Whalers Bay @ Deception Island
Day 15 – Sunday, Feb 4: South Shetland Islands, 65 nautical miles north of the Antarctic Peninsula
… more pix & videos on Google Maps: Deception Island, & Whalers Bay.
Waking up to a rather overcast skies, I went to the bow and took some spectacular videos. As we’re sailing into Whalers Bay, the scenery is even more beautiful and tranquil. It did perk me up – for more than two weeks on the ship, I was a little weary.
This would be our last landing of the trip.
Deception Island is a small island in the Bransfield Strait, 620 miles / 1,000km south of Ushuaia, Argentina. It is close to Antarctic Peninsula but is in South Shetland Islands. Long video
This island is the caldera of an active volcano, that had ruined the scientific stations in 1967 and 1969. Because of its natural harbor, it was a whaling station in the 20th century, as early as 1906. Argentina and Spain have their research station during the summer months, but it’s administered under the Antarctic Treaty System. Each year, it sees about 15,000 tourists. Walk the beach, visit the ruins, climb up to Neptune’s window for the vintage view. I saw the cutest seal, playing hide and seek with me.
The group in red outfit is from Brazil. This is the only time that we ‘ve a company. We were the only one at all other landings.
I would love to go kayaking one more time but it was canceled due to the weather. By 10:20am, the wind was picking up, that forced us to return to the ship earlier than planed.