Published 12:02 PM by with 0 comment

Sailing Through Neptune's Bellows Antarctica

By Jonny Blair


The entrance into Deception Island was full of marvel and wonder. It really was like a James Bond film scene. Even standing on deck waiting to pass through a narrow passage known as "Neptune's Bellows" you could sense the mist of intrigue in the air.

It was cold and it was windy. It was freezing and chilly. Most of the crew had come up to the main deck to witness our arrival through this narrow passage in Antarctica into Deception Island. The magic was clear to see already.

The gap at the entrance to Deception Island in Antarctica is incredibly tight. Why? Because this island in Antarctica is shaped like a C. At least from a bird's eye view and it is deceiving hence the island's name. Our captain glided the boat calmly through!

And the entrance is like going into the letter "c" so this was a special slow motion part of the Antarctica adventure, another exciting time to be up on deck as the captain of our ship, the MS Expedition, Bulgarian Asparuh Chorbadzhiev sailed us into the narrow entrance at Neptune's Bellows.

While on board you don't always get the chance to visit the bridge of the vessel so this was a great chance to see the captain at work, doing an excellent job getting the boat through the narrow passage!

A photo of how the captain did it shows the concentration in his eyes as we steered ourselves through the straight and narrow passage to Neptune's Bellows at Deception Island. Some of those onboard were amazed by the captain's professionalism and work at getting us through the tight gap.

Neptune's Bellows (630S 6034W) is a channel on the southeast side of Deception Island forming the entrance to Port Foster, in the South Shetland Islands. The name, after the Roman sea god Neptune, was appended by American sealers prior to 1822 because of the strong gusts experienced in this narrow channel.

After 20 minutes we had done it - the captain did an immense job professionally getting us inside this island for a truly wonderful experience. Antarctica and Neptune's Bellows were awesome!




About the Author:



      edit

0 comments:

Post a Comment