Antarctica
December 19, 2021 to January 6, 2022
Mike and Judy Henderson
I'm going to leave this map at the front of the web page so you can visualize where we are.
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12/24/2021 (Friday, Christmas Eve) South Shetland Islands. At 6am today, we are at 62˚43'S, 60˚45'W, temperature 1˚C. Sea is generally calm.
We arrived off Elephant Point of Livingston Island today, indicated by the arrow on the map below.
It's too rough to use the zodiacs today, but we're sailing along the island so that we can see it and take pictures. The problem with rough seas and the zodiacs is loading and unloading people safely as the zodiac is bouncing up and down (and back and forth). The transfer is difficult and dangerous.
Here we are, against the island - our first view of Antarctica!
I took lots of pictures, but it was somewhat foggy so they don't show the island very well.,
We went to lunch in the Restaurant and met the Executive Chef, Devraj Thapa. He made a great Wiener Schnizel.
Soon, we left Livingston Island and headed to Deception Island. Deception Island is named because it looks like a regular island from the outside, but it has a small channel, Neptune's Bellows, which allows a ship to enter the bay, Port Foster, in the interior. The island is the caldera of an active shield volcano. The volcano is still active and erupted in 1967, 1969 and 1970.
The protected waters were chosen by early whalers as a land-based processing station for rendering whale oil, and was active from 1904-1931. During that period over 239,000 blue whales were slaughtered. As time went on, whaling ships were able to process the whales onboard, and this location was not used.
Some people describe the island as a doughnut. It also resembles a cervical collar.
The island is a popular stop for cruise vessels, and since the volcano is still active, if you dig into the beach sand, you'll find hot water. Expedition cruises used to dig a "hot tub" on the beach for the guest to use but I understand that is not longer allowed. You may see older blogs that talk about a "natural hot tub" on Deception Island.
Here's a map of Deception Island showing the bay, Port Foster, and the small entrance, Neptune's Bellows. Our landing site is in Whaler's Bay.
It was cold and foggy outside, with a high wind, but I was able to get a few pictures as we entered the island through Neptune's Bellows. Here we are approaching the opening.
Entering the channel.
I took this picture of a bird as it flew by the ship. I don't know what kind of bird it is. I just thought it was a nice picture with the mountains and snow in the background.
After lunch, about 3pm, they began calling the zodiac groups. We are in group 4, and we went down to deck 3, and got in line to board the zodiacs. I wore a set of long underwear pants and athletic pants under my waterproof pants. On the top, I wore two long sleeve t-shirts, a polo shirt, and a sweater under my parka. I was quite comfortable with that. The major problem was my hands. I had good gloves but had to go bare-handed in order to operate the camera and iPhone. My hands got quite cold.
I wore a knit beanie hat that covered my ears. The boots are heavy but it was not hard walking with them - for the short distances we walked on the island.
Here's Judy waiting in the zodiac line.
Judy in the zodiac.
Some of the ruins of the whale processing facility on Deception Island. These are fuel storage tanks - fuel for the ships that came here.
Some Chinstrap Penguins on the beach. They're hired by Silversea to pose for the guests. The penguins have a union, and are paid union rates for their time on the beach. Their pay is in krill and squid. (Smile!)
[Update: After I got home, I was asked about polar bears. There are no polar bears in Antarctica, and there are no penguins in the Arctic. If there were polar bears in Antarctica, they would eat all the penguins. There are no flightless birds in the Arctic because of the predators.]
Here we are on Deception Island, with the Silver Cloud in the background. It was reasonably cold with a wind blowing, but we were not uncomfortable. Even Judy has one hand bare.
Deception Island is an active volcano - last eruption 1970 - and is hot below the surface. You can see "steam" (actually water vapor) rising from the beach as the warm water from below reaches the surface. The crew members who helped load and unload the zodiacs spent the entire time standing in the water.
There's not much on Deception Island, at least where we were. It was nice to set foot on Antarctica, and to "practice" the zodiac landing, but this location certainly does not call me back.
Getting in and out of the zodiac at the ship is easy in smooth seas. Getting in and out on the beach can be more of a challenge, especially for elderly people. Here's the Silversea crew assisting an elderly couple to board the zodiac.
A picture of the Silver Cloud as we approached it in the zodiac. Note the opening just above the waterline. That's where we get on and off the zodiacs.
A closer view of the place on the ship where we board and disembark the zodiacs. Judy and I were the first to disembark, so I couldn't get a picture of guests actually disembarking. The two sets of steps are not very wide, giving one a railing to grab with each hand.
After we got back to the room, Flynn (the butler) showed up with a small cake to celebrate our visit to the 7th continent. It was a very tasty chocolate mousse cake.
A little later in the day, Santa stopped by the ship before he took off in his sleigh to deliver gifts around the world. I was able to get a picture of Judy with him before he left.
That was nearly the end of the day. A bit later, we had a Christmas-themed dinner, and then went to bed, as visions of sugarplums danced in our heads.
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12/25/2021 (Saturday, Christmas Day, a white Christmas) Antarctica Peninsula Location at 7am 63˚56'S, 60˚47'W, temperature 1˚C, sea dead calm, snowing. We're just off Mikkelsen Harbor of Trinity Island where we will land today.
Here's a map of the Antarctic Peninsula showing the research stations located there and on the South Shetland Islands. There sure are a lot of them. I've indicated Trinity Island with the arrow.
It was snowing when we arrived at Mikkelsen Harbor. The zodiacs had a good dusting.
Here's one of the zodiacs pulling up to the ship dock. I hope they wipe the snow off before we board.
When our group was called, we got all of our cold weather gear on and went down to the "mud room" where we store our wet boots between excursions. We walk down in street shoes and change to our boots in the mud room. Here's Judy in the mud room.
Judy and Janet in the hallway, ready to board the zodiac.
Boarding the zodiac. Other zodiacs are waiting to come in to pick up additional guests. [Update: I later learned that cruise ships are only allowed to put 100 guests ashore at a time. That was not true on the Falkland Islands - all of the guests could go ashore at one time there.]
Judy and Janet in the zodiac. Judy is having difficulty pulling on her second glove, because the other one is bulky. It actually wasn't that cold. There was no wind, other than the movement of the zodiac towards the shore, and the air temperature was not "biting". As usual, my hands got cold because I had to have my gloves off to take pictures. Actual temperatures have been around 30 degrees.
The landing spot. The snow is so white and bright that pictures have very strong contrast.
Here's Janet in an awkward moment.
The guides had tramped paths in the snow for us. This had two purposes: (1) to make walking easier for us - the snow was deep, and (2) to keep us away from penguin "roads". The penguins make a path through the snow and generally follow that. The guides always tried to make our paths cross the penguin roads at 90˚ so that there would be less chance that a penguin would take the wrong path.
Gentoo penguins nesting in the rocks. They make a nest out of pebbles, and they either use an older nest or make a new one, often with pebbles taken from another nest. They do not nest directly on the snow. All penguins are birds.
More nesting penguins.
Here are a couple of pictures of us on the island.
Here's a Gentoo Penguin walking across the snow on a penguin road.
Then we headed back to the pickup point. I took this picture looking back over the island. The structure on the far right is an emergency hut, stocked with provisions which would allow a person to survive until they could be rescued. This exact portion of the Antarctic is maintained by Argentina, and is identified by a large Argentinian flag painted on the far side of the building.
One of the zodiacs. Note that this one is marked "Cloud 01". Everyone wants to ride on the one marked "Cloud 09".
Here we are approaching the ship. Look at all that snow and ice!
Soon we arrived at the ship.
The first thing we have to do is clean our boots by stepping into a tub of cleansing solution and then stepping into a miniature car-wash machine with revolving brushes that cleans the bottoms and sides. We go into the "mud room" to change out of our boots and put them on a shelf to dry. Each shelf is marked with a cabin number. Here's Judy (far back on left) getting ready to take her boots off. Each bench has a wooden boot-puller to help, as its difficult to bend over with all this gear on.
I went back later and took a picture of the mud room when there was no one in it, so you could see what it looks like.
After all the people returned from Mikkelsen Harbor we sailed to Cierva Cove on the Antarctic Peninsula where we'll do a zodiac tour of the icebergs in the cove. At 6pm we were at 64˚8'S, 60˚57'W.
We left the ship and headed to a rocky area where there were some chinstrap penguins. I tried to get some close-ups but it was very difficult. The zodiac was bouncing around and the people in front of me kept getting in the way. I did get a few, however. Penguins manage to climb some incredible rocky hills to nest.
Here's a small group.
And a solitary one.
Here's another. Cute little fellas, aren't they? That stubby little tail helps with balancing, too.
Some Cormorants. These birds are very widely distributed. I think we have some of these in southern California.
Then we headed to the iceberg area. There's a glacier (probably Gregory Glacier) that feeds into Cierva Cove that calves off many icebergs. Here's one that looks like a house.
The Silver Cloud peeking around the iceberg field.
Janet and a large iceberg.
Penguins playing in the water near us.
Then out in the iceberg field, who should appear, but a miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer - oops, I mean a zodiac with Santa and four elves dispensing Champagne and hot chocolate. Santa doesn't have any reindeer at his South Pole facility, and he uses a zodiac instead of a sleigh, since the sleigh doesn't float.
We pulled alongside Santa's zodiac so that Santa's helpers could pass us glasses of Champagne or hot chocolate. He knows how to celebrate Christmas Day in style.
Judy and Janet celebrating. I tried to open Janet's eyes with PhotoShop but it will not recognize a face when you have a mask on - so PhotoShop wouldn't let me do the "open eye" function.
And here I am.
After we left Santa, we headed back into the iceberg field.
This iceberg has an interesting design carved into its face.
Argentina has a research station in the cove. If you look carefully at the lower right you'll see the Argentine flag on one of the small buildings.
Here's an interesting iceberg. The top of this iceberg was the bottom at one time - and the sea water carved the interesting design into it. Then the iceberg rolled over as the bottom ice melted, leaving this iceberg.
We headed into an area with a lot of small sea ice. We went through this, bumping into the ice as we went.
Some interesting sea ice.
Once we cleared that ice field, we came upon a group of kayakers from the ship.
Here's a close-up of one of the kayakers. His wife was on the zodiac with us.
After that, we headed back to the ship and had a festive Christmas Day dinner. That closed out our day.