2025_26 Oosterdam, Antarctica Day 3, Part 1 of 2...

I woke up this morning and was excited to see the weather was looking really good…  The unpredictability of this journey is part of what makes it so special.  We are at the mercy of the wind, the ice, the wildlife, and mother nature could care less the size of our vessel.  Overnight the captain moved us into Charlotte Bay which is part of the Danko Coast in Antarctica surrounded by the glaciers Nobile, Bozhinov, Krebs, Wellman and Renard.  This morning, we spent a few hours admiring the whales and the scenery and magnificent icebergs.  You couldn’t have asked for better weather.  Late afternoon the captain charted our path to Deception Island. Deception Island is one of the most incredible islands on the planet.  It is an active volcano in the South Shetland Islands, off the Antarctic Peninsula. Its unique landscape comprises barren volcanic slopes, steaming beaches and ash-layered glaciers. It has a distinctive horse-shoe shape with a large flooded caldera. It is one of the only places in the world where small vessels can sail directly into the center of a caldera.  Our ship is too large to enter.  The ship approached the beach at Baily Head as far as you can see up the ridge…you hear the amazing noise that a colony of over 200,000 chinstrap penguins can make…great for photography.  The weather prediction was not good but the weather held…  Yep, took way too many photos so it's another 2 part blog.  We had a very long albeit, amazing day!!!