Deception Island to Port Lockroy

After an overnight trip from Deception Island we arrived off the old Port Lockroy Base in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It was very misty as we made our approach with occasional glimpses of the dawn light on the
mountains around us. As we arrived the mists began to clear revealing some glorious sights all around us, a truly breathtaking spot.

A few of us were lucky enough to get ashore and explore the small island and base museum. A rare treat and a true privilege.

Stanley to Deception Island

The RRS Ernest Shackleton departed Stanley, Falkland Islands, on Saturday heading for Rothera Base on the Antarctic Peninsula. The cruise across the the Drake Passage was pretty uneventful and mostly calm, for a change.
On the way down we passed our sister ship the James Clark Ross heading north about halfway across in fading late one evening and gave eachother a toot on the horn as we rushed by of our respective missions.



We arrived off Deception Island early on Tuesday morning and slipped into the narrow entrance passage on one broken side of this huge volcanic crater as the sun was rising. This protected bay used to be used by whalers as a safe haven from bad weather and also as a processing and storage station for all the whaling products. There are some remains left behind of the whaling era and also a collapsed old building that used to be base of sorts.




Parts of the volcano erupted in the sixties which forced the evcuation of the base. Nowadays there are only summer bases run by the Spanish and Argentinians.


The Island is often used as stopover by tourists ships affording them the opportunity to go and swim in waters heated still heated by the volcano.

Anyway herewtih some pics of our day out in the Volcano:











Gentoo Penguin chicks
































Purser testing the oven












Biscoe House crumbling away




























































Some beached Whales lolling in the warm volcanic waters

Antarctc Peninsula

Adelaide Island and surrounds

Antarctic pics

Some ramblings from the Antarctic Peninsula...

An all too brief tour of the areas around Adelaide Island.

Making our way through the Lamiare Channel on the Antarctic Peninsula