Day 3: Deception Island & Cuverville Island

I can't describe the feeling I had when my alarm clock went off this morning at 5:15am and I pulled open the curtain and saw breathtaking white mountains and ice bergs floating by. I couldn't get dressed fast enough (in my 5 layers) to run outside. It was such an amazing sight!

Overnight we crossed the 'Antarctic Convergence' and it was pretty smooth (i.e. I was not awakened by things flying around the cabin in the middle of the night). From 5-8am this moring I stood out on the deck as we passed one amazing thing after another. Humpback whales (at least 10), dozens of penguins popping out of the water and diving back in, beautiful icebergs in all different shapes. After about 3 hours up on deck, I couldn't feel my fingers or toes anymore, so I went inside to warm up and take a quick nap so I could get back out on deck at 11am when we arrived at Deception Island.


Deception Island - as I mentioned yesterday - is an active volcano. Its crater is submerged in water and there is a narrow channel by which boats can pass inside it. And that's what we did - sailed around the caldera for about an hour.

After Deception Island, we sailed another 3 hours or so to Cuverville Island. It was here that we were able to take our first Antarctic excursion on the zodiacs to get an up-close-and-personal view of the island.

For Cuverville Island, we did not get out of the zodiacs - we just spent an hour or so sailing close to the shoreline to see the penguin colonies and right up to the icebergs floating in the water. We also saw a few seals sunning themselves on one of the floating icebergs. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. All the guides kept talking about how amazing it was - blue skys, little wind, calm seas - just phenomenal. In fact, there are still groups being shuttled out on the zodiacs to get a closer look - I'm watching it happen out the window of the Internet Cafe as I type this. Now this is an office with a view!!!


(Doesn't it look like the Big Penguin in the middle is flanked by 3 of his bodyguards behind him?? Too cute!)

Tomorrow starting at 7:30am we will be passing in and sailing the full length of the LeMaire Channel. Then in the afternoon, we'll be making our way to Port Lockroy where we will visit a research station (I think British) and we will set foot for the first time on the White Continent!

More tomorrow...