Deception Island and Lindblad Cove—Happy New Year!
After a festive night, ringing in the New Year, we awoke near the entrance to Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands. This island caldera’s entrance is through a narrow passageway known as Neptune’s Bellows. After passing through this scenic spot, the Captain brought the ship directly up to the beach at Whaler’s Bay and we proceeded to venture ashore.
Our party split into a variety of groups, with different interests targeted. There was a significant group who visited a wide cut in the side of the caldera’s rim known as Neptune’s Window. Groups walked along the beach, enjoying close views of chinstrap penguins and an occasional gentoo just exiting the water. We passed old, wooden water boats, bleached and discarded whale bones, and circling Antarctic terns on our way up the hill. Colorful lichens and pintado petrels greeted us as we reached the top of the viewpoint. Others explored the remains of the Norwegian Hektor Whaling Station, which lived out its final years as British Base B (an outpost of the British Antarctic Survey). There were multitudes of equipment parts, huge storage containers, and dilapidated buildings, reminding us of the human presence that defined this bay at one point in time.
Our afternoon began in a leisurely fashion, and we rested while crossing the Bransfield Strait. Peter Hillary entertained us in the early afternoon by telling tales of his forays into the interior of this mysterious continent. As we neared the peninsula mid-afternoon, numerous humpback whales were sighted in the distance. The sea was incredibly placid and glassy as we watched the graceful leviathans surfacing again and again. Calm and undeterred by our presence, they created beautiful rings of bubbles around schools of krill. We watched, speechless, as they repeatedly surfaced through the bubbles, mouths agape. The smooth water made it possible to see their long, white pectoral flippers before their bodies broke the surface of the sea.
As an evening treat, we entered Lindblad Cove, a small harbor in the greater expanse of Charcot Bay. Ringed on every side by cascading glacial ice, this is one of the most dramatic sites we have seen on our journey thus far. The ship slowly maneuvered around aquamarine icebergs, along the face of glacier after glacier. Leopard seals lounged on many of the ice floes and even more humpback whales surfaced in areas of brash ice. We also encountered a few Weddell and crabeater seals on ice, but the biggest highlight of our experience was a juvenile Emperor penguin standing solo on a flat area of sea ice. At least a head taller than any other penguin species with which we are familiar, the solo bird was compliant enough to stand still for a bevy of photographers to shoot to their hearts’ content.
Faces flushed and memory cards bursting, we retired inside for another phenomenal dinner. As we began our cruise south through Gerlache Strait, it was easy to reflect on the incredible sightings we had today, each representative of the best that Antarctica has to offer. Happy 2011!
