DAY 5 on the ICE...... WHALERS BAY AND HANNAH POINT


Today , the 26th Feb was our last day in the Antarctic. Technically we were still in the Antarctic area but we were  on the edge of it, as both of our planned visits today were in the South Shetland islands. Also we were just a  short distance away from the Drake passage.  After we finished Hannah point, the ship would set sail for Ushuaia. We intended to make the most of the day!
Now, Whalers bay is about a 350 degrees bay, in a manner of speaking, located on Deception Island, well sheltered and with only one narrowish entrance cum exit. Its basically inside of a volcano with one side below sea level. It had a black sand beach, formed by millions of years of rock ash.  A volcanic crater is called a Caldera.  The bay was discovered by whalers in the  early 20th century and the remnants of their enterprise is still to be found there. One can imagine whales being bought ashore and butchered for their fat and oil. Strangely their meat was not used in the early part of the century.
At one point in the late 19th century,  the US  whaling fleet alone consisted of over 700 ships and schooners, producing over 200 kilo tons of oil. Thats  200,000 metric tonnes. Fortunately for the whales, vegetable oil and fossil fuels came to replace whale oil. Today only Japan Iceland and Norway hunt whales. Interesting fact,,,, not only are whales  the largest mammals on the planet, but they evolved from  four legged animals that lived on land. They grow up to100 feet in length and  weigh 200 tons. Their tongue can weigh as much as an elephant and their heart is the size of an automobile !  I admit I googled the last 2 statements !!!.

                                                                         Entrance to Whalers bay
                                              The black sand beach and the whaling staff quarters


https://youtu.be/RfX25ESJRNk

This is video showing the steam coming off the beach inside the Caldera

The boilers for melting the fat and tankers to store the oil.


Inside the Caldera,  cradling my camera with  the ship behind me







View of the Caldera


Back to the ship and we moved on to Hannah point. Now Hannah point was interesting because they had a new variety of penguins called the  Chinstrap penguins. When I post the photos, you will understand why.  We were also hoping to see elephant seals up close, before we headed back.
Watching these penguins and , more so the seals was an absolute treasure. Let me show you why !

As you can see, not a very imaginative name!





Leopard seals

https://youtu.be/pSf6rBwpCGw

Thats video of a Seal bending its back and moving forward

https://youtu.be/9Yk_eojhQBI

Look at the fellows size !

These seals can grow up to 11 feet in length and upto 2500 lbs in weight.

With that our Antarctica trip was over with the last expedition to Hannah point. We got back to the ship and by 6 pm we  made our way to Drakes [passage and Ushuaia.  We would have two days to recover from our trip, on board the ship.  That evening, the ship had arranged a caviar tasting in the lounge. They made a big do of it and served about 3 different varieties of caviar, which was unfortunately wasted on me. We were all coming off a high and we did need the 2 days on board to  wind down. But before that we had the next 16 hours of Drakes passage to cover. But thats the next chapter !

 As this last day concludes in Antarctica, here  is a picture of our gang of 4.








Comments

  1. mattMarch 20, 2025 at 7:39 PM

    Very well written. Must be the best trip of all your trips

    ReplyDelete

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