Shouldn't Megatron be here? (Deception Island) - 26 January 2009

Antarctica was _probably_ discovered by whalers or sealers.  In their never ending quest for more of precious whale oil they pushed ever southward and onward.  Deception Island proved to be an ideal base because of its relatively safe harbor, and according to wikipedia there were 13 different factory ships based here at one point.  Factory ships being a euphemism for boats that hunt, kill, and process whales.

The island fell into disuse during the great depression because whaling was no longer economically viable, but was pressed back into use during WWII by the British.  Unfortunately, the island has an active volcano and there have been a number of spectacular eruptions over the year.

For our first landing of the day we visited the abandoned whaling station and then walked along the beach up to a notch (or window) in the island where erosion will eventually open up another entrance to the sea.

Here's a penguin making its way from the rookery to the sea through the abandoned station:

And here's our group, walking toward the window:

One of the ladies on the trip described us as "looking like smurfs."

And here's a fur seal, sticking his tongue out:

After the window walk we returned to the boat and then moved to go on our next landing.  Here we walked up to the crater left from the last volcanic explosion in 1969.  Here's the edge of the crater:

Part of our group decided to circle the entire crater, a route that took them the better part of an hour to complete.

After the crater walk we got the once-in-a-lifetime chance to go swimming in Antarctica - or at least close to Antarctica.  Deception Island is geothermally active and if conditions are right the water is sometimes heated by fumaroles.  About 35 of us took the expedition leader up on the offer and went "swimming," and one of the guests really went swimming.

To explain:  In our case there was a band of about 2-3 feet at the edge of the water where it was bearable.  Once you got more than 3 feet from the edge the water was freezing cold (38 degrees Fahrenheit, or thereabouts).  After some goading I actually dove into the cold water, only to beat a hasty retreat.  One of the guests, however, just swam out into the water as though it were a refreshing break.  She went so far we thought she was swimming for the boat.

Another thing on the list of things I'm glad we've done, but probably won't repeat.