3 Dec 25 - Antarctica 25 - Deception Island

The second morning at sea saw the Ortelius continuing to head South in the Drake Passage. We were heading for Deception Island, which lies at the South West end of the South Shetland Islands. The South Shetland Islands are a three hundred mile long chain of islands. They lie about six hundred miles South of the mouth of the Beagle Channel and are about seventy-five miles North of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The visibility was limited first thing

It was hard work early on with the visibility down to as little as one hundred metres. Fortunately, the visibility improved as we got closer to Deception Island. The seas were still good for the Drake Passage, with a moderate two and a half metre swell. Due to the limited view from the bridge wings, I switched to watching from the bridge, which was a lot warmer as we were so much closer to Antarctica. On the downside, I was having to take photos through the bridge windows.

The bridge: One of the good things about Oceanwide Expeditions, is they allow the passengers to view from the bridge

We passed this impressive Fish iceberg

Humpback Whale: This was one of two Humpback Whales that I saw as we approached the South Shetland Islands

Chinstrap Penguin: As we approached Deception Island, we started to see Chinstrap Penguins in the sea

We arrived at Deception Island around late-afternoon. This volcanic island is about nine miles across in circumference. The sea has broken through to form a narrow five hundred metres wide entrance, which leads to a flooded caldera. There is a very shallow rock just below the surface in the centre of this entrance. The most recent volcanic activity occurred in the late 1960s. Soon we were inside the caldera and dropping the anchor in Whaler's Bay. The zodiacs were launched to allow us to head ashore to explore the old whaling base. It was going to be an interesting landing, as we had thirty knot winds and a snowstorm.

Heading for the entrance channel: There is a safe anchorage within the caldera

Deception Island nearly featured in the Shackleton story. When Shackleton and his crew put to sea in their three lifeboats, they were aiming for the recently established whaling station at Deception Island. They failed to reach Deception Island, as the sea currents were too strong and they finally reached Elephant Island, over two hundred miles to the North East of Deception Island. The crew spent the next four months on the beach at Point Wild on Elephant Island, while Shackleton and his five companions put back to sea in their attempt to reach South Georgia. Fortunately, they were successful. After getting a boat to South America, Shackleton made three attempts to rescue his stranded crew. He finally reached Elephant Island and rescued the crew, only a few weeks before they were due to attempt to reach Deception Island. Shackleton knew that if his attempt to reach South Georgia failed, then the crew had a chance of making it to the whaling base at Deception Island. In comparison, they had no realistic chance of rescue at Elephant Island, as it was well off the route of other whaling ships.

The zodiacs landed us on the beach near the old whaling station: This had only been in operation for a few seasons before Shackleton's Endurance expedition

This poor visibility made seeing the Ortelius difficult

The local Penguins were on the beach to welcome us. Unlike us, they looked unfazed by the cold, snowy weather.

Chinstrap Penguin: This monotypic species breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula & surrounding islands

Gentoo Penguins with a sole Chinstrap Penguin: This is the ellsworthi subspecies of Gentoo Penguin which breeds on the South Shetland, South Orkney & South Sandwich Islands, as well as, the Antarctic Peninsula

It was time to have a look around the old whaling base. It was a lot smaller than the South Georgia whaling bases I've seen at Grytviken and Stromness.

Looking right along the beach

Another zodiac lands: The crew were efficient at getting our hundred passengers ashore. When considering an Antarctica trip, the number of passengers is an important consideration, as only one hundred passengers are allowed ashore at a time. Larger ships have to land passengers in relays and ships with over five hundred passengers are not allowed to land passengers

The main Whale oil tanks with the whaling base beyond

The main part of the whaling base

More old Whale oil tanks

Looking back on the old Whale oil tanks

Kelp Gull: This is the austrinus subspecies which breeds on Antarctica & the surrounding Antarctic islands. It was nesting on top of the old Whale oil tanks

These old wooden huts wouldn't have provided much insulation from the cold conditions in the South Shetland Islands

The main office building: Visitors are not allowed to enter any of the buildings to protect them. However, they were too unsafe to enter

Before we arrived, there were plans to allow the passengers to have a polar dip, as the South Shetland Islands are considered as part of Antarctica. However, this was cancelled due to the strong winds and snow. A pity as I had gone ashore intending to do a polar plunge. Conditions were better on our return to the South Shetland Islands on our way back to Ushuaia. However, I had to skip that opportunity, as I was struggling to get over a nasty bug that had been going around the ship. We were back on Ortelius just before dinner. After dinner, I headed back to the bridge and saw two Fin Whales and four Humpback Whales as we headed for the Antarctic Peninsula.

It's a pity that the Beagle Channel Commerson's Dolphins didn't show this well earlier in the trip

Soon after it was dark, I was heading to bed as I had another early start planned as we would be around the Antarctic Peninsula and in range of an Emperor Penguin.

27 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - Approaching Paulet Island, Antarctica

I was up soon after dawn. But I still wasn't early enough to see the sunrise, which was just before 04:00. Now the Plancius was close to the Antarctic Peninsula, the sea was nice and calm, with a number of icebergs of varying sizes. I was quickly seeing Adelie Penguins on the icebergs and in the water. The first priority was to check every close iceberg on the unlikely off-chance that there would be an Emperor Penguin on one of them. I photographed a number of more distant icebergs to check for a larger Penguin on one of them. Sadly, after two days of checking, we remained unsatisfied.

The black dots are all Adelie Penguins

Another iceberg & more Adelie Penguins

Adelie Penguin: There breed around the edge of the pack ice on Antarctic, as well as, the South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands

Adelie Penguin: With Adelie Penguin firmly on the list, I just need to see Emperor Penguins and Galapagos Penguins to have seen all of the Penguins

Snow Petrel

Brown Skua: This is the lonnbergi subspecies which breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia & circumpolar Subantarctic Islands, apart from the Falklands where it is replaced by the nominate antarcticus subspecies

Brown Skua: note, the heavy build, the strong white wing flashes on the upper and under wings, the capped appearance, the short & stout bill

Antarctic Fur Seal: Despite their name, they aren't as common in the Antarctic as in South Georgia, where ninety-five percent of the world population breeds

With the calmer seas, it was possible to get better views of the Humpback Whales around the coastline. On the final leg of our cruise to Paulet Island, we saw ten Humpback Whales.

Humpback Whale: The first individual that I saw. Unfortunately, like all the photos taken in the pre-breakfast light, I was on a high ISO and the photos are grainy

Humpback Whale: Soon a second Humpback Whale appeared

Humpback Whale: A closer view of the two Humpback Whales, showing the difference in their dorsal fin shapes. There is a lot of variability in the shape of the hump and the small dorsal fin on the hump, to the extent that scientists can use the combined shape to identify individuals

Two hours later, another couple of Humpback Whales put on a nice display in better light.

Humpback Whale: I wasn't sure which species of Whale this was on this first photo. It didn't have a long body and the dorsal fin wasn't right for a Fin Whale or Sei Whale, but it doesn't have an obvious hump either

Humpback Whale: The big kink in the body is starting to suggest a Humpback Whale, but the dorsal fin doesn't have the typical Humpback hump

Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale: When I saw this photo it was clear that I was watching a couple of Humpback Whales. The knobby upper jaw on the back individual and the raised tail with its white underside both confirm the identification

Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale: A final view of the undertail of the first individual. Note, the second individual hasn't got an obvious hump below the dorsal fin

Just to increase the competition for the most showy Humpback Whale of the morning, this one showed off its distinctive tail pattern about forty minutes later. The undertail patterns are distinctive and provide the best way to identify individuals, especially as it's the photograph that everybody wants to take.

Humpback Whale: Another fluking large Whale, but the knobbly body suggests it's a Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale: The classic T shape of the tail

Humpback Whale: A good view of the undertail

Humpback Whale: A final Humpback Whale with a classic dorsal fin profile on a Humpback Whale that appeared about twenty minutes later

After about three or four hours on deck, the restaurant finally opened for breakfast. That's the downside of the very early morning starts, albeit there is usually a stash of biscuits and coffee and tea to start the day off in the lounge.

Breakfast time: It was no coincidence that our table was nearest to the restaurant door. If there had of been a shout for a decent Whale or an Emperor Penguin, I wanted to be quickly out of the restaurant & heading to the top deck. Left to right, Berit, Bill, Ship's Doc Marieke, Steve Preddy, Me, Seigfried's wife, Seigfried & Caroline

Approaching Paulet Island: Breakfast over and it was time to get back on deck

Paulet Island is just under a mile across and on the first sighting, it is clearly a volcanic island. Fortunately, it is thought that it last erupted about one thousand years ago. Shackleton was originally aiming for Paulet Island when his crew left their ice floe when it broke up. Shackleton knew there would be food stores there from an 1903 Swedish Antarctic Expedition that were stranded on the island for nine months. Their ship, the Antarctic, was crushed and sunk by the ice twenty-five miles from Paulet Island. The crew build a stone hut and a stone cairn on the highest point of the island to draw the attention of rescuers. They were finally rescued in Nov 1903. Unfortunately, for Shackleton and his crew, the pack ice they were stuck on drifted too far East and the pack ice was too dense to make reaching Paulet Island a possibility.

Jake: There is an unwritten scientific law that there will always be at least one loud American on any organised foreign trip. Steve Preddy & I were lucky that we were sharing a cabin with Bill, who was easily the nicest of all the Americans on the Plancius. Fortunately, we didn't have Jake in our cabin. Jake had some odd ideas, including packing up his job New York job to become a full-time influencer. He clearly needed to work much harder at the influencing game, as nobody else was seen pretending to be Kate Winslet. He did provide a lot of laughs for Steve & I at his expense

Finally, we arrived at Paulet Island and the Expedition team prepared to get the Zodiacs in the water for our first Antarctic landing. I will cover the landing in the next Blog Post.

21 Dec 18 - Index To My Rorqual Whale Posts

This Blog Post is an Index to all the Blog Posts covering my Whale sightings. The following Blog Posts cover all my Rorqual Whale, Baleen Whale, Sperm Whale, Beaked Whale, Beluga Whale & Narwhal, Blackfish, Atlantic Dolphin, Pacific Dolphin and Porpoise Posts. The taxonomy follows the Marine Mammals of the World (Second Edition) book. There are links to the Posts against each entry below. Alternatively, you can click on a particular species in the Keywords section on the right side of the Blog to show all Posts for the selected species. Finally, selecting the Cetaceans Keyword to show all Cetacean Posts. I will continue to add to the photos and links as I write new Cetacean Blogs.

The Rorqual Whales covers the following species: Blue Whale, Fin Whale, Sei Whale, Bryde's Whale, Omura's Whale, Minke Whale, Antarctic Minke Whale and Humpback Whale.

Blue Whale: An immature Antarctic Blue Whale at sea North of Tristan da Cunha (13 Apr 18)

Fin Whale: At sea off Portugal (7 May 18)

Fin Whale: Bay of Biscay (9 May 18)

Fin Whale: Fin Whales in Northern Biscay from the Brittany Ferry (15 Aug 18)

Bryde's Whale: At sea off the Canary Islands (4 May 18)

Humpback Whale: At Sea Off Henderson Island, Pitcairn Trip (8 Nov 14)

Humpback Whale: Portland Bank Off Mangarvera, Pitcairn Trip (11 Nov 14)

Humpback Whale: Slapton, UK (25 Feb 17)