Day 20 Evening
After spending the morning at Yankee Harbour, we sat sail for Deception Island. We sailed through the narrow entrance of the caldera known as Neptune’s Bellows and landed on the black sandy beach of Whaler’s Bay, in between the hot springs. The weather was typical Antarctic with blizzards & snow. Winds flowing down the slopes of the caldera appeared suddenly, the change happened in a matter of minutes. Visit to the island isn’t always easy. The island was formed by a huge volcanic eruption, the last documented eruption was in 1970. The island has played host to brutal seal and whale hunting groups that used it as a base for their operations.
The dilapidated shells of buildings, boats, and whaling equipment remain as proof of its productive years as a Norwegian-Chilean whaling station. The giant iron boilers and tanks of the long-gone whalers still stand. Approximately 150 people worked at the station during the austral summer, producing over 140,000 barrels of whale oil. In this unique place, you may see seals, penguins, volcanic rocks, glacier, and ash-filled buildings, and rusted whale oil tanks in the same view. At the end of our visit to Deception Island, the heartier passengers were given the chance to do a polar plunge. They stripped down on the beach & ran into water, then ran back out; freezing & soaking wet.
