10/2/08
13:30
Nik gives Gabriele a Zero Coke from the
cockpit fridge (which is turned off and still plenty cold) and remarks, “Coke
without sugar is like a Play Station without a remote control.”
We going nicely now on track and have a new
weather map and ice report; a
passing ship has confirmed there is no ice at Deception Island where he’d just
come from, so we’re not so worried about arriving before full light. It only gets really dark for a few hours
after which there is an extended half light before dawn.
17:15
All grey everywhere. Barometer down 12
milibars in the last 24. Air Temp
4C, Water Temp 6C. First Whale
spotted. Too quick for pictures.
Alternator fan belt on engine had to be
replaced.
11/2/08 9:00
We sailed through the night into grey pea
soup. Two or three sea lions swam
by and one of them lifted his flipper as though to wave at us.
We entered “Neptunes Bellows” just before 8,
and anchored at Whaler’s Bay home of a disused whaling station closed 1931. The crew celebrated with a Steve Fry Up
which I watched having had my porridge.
This volcano is still active; in 1923
the water boiled and burned the paint off anchored ships. In 1930 the floor of
the harbour dropped 3 metres during an earthquake. As recently as 1992 eruptions
forced the evacuation of research stations, and there is a published emergency
evacuation plan. As we entered, the
sea temperature rose from 5C to 10 C.
12:00
Paulo Nik and I have been ashore visiting the
whaling station. Paulo and I have relieved Steve and Gabriele on the boat so
they get a turn. We met a Spanish
expedition leader doing research here who told us we were lucky there were no
cruise shops here today, otherwise there would be 200 people wandering around
our private site.
Incredibly as we still seem to have a
Fleet 33 connection I will send of a few snaps, they may not be great but they
are hot off the press.
While we were ashore the boat practically
disappeared from view as the fog settled in.
You
can see the approach to the island, which is very Santori in shape, some of the
landscape,
bits of the whaling station and a few local
residents.
