Friday January 4, Sailing into a Live Volcano:

Morning landing at Deception Island: we entered through a tiny break in the crater rim Neptune's Bellows, avoiding an infamous submerged "can-opener" rock in the middle of the opening. Over breakfast, we crossed the 7-mile crater to set anchor at Telefon Bay. After breakfast, we hiked all the way up to the rim of a recent ash cone. This area is still very active, with eruptions as recent as 1999. We had sun the whole time, which the expedition staff had never before seen.



Telefon Bay is directly next to Pendulum Cove's famous hot springs, which really are more luke-warm.

Afternoon: We sited a pod of humpback whales in the Bransfield Straight, where they were feeding on a reddish-brown cloud of krill. One whale rolled over to check out the Shokalskiy, and some of us were lucky enough to see its gaping mouth full of krill. The pod seemed to be a group of about 3 whales, who surfaced repeatedly for maybe half an hour, as our ship circled at idle.

After dinner: we did a Zodiac raft cruise through the iceberg fields at Cierva Cove, on the Antarctic Peninsula. Because we wouldn't be landing on shore, it sounded like it wouldn't be that fun, but wow was it! We saw glaciers calving, which sent a shock wave through the whole bay. There were Weddell and leopard seals, which we got very close to. Penguins were porpoising about in between the bergs, which had amazing texture and variety. I even got to test the Quark-issued parkas under a waterfall of glacial melt. (They are indeed very waterproof, thankfully.) Oddly, no one else on my Zodiac thought it would be fun to join me for a polar shower!

Overall, every day we find ourselves saying "this was the best outing yet." It is starting to be embarrassing!

We just got word by satellite news feed that Obama won the Democratic caucus in Iowa. I feel strangely detached from all the election hubbub in the USA. Thankfully, by the time I get home, the primaries should be mostly decided. Though we'll still have a good chunk of the year of campaigning between the two finalists.

This trip is really breaking my normal routines. I almost never fail to read the news daily, and I am (at minimum) diligent at checking my email. Here, I am lucky to get a bit of news every day or two. And I am cut off, cold turkey, from sending and receiving email. An interesting experiment. So far, I do miss that connection with home, but I've yet to feel compelled to set up a satellite email account. I'll catch up on email, and post all these blog entries, in a big batch when I return to Ushuaia.

Tonight, we sail out of Cierva, and into the Gerlache Straight. That reminds me of the town of Gerlach, Nevada, and Burning Man, and home. I'm having a great time here, but it will be good to get back to California.

Good God, just when I thought I could rest for the day, we got surrounded by a large group of humpback whales, at least four pairs. They were doing "bubble feeding" all around us, constantly surfacing. I couldn't count the number of flukes we saw in the air. Now I'm back in my cabin, with a hot chocolate and whiskey, editing photos before hitting the sack.

Mind you, it is approaching midnight, and it looks like it will be an epic sunset tonight....