We spotted land for the first time just before 9:30a. We were about 10 km NW of Nelson Island. The ship passed through the Nelson Strait (between Nelson and Robert Islands).

Deception Island is one of two active volcanoes in Antarctica, and one of two volcanoes in the world that you can sail into. The entrance to the caldera, Neptune’s Bellows, is only 500 m across which makes it tricky in rough weather. The last eruptions in 1967-1970 destroyed the British and Argentine bases on the island. A Spanish base monitors for signs of future eruptions, but it is currently safe to visit.

We were originally supposed to arrive at Neptune’s Bellows at about 11:30a but that was later revised to 1p, and then 1:30p. The changes in the schedule made lunch a little chaotic, but the staff in Aune was as flexible as they could be. They also offered lunch up on the pool deck in case you were already dressed for going ashore and didn’t want to overheat.

We went up to deck 11 to watch us sail in; a lot of other folks had the same idea to avoid overcrowding deck 7. The weather wasn’t great, with wind and snow/sleet as predicted. The rock formations looked very dramatic but it also made it harder to figure out what was happening. I was on the starboard side taking pictures and didn’t realize we’d reached the entrance to the caldera until I turned around and saw rocks on the port side, too – we were already inside it!

It felt like we had fallen into Star Wars or something – it was so otherworldly in its beauty. I wished we were going a little more slowly to savor the moments for a little longer.

Just after 2p, they announced that we were at Telefon Bay and the expedition team would be going to check out the conditions for landing. Around 2:20p, it was decided that due to strong winds directly into the landing site, we would be shifting from Telefon Bay on the NW side of the caldera to Pendulum Cove on the NE side and the expedition team would attempt to set up there instead. Ten minutes later, another announcement came that the science boat activities for the day were canceled due to the weather; they required no or light winds, which we definitely didn’t have. Five minutes after that, it was announced that the first landing was canceled, as Pendulum Cove also wasn’t safe. Hopefully the weather would improve later in the evening for a landing at Whaler’s Bay. In the meantime, since another ship was already there, we would hang out in Pendulum Cove. I couldn’t really muster up much disappointment, since just seeing Deception Island had already been so amazing.

By 5:15p, the weather was getting worse instead of better. The wind gusts were up to 50-60 knots, which was more than the forecast had called for. The ship headed south towards Whalers Bay to see if the conditions were any better there; while the wind was less, it wasn’t less enough. We were told we’d stay there for another 20-ish minutes so everyone could get pictures of the abandoned whaling station, and then heading south so we could get an early start the next day.

We enjoyed dinner at Fredheim with some new friends that we kept constantly running into without even trying. The shrimp roll was just ok, but the hazelnut crepe was AMAZING.

The expedition team teased that they had a surprise for us the next day. We all hoped mother nature would be more cooperative.

The images below are from “sailing into the sunset” at 12:25 AM and later. It never got darker than this in the 3 hours between sunset and sunrise. I had to shut my curtains for the first time in order to sleep. Not because I couldn’t sleep when it’s light out, but because I kept getting up until almost 2 AM to look at the scenery. It didn’t feel late at all when it’s still so light out.