WHALER'S BAY

Fri 15 Feb 08, MS Nordnorge, Whaler’s Bay, Deception Island, Antarctica

Quoting from today’s handout:

“In February 1819, British merchant William Smith was rounding Cape Horn in his Brig Williams when he was blown south by a storm and first sighted the South Shetland Islands. Smith was promptly made the pilot of his own ship as the British authorities in Valparaiso placed aboard naval Captain Edward Bransfield. Together Bransfield and Smith surveyed the islands naming them for their similarity in latitude to Scotland’s Shetland Islands. They then crossed Bransfield’s eponymous strait and sighted the Antarctic Peninsul a. This was considered for many years to be the first known sighting of Antarctica. However, an ethnic German from Estonia working for the Russian Navy named Thaddeus Thaddevich von Bellingshausen had unknowingly beaten them by three days. Being a Russian ship captain, Bellingshausen was working off the ten-month Julian calendar and it wasn’t until the 1940’s when his work was translated into the twelve-month Gregorian calendar that this prior claim was discovered.”

“A portion of the wall of the volcanic caldera of Deception Island has collapsed, flooding the interior and creating an amazing natural harbor. Access to the interior is through the 200 meter-wide (660 feet) entrance known as Neptune’s Bellows, so named for the winds which howl through. There is a rock in the middle just under the water and the area to one side is foul. Therefore the ship will have only 100 meters (330 feet) with which to navigate. Once safely through the Bellows, Whalers Bay will begin to appear off the starboard side of the ship. Whalers Bay was home to factory whaling ships as early as 1905. A shore station named Hektor was set up in 1912 to process the meat and bones left behind by the ships. The station closed in 1931 after modern additions to the factory ships allowed them to render the entire whale. During Operation Tabarin in 1941, the British built Base “B”. Both the base and station were finally destroyed by a mudslide during the eruption, which lasted from 1967-69.”

We were in the first wave of boatloads ashore at about 8 AM this morning. There is a rotation system. We are in group 2. Next time we will be the last to go ashore. We were the second at Cape Horn. People were put ashore for about an hour. It takes two or three hours to give everybody a turn. As earlier folks are returning, later folks are just going out or still waiting. It’s a big operation. 300 passengers at 8 per load is 38 boat loads. There are two or three – I’m not sure how many – boats working simultaneously. They have this down to an efficient system: You file through and put on your boots (belonging to the ship); they help you don your life jacket; they scan your ID card; you walk through a disinfectant bath, and you board the shore craft. At the other end, they help you off the boat, and later help you back on. The above process in reversed when you return to the ship.

They’re not really Zodiac boats, not pontoon boats. They have an outboard motor and are really fast.

I have been remarking how relatively warm it is. And I think it is maybe 45 F, certainly no lower than 40 F. I was heavily dressed. I thought I was overdressed. Yet I was cold – but not extremely cold – ashore. The wind was blowing fiercely. It was raining when Helen and I were ashore. I was ashore about 80 minutes. I walked around and took pictures. I don’t expect much of the pictures because of the rain. I had only athletic cotton socks on my hands – when I wasn’t photographing. So my hands got cold, and my fingers didn’t work well for a while after I got back on the boat. I have a pair of warm ski gloves, but Helen had them as extras, and we got separated, having come on separate boats. I have a pair of very warm ski mittens but had left them in our cabin. Our “water proof clothing” proved to be not waterproof at all. Helen and I were wearing tights under our ski pants. They soaked through. My upper body got a little wet. Of course, my hands were wet. I had carried a long-sleeved cotton running shirt tied around my waste. I wrapped that around one hand.

No, I didn’t swim. Yes, there were those who did swim, both men and women. Not many percentage wise. Yet a steady slow stream of swimmers. (Quick dippers, really, they waded out on the shallow, gradually sloped beach.) I was cold enough out there heavily dressed. And I don’t even like swimming pool water. I dipped my finger in the water, and it was NOT warm. Some of the staff, well dressed, seemed uncomfortable standing around in the cold. I watched some of the swimmers and took some pictures of them. A staff member asked my if I intended to swim. I said “I don’t know.” She advised me not to. She said it was dangerous. She didn’t explain in what way, nor did I ask. I took her advice. I know one of our men in the Vantage group, Ron from near Philly, was hell-bent on swimming, and he did. Otherwise I doubt any of our Vantage people swam. I have the feeling that the swimmers were mostly Swedes. Well, some people are more able to withstand that than I am.

I didn’t see any penguins. One friend saw one penguin in the water while ashore. Someone mentioned seeing some fur seals on shore from the ship, but I did not.

I walked around ashore and looked at the old buildings, one of which was a hangar for small aircraft. I looked at the old rusty steel equipment. I walked up the hill quite a ways for the view out over the bay. There is a “cemetery” of two graves with crosses. There is a little creek you have to wade across. Of course we all had rubber boots on. There is no visible plant life whatsoever. Just volcanic ash – course sand, you might call it.

In our cabin we have clothes hung to dry from every place we could find to hang them from.

It’s lunch time. Helen has been napping. The boat seems to have started moving, exiting Whalers Bay.

:-)

Bernie

I heard during lunch that there may have been 50 swimmers and three or four of them were from our Vantag group. Now we’re sailing toward an island called Greenwich Island, which I haven’t seen on a map but it’s somewhere near Livingston Island and Half Moon Island. We expect to be there about 4 PM for another shore visit. Maybe some of our outdoor clothes will be dry by then.