Monday Feb 12, 2024
Hi All! Well this was sort of a sad day since today was our last landing expeditions for this journey. But luckily we got to do two since the afternoon one they didn’t think we could do due to the high winds but the winds died down and we got to finish strong. Yay! Then the next two days we’ll be… crossing the dreaded Drake Passage again! Lol.
The morning expedition took us to Deception Island, which is part of the South Shetland islands. It’s called Deception since the first person who found it thought it was just a large volcanic island and left so in essence he was “deceived” thus the name. The next person found the very small opening into the middle of the land mass that made it a safe, natural harbor. It is the caldera of an active volcano which seriously damaged the local scientific stations in 1967 and 1969. Everywhere we walked it was across black sand or dirt made from the volcano. Luckily the volcano didn’t erupt while we were there!
There are actually three science stations on the island, one from Argentina, one from Chile and one from Spain. We landed and explored the Argentinian station. We met several of the people staying there and also saw three hikers who came from the Spain station going over the hill to see the Chinstrap Penguin colony.
The other cool thing on this island were several fur seals hanging out near the beach. They all seemed to be sleeping then all of a sudden one of them woke up and started showing off and posing for us. I got a couple cute pics of him doing a huge yawn and just posing. They say if he feels threatened he can get aggressive and move very fast. Luckily he didn’t chase us!
After that we got back onboard, chilled for awhile and then had lunch. After lunch they did the daily briefing earlier than normal. They told us the Drake will be similar to when we came across before with waves of over 15 feet! Luckily we don’t get sea sick but I’m sure many will. All prayers are accepted!
In the afternoon we did a “Yacht Cruising of the English Strait”. (And yes, this ship feels like a yacht!). The English Strait is the 10.5 mile long and 1.2 mile wide strait lying between Greenwich Island and Robert Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The name dates back to 1822. We got some amazing pictures with the bright blue skies and the snow capped mountains. Just breathtaking!
Then late in the afternoon they made a last minute decision to do one last landing exhibition since the winds died down. So we went to Half Moon island and walked along the beach. We saw lots of chinstrap penguins, lots of fur seals and even an elephant seal. The weather was perfect and we got more fun pictures and videos. We sadly said goodbye to the continent of Antarctica when we stepped back in the zodiac boat.
After that, since it was so late, we got showered and ordered room service. We then went to the Crew Talent Show. It’s so cool to see the people you interact with every day either cleaning your room or serving you food or drinks sing, dance or play an instrument. They were all so talented!
Tomorrow we start our Drake Passage Crossing. Wish us luck!
PS: We did get to watch the Super Bowl down in the Atlas lounge and stayed up to see the whole game including overtime. There were lots of people there and the chef’s wings were great! What an exciting ending. Congrats to the Chiefs!
The Wandering Italian 