'Explorer II' Ship's Log
Previous Log
12/06/2007
Whalers Bay, Deception Island
This morning's destination was Deception Island in the South Shetland group. The island is a flooded volcanic crater, shaped like a donut with a small bite out of it. It is called Deception because many early mariners sailed past without seeing the entrance to the flooded centre.
Captain Moulds brought Explorer II carefully through the narrow entrance of Neptune's Bellows, and into Port Foster as the caldera is called.
Today was overcast with a fair wind blowing as we anchored in Whalers Bay where factory ships started to operate as early as 1906. Once ashore, we saw the remains of the old Hektor whaling station. We walked around fuel oil tanks and pressure cookers used for 'trying out' oil from blubber, meat and bones. Up the hill stood the shell of the British hangar which once housed Otter aircraft.
The main attraction of this landing was a walk around the shore past piles of barrel staves, ruined huts and rotting water boats, and then a climb up through the snow to Neptune's Window, a 'section' cut out of the cliffs which gave an awesome view over the Bransfield Strait.
All along the shoreline plumes of steam rose from hot springs with a strong sulfurous odor. This would also be the spot for the ‘polar plunge’. Some of us were brave enough to take a ‘dip’. At the waters edge, the water was very warm, even hot in places, from the geothermal activity, but as soon as one ventured out a couple of meters, it was icy cold. Most of us shouted and laughed and others were speechless, it was an invigorating swim, but something one could not withstand for a long period of time. The zodiacs gave priority to the swimmers and whisked them back to the ship to warm up.
Those of us who had taken the hike to Neptune’s window, could see a massive raft of sea ice being pushed by the wind towards the entrance to the caldera. Captain Moulds had also seen the moving ice, and asked us to return to the ship earlier than planned, so that he could sail back out through the Bellows, before the ice potentially blocked the entrance.
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Auszug aus dem Explorer 2 Tagebuch vom 06.12.2007.
Hier schoen erklaert das EIS sich bewegt............
Unter
http://www.abercrombiekent.com kann man das Schiff taeglich verfolgen und einen kleinen Einblick in die Naturgewalten der Antarktis bekommen.Viel Spass..............