After leaving Deception Island we sailed during lunch to Half Moon Island. When we arrived at Half Moon the sky was still bright and sunny. Fifteen minutes later, when we had put on our gear, it had started to snow.
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Neptune
has raised up his turbulent plains; the sea falls and leaps upon the trembling
shore. She remounts, groans, and with redoubled blows makes the abyss
and the shaken mountains resound. (Jean
Francois de Saint-Lambert)
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| The next day was bright and beautiful as we sailed to Deception Island. The center of the island is the caldera of a dormant (almost) volcano. There is a small opening in the wall of the caldera, called Neptune's Bellows, that unites the inner bay with the sea. | ||
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| Because it is a protected bay, the caldera, called Whalers Bay, was the site of major whaling activities in the first half of the 20th century. Remains of the station are scattered along the beach. | ||
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| There were large flocks of cape petrels along the shore. | ||
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| The bay had relatively few penguins. | There is a notch in the rock wall of the island, called Neptune's Nook, that is accessible from the beach. | |
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| So Pat climbed up to admire the view. | Oddly enough, above the beach at the top of the wall, there was no snow and Antarctic terns were nesting. | |
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| We had been told that there would be the opportunity to swim in the thermal hot springs created by the volcano. On this particular day, though, there were no hot springs. That didn't stop some particularly insane members of our company from jumping into the 1 degree (Celsius) water and then back into the 2 degree air. | ||
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| As we left Whalers Bay we could admire the colors created by minerals in the rocks. | ||
After leaving Deception Island we sailed during lunch to Half Moon Island. When we arrived at Half Moon the sky was still bright and sunny. Fifteen minutes later, when we had put on our gear, it had started to snow. |
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| Half Moon island is home to a large colony of chinstrap penguins. | Chinstraps are much bolder than the other penguins we encountered and were willing to come quite close. | |
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| In this snowstorm, even they looked a little cold. | "I've brought you all here today. . ." | |
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| "If only I could fly over these red animals. . ." | When the wind blew, many of the chinnies just lay down and waited for to it to pass. | |
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| There was one sheltered area behind some rocks where some penguins were nesting. | Nesting penguins engage in a variety of courtship behaviors, some of which are quite noisy. | |