South Shetland Islands
Landing at Penguin Island. Sailing our way to Elephant Island
A day for the unusual.
40kn of wind blow early in the morning, while the Europa still sails the northern edge of the Bransfield Strait. It calms down when we drop anchor and prepare for a morning landfall.
A fantastic display in the sky. Lenticular clouds, resembling a stack of pancakes, stretch over this area of the Bransfield Strait, King George and Penguin Islands.
A hike on a volcano inside a volcano.
A first time for many to climb up high in the rig, step on yards and unfurl sails.
The engines going off and the noise of the anchor dropping to the rocky bottom at the northwest shores of Penguin Island announced the beginning of the new day of activities in Antarctica. Overnight, the ship crossed the Bransfield Strait and now she rests for a while at the southern coasts of King George Island.
The wind and the seas have eased down. Up in the sky, some odd shaped clouds. They grow their striking shapes when moist air cross a mountain barrier, speeds up and forms into waves. The clouds that develop in the crest of the undulations usually have a lens shape and sometimes pile up one above the other.
All is ready to land at the one mile in diameter Penguin Island, a small volcano that lies close to the south coast of King George Island. We are back in the South Shetland Islands.
The first time it was ever spotted dates back to 1820, to the beginning of the Antarctic discovery and exploration, when Edward Bransfield sailed by and named it for the amount of penguins that occupied its shores.
To set foot ashore we choose a small rocky beach close to the North-western tip of the island, next to Gonzalez Point, a little cape named in honour of Prof. Oscar Gonzalez-Ferran, co-author (with Y. Katsui) of the first geological map of the area.
Fur seals rest over the boulders at the tide line, behind them stretch large green patches of both the only vascular plats in Antarctica (Deschampsia and Colobanthus). Zigzagging to avoid them, the sort of path we follow bring us first to the rim of the flooded Crater Lake.
Uphill, the 170 meters high Deacon Peak. This summit saw in 1937 the personnel of the Discovery II Expedition, who named it after George E.R. Deacon, English oceanographer and member of the scientific expedition.
A larger crater with an impressive hike around it. Inside it, a more recent eruption left behind a well shaped smaller volcano and a basaltic pillar, remnant of the magma trapped inside the volcanic chimney. Open Ocean opens to the south and west, where some icebergs drift. To the north, and at the other side of the narrow Katsui Strait, Turret Point, a rocky outcrop of King George. A look to the Northwest reveals the huge glaciers that cover this large island.
Penguins do not climb up here, but several corners down below close to the sea are home for Chinstrap rookeries. Many adults moult shoulder by shoulder in their colonies, some fledglings still roam around before venturing into the ocean.
A last bit of walk along the coast before ending our visit is worth it. First the rocky beach saw years and years of heavy seal hunting, still some of the structures left behind by them can be seen. Sheltering places amongst rocks and scattered wooden bits tell us about where small groups of sealers worked and lived. By this early times, their ship used to leave several teams at different spots to hunt and skin Fur seals, and after a while make her round to pick them up together with their precious cargo.
Many old whalebones all around remind us the period that came a bit later when the whalers operated here as well.
Back on board EUROPA is readied to go at sea again. Some, for the first time join the permanent crew aloft unfurling and preparing canvas. Others brace and pull on sheets and halyards to set the sails. 120 nautical miles ahead of us to reach the legendary Elephant Island.