We Sailed Into an ACTIVE VOLCANO…in Antarctica!

Nikki Wynn

Apr 26, 2026

When Cath told us the entrance is called Neptune's Bellows, that probably should have given us pause.

But it didn't.

We pointed Icebird straight at the crack in the cliffside that sailors missed for years. Because you can't see it unless you are directly in front of it. That's the thing about Deception Island, nothing about it is what it seems. From the outside, it's just another island. From the inside, the ground is literally boiling beneath your feet.

This was our first real day on land in Antarctica, and I still can't believe what we walked into. Steaming volcanic beaches, thousands upon thousands of penguins, ruins that tell one of the darkest chapters in Antarctic history, and an ending to the day that none of us saw coming.

If you've been to Antarctica on a cruise ship, you might be watching some of this and thinking, wait, they can't do that. And you're right, you couldn't. But that's because those rules are designed to manage the impact of large groups of people, which makes complete sense when you're rotating a hundred visitors through a site. Icebird is classified as a yacht (fewer than 12 passengers) and operates under permits from the Australian government (where the boat is registered). We still follow every environmental protocol under the Antarctic Treaty, but with just a handful of us going ashore, the operation looks very different.

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