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Deception Island (Map)
The island is a flooded caldera left behind by the collapse of a large volcano. The flooded interior is called Port Foster and the entrance (a break in the circular wall) is called Neptune's Bellows. If anyone has ever been "inside" Diamond Head near Honolulu, this is similar (but MUCH large, and flooded, and the entrance is natural, not something tunneled or cut with machines).
We stopped two places inside (spending pretty much the entire day), Whalers Bay and Telefon Bay. There had been a planned hike over "wall" to a Chinstrap Penguin rookery at a place called Baily Head. The hiking route is marked by the blue path going east and northeast from Whalers Bay (the path went up the inside wall of the volcanic caldera, then down the outside wall, and then back again on the return trip).
Sadly, I never got to Baily Head. I was assigned to the third group of hikers. However, my group's hike was cancelled due to bad weather just after we got onshore (and the landings of all of the non-hikers were cancelled for this location. There was essentially a blizzard going on when my group of hikers got on shore (the returns to the ship were also stopped, just as we got onshore). Fortunately, the extreme blowing snow did not last very long (and they resumed taking people back to the ship. However, perhaps 1/2 of the passengers never got on shore at Whalers Bay.
The first group of hikers actually madei it to Bailey Head, The second group could not get over the summit due to blizzard (whiteout) conditons. The expedition people in the second group had radios to contact the ship and the expedition people in the third group of hikers, which is why I never got to Baily Head.
Too bad, in a way. Baily Head was our only chance to see a colony of Chinstrap Penguins (although we ran across two or three lone Chinstraps at other places (there may have been two of them at one location, mixed in with other types of penguins).
Notice on the map that the east side of Deception Island is essentially straight. This is a natural feature more evident from the map than when you see it from the boat from a distance). I never got a good explanation for what was going on, but the expedition staff was pretty sure it had to be related to a geological fault of some kind (as I was too),
Also, not that the indicated course for the ship indicates the ship stuck to the far north side of Neptune's Bellows both going in and coming out. That is accurate. There is a submerged rock in the center of the gap. Apparently the safe channel for ships the size of the Fram is along that north side.
