) for more than 5 minutes, swimming around almost completely unfazed. She had hoped for a penguin to come up to her ☺️ After getting dressed again we hopped in a zodiac to bring us back to the ship. There we had a nice, hot shower and then went directly to lunch.

So this was the last stop before turning to Ushuaia through the Drake Passage. The weather outlook for the crossing wasn't looking good, instead pretty bad with high winds and swell. So we enjoyed the calmth of this last stretch while having an interesting lecture on the evolution of penguins. Before dinner the Drake Shake had begun with the ship crashing down loud and hard from each wave. Stuff and people just falling around 🙈Read more