Monday, January 4, 2016: Anchored in the caldera of Deception Island, South Shetland Islands

Weather Forecast: mostly fair with some light snow flurries; temperature approximately 30°F wind chill 16°; fresh breeze 15-20 knots

Today we explored Whaler’s Bay on Deception Island, one of the most famous islands in the South Shetlands archipelago. This island’s shape was formed more than 10,000 years ago by an explosive volcanic eruption and is known as a “volcano under the ice” because most of the volcano is under the sea. The island’s name refers to its deceiving donut-like shape. The “donut” has a very small bite taken out of it, which forms a narrow entrance into the flooded caldera of the original volcano, known as Neptune’s Bellows, where ships can sail in.

First discovered by sealers in the 1820s, the island became a whaling station in 1906 when huge iron boilers where built to extract blubber to be used as fuel. These operations were continued until 1931 when a slump in whale oil prices caused the station to be abandoned. The British took over the old whaling station in 1944 but volcanic eruptions forced the abandonment of the base in 1969. Today it is a tourist destination and used as a scientific research station.

But the true highlight of the day was meeting our first penguins and seals.

Today was truly a day of firsts – first time to step on solid ground, first snowflakes on our eyelashes, first time to witness the innocence of wildlife and first time to feel so small in the largest wilderness area on earth.