VT College of Science Quarterly August 2014 Vol. 2 No. 1 | Page 8

A N TA R C T I C a
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throughout the day.
We arrived early to Whalers Bay, Deception
Island (62o59’S 60o34’W). Getting through the
passage to Whalers Bay takes skill and concentration because the opening is only about one
kilometer wide. Deception Island is a semicircular shape that contains an active volcano. As
we lined up to board the zodiacs and head to
the island, we experienced a blizzard. Once on
the island, it was almost impossible to believe
the island was an active volcano. The snow
was falling almost horizontally. It was hard to
gauge the size of the island due to the poor
visibility. Given the amount of snowfall, many
of us made snow angels and snowmen.
We walked up to the abandoned whaling
station and explored the structural remnants.
The blizzard made walking difficult and many
of us had to walk backwards on our return to
the zodiacs to prevent snow from hitting us in
the face.
Many of our group did the “polar plunge”
which involved running into the icy one degree centigrade Antarctic waters. This involved
rapidly removing one’s outer gear, running into
the water, fully submerging your head, and
then getting out of the water as fast as possible
and redressing. All of this was done in near
blizzard conditions. Many of those who did the
polar plunge went directly to the sauna to heat
up. It was an experience not to be missed!
Our next excursion was to Half Moon Island
(62o35’S 59o55’W), which is the site of a large
Chinstrap penguin colony. We saw several
chicks and a single Macaroni penguin in the
midst of the chinstrap penguins. We also

witnessed the hatching of a chick, which is
something that many do not get to observe.
After the excursion, we began our journey
back to Argentina. That evening, we celebrated
Christmas with a fancy dinner and a party in
the lounge. Students in our group had organized a Secret Santa, which allowed us to have
a real Christmas!

Dec. 26:

Today was bittersweet. We were no longer
able to see even a glimpse of Antarctica, but
we had fresh memories of experiencing the
unique fragile Antarctic environment. Crossing the Drake passage today was what some
call the “Drake Lake” because the waters were
calm. We were lucky this time and only a few
passengers got mildly seasick. Today was spent
attending lectures and compiling our seabird
diversity data.
Sunniva Sorby of One Ocean, was our
first lecturer of the day. She was one of four
women who were the first to ski to the South
Pole. She descr