Sunday 16 June 2013

Sailing Through Neptune's Bellows Antarctica

By Jonny Blair


In Antarctica Deception Island is just an incredible place to see. To get there we had to veer our boat through the narrow passage known as Neptune's Bellows. We gathered on deck and looked out in awe as this marvellous island came into view. Indeed the magic of Deception Island in Antarctica was just beginning.

It was cold and chilly on deck and a wee bit windy. A brave crowd had gathered on deck to view our narrow entrance through the slim channel into Deception Island.

Deception Island in Antarctica is c shaped! This makes the entrance into it very tricky through the narow pasage known as Neptune's Bellows. The ship swayed a bit but the captain did a great job in steering us into into the magical Deception Island.

Yes the entrance into Deception Island in Antarctica really is like going into a letter "c" and this made for a slowed down section of the amazing Antarctic adventure, it was another brilliant time to be out on the deck as the captain, from Bulgaria Asparuh Chorbadzhiev directed the boat through the narrow entrance called Neptune's Bellows.

It was one of a few times I visited the Bridge during the sailing and it was quite busy - everyone wanted to hear and watch the captain at work in what is a tricky job.

There is a photo I took of the captain just as we were entering Neptune's Bellows to head into Deception Island which prtrays the magnitude of it.

Where is Neptune's Bellows? 63 degrees south and 60 degrees west at Deception Island in Antarctica. The entrance means you arrive at Port Foster which is in the South Shetland Islands as well. Neptune is the Roman God of nature which is where the name is derived from but we learnt a few other facts about the naming of Antarctic places on this adventure.

Despite strong winds, the captain steered the boat calmly through Neptune's Bellows and into Deception Island where a magical experience lay ahead. This was an amazing journey!




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