Christmas Day

            Our last day of excursions L.  We woke up at 4:45 am when we arrived at Deception Island.  It is an active volcano so the sand is black and the rocks make everything look like we just landed in Mars.  There is a little outlook called Neptune’s Window that we hiked up to.  Through the window we saw a few icebergs but mostly open water.  The rocks and the sun looked like a scene in the middle of the Mediterranean.   The bay had whalebones, Weddell seals, Chinstrap penguins, and structures left from a base that was abandoned half a century ago.

            Merry Christmas! We successfully completed the polar bear plunge.  We sprinted in and I dove into very shallow water because it was so cold that I couldn’t bring myself to go out any further.  Screams were plenty this morning and the sauna on the ship was quite popular.  It was really fun though and I am glad I did it.

            We then sailed to Fort Point, an exposed island that expeditions are rarely able to go because of weather.  Even though this was supposed to be a “nice day”, it was snowy, windy, and quite cold.   There were chinstrap, adelie and macaroni penguins and some seals as well.   The sea ice had built up on one side of the island so it was cool to climb on it .  The rock formations were probably the coolest part of this location.