MS National Geographic Endeavour
Deception Island
Thursday, January 22, 2009

    The Endeavour sailed overnight through the Antarctic Sound and arrived at Deception Island during breakfast this morning. There was some hope that we would make a shore excursion at Bailey Head on the east side of Deception to visit a colony of chinstrap penguins. Unfortunately, the surf was surging too high on the rocky landing site. Deception Island is an active volcano. It appears as a horseshoe filled with seawater. We entered by sailing through Neptune’s Bellows (the open part of the horseshoe) and anchored for a trip to shore by Zodiac. The surface of the land is gravel and volcanic soil and is barren like a moonscape. Several of us hiked up a slope to approach the face of a slowly melting glacier and see the site of the most recent eruption (in the late 1960’s). Somewhere, probably inside the glacier, is the body of one of Jacque Cousteau’s sons who disappeared on a solo trek in the 1970’s and was never found.

    The ship later sailed toward the Antarctic Peninsula with a destination of Lindblad’s Cove. In 1995, the cove was named in honor Lars-Eric Lindblad who first pioneered special expedition travel to Antarctica. We arrived during dinner and the ship began to cruise the cove. This highly stabilized ship was listing significantly to port because of unprecedented winds in the cove. The bridge measured the wind at up to 70 knots, much higher than the captain had ever encountered there before. It was becoming difficult to control the ship and safely navigate around all the ice, so we had to sail out of the cove early. It is an eerie sound when the ship hits floating ice.

    The sky cleared a bit at the end of the day and made for a beautiful sunset about 22:30. Of course, it really didn’t get darker than twilight until well after midnight. Sunrise tomorrow is estimated at 03:45, but it will start getting light long before then.

    This was an easier day. Just as well, because tomorrow promises to be a busy one with two scheduled excursions ashore – the first at Cuverville Island and the second on the Antarctic continent at Neko Harbor. We expect to find Gentoo penguins at both sites.