Welcome to Travel Journaling: Antarctica Entry 14 November

 This entry is the last full day on the ship and in Antarctica. 

14 November, 2025

National Geographic Explorer

14:47

We are about to go to the debriefing for how to disembark the ship. C.C. and I have mostly packed and our bags are the correct weights.

This morning the water was choppy, but nothing like going through the Drake Passage. C.C. and I rolled out of bed at 7:30 to the announcement that we were entering Neptune's Bellows. Humpback whales led us into Whaler's Bay. C.C. saw them. I did not.

Entering Whaler's Bay.

C.C. and I were in the second group to go out, so we listened to the ship historian's presentation on whaling in the southern oceans. He started with a brief history of whaling in general before going into detail on the southern hemisphere. 

The remains of a whaling station and processing plant.

16:08

Well now everyone is worried about their luggage. The rental gear has to come with us. C.C. had a plan and stuffed it in her bag. She is still underweight.

Our group went out to Whaler's Bay first in the second group. Whaler's Bay is on Deception Island and has an old whaler's station on it. The ruins are eerie looking and whale bones litter the rocky beach. The beaches are full of black rocks with dead krill. Only a few penguins popped up to join us.

The beach with dead krill boiled pink.

An ornery fur seal had found a spot next to an old rusted piece of equipment. The had to put cones out so we could keep our distance from him. 

He was not happy to have people around while he napped.

Chinstrap penguins have a rookery on the outside of the island, but gentoo were walking on the beach we were at. It was an incredible hike up to an overlook with a huge drop into the ocean. Incredible in that my calves got an amazing work out. I went slow and steady.

I nearly fell in due to bad footing.

I did see a dead seal on the island. It was sad.

Tons of birds flew around, though, and they looked cool in the wind. I got tripped up by a false penguin*.

This is not a penguin.

We are now signing our lives away to participate in the polar plunge. We get in our bathing suits and jump into the ocean. C.C. and I are getting ready to do it. We're just waiting for the announcement to go down to base camp. 

17:10

K and El confirmed we likely saw a minke whale last night. That's four whale species, five seal species, and three penguin species. (Listed below.)

• Whales
• Humpback
• Orca
• Fin
• Minke
• Seals
• Southern sealion
• Weddell seal
• Leopard seal
• Crab seal
• Fur seal
• Penguins
• Chinstrap
• Gentoo
• Adelie

22:02

The worst kept secret on the ship is the polar plunge. Both C.C. and I did it. S was dancing to an 80s music playlist while everyone lined up to jump. A bunch of us started signing along with "We Didn't Start the Fire". 

C.C. jumped before me. Her pictures are really funny. The did not attach anything to us. We jumped from a zodiac and had to swim to a platform. I felt like I was underwater forever, but really it was only a few seconds. Everyone who took the plunge, was given a patch, a cup of hot thickened tea, and a shot of vodka (I skipped the vodka). 

When I went to dry off, C.C. noticed my knee was bleeding. Since the doctor was outside on the zodiac, the nurse looked at the cut and bandaged it up. I was told to apply a new bandage after I showered. Da also scrapped his knee on the platform. I guess we both left a bit of ourself on the 7th continent.

I went up to the sauna to warm up a bit more. There were quite a few people in there as well. A quick shower later and we were all in the lounge for the recap and Captain's farewell speech. All of the crew were present and we learned the history of the ship.

I tried a zero-proof mocktail at the cocktail hour - a maple rum old fashion. It was pretty good if a little sweet.

Dinner was a buffet of grilled meats - Argentinian style. I tried black pudding and liked it. Dessert had a little too much alcohol in it for me (C.C. and El made some really funny faces when they tried it), so they gave me a non-alcoholic version. 

After dinner, we went back to the lounge for the trip recap with submitted photos in a 13 minute slide show. It will be sent to us after the trip. I stepped outside to see the sunset and the group from Washington University was there. Two of the guys were smoking cigars. It reminded me of my dad. Tomorrow will be the second anniversary of his passing.

I know I don't usually post pictures of people, but the captain agreed to pose with Teddy.

Until the next post. 

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*Antarctic Shag (also known as the king cormorant, imperial shag, blue-eyed shag or Antarctic cormorant) - they look like penguins when they don't stretch out or about to fly.