Entering the Antarctic region

We would be completing the 800 km journey over the Drake passage and would be sighting Antarctica today!
Well - not the mainland…but the first islands in the ‘Antarctic region’ - everything south of the 60°S latitude!  The region covers some 20% of the entire Southern Hemisphere!
And what a sight it was! Amazing! I went up to the top deck to see the lovely snow-covered mountains of the first small islands. It was amazing to stand in bright sunlight - and yet feel so cold! The windchill was amazing. BRRR.
Our restaurant steward greeted us happily, and offered to make Indian-style masala omelettes for us - But the appetites of the group were still a bit depressed from the Drake shake, and many people were still a bit green about the gills.
The destination for today was a dormant volcano!  It was now an island - A part of the ‘South Shetland islands’- a chain of islands in the Antarctic region. They are not named because they are ‘shit’ islands - they are named after the ’Shetland islands’ in the North sea, off the coast of Scotland.
This particular island had the rather downer name of  ‘Deception island’.
It sounded like it had been named by a depressed guy who thought that it would be a green paradise full of bikini-clad beauties sunning themselves on the beach, but it turned out to be a cold and freezing dead volcano.
But interestingly that is not the case - ‘Deception island’ is a happy name, and not a sad one.
Deception island is the caldera of a volcano (which is not entirely extinct! It still rumbles now and then, and probably scares the bejeezus out of anybody in the vicinity - but it hasn’t blown since 1969) and this caldera makes for a deep and safe harbour - and that’s what gave it the name! The first sealers named it "Deception Island" on account of its outward deceptive appearance as a normal island, when the narrow entrance revealed it rather to be a ring around a flooded caldera.
​(Sounds rather negative to me - why not call it a ‘Pleasant surprise island’ ? These sealers were definitely a ‘glass half empty’ sort of people)
AND WE WERE GOING ON THE SHORE! WOOHOO!
OUR FIRST LANDING!
OOOO - it was so exciting! We put on the waterproof pants and the waterproof parka  and waterproof gloves and neck gaiters and all the warm gear I had carried with me for so many days! Finally! The warm stuff comes out of the bag, after being carried all over Spain!
We festooned ourselves with cameras and photographic equipment and waddled into the Mud Room and put on the muck boots and life jackets and waited patiently for our turn to get on to the Zodiacs
It was such a thrill to finally get on that Zodiac!
Gee!
What a rush!
The roaring of the engine, the rush of cold wind, the lapping of the waves, the bright blue sky - it was an amazing day!
The Zodiac came to the shore and we got off the boat one by one and stepped on to the Antarctic region!
‘ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN…’ I declaimed, but was firmly pushed aside.
​‘Please move over sir, let the others disembark!’ the expedition dude told me.
And indeed - there was a penguin there! Our first penguin! WOOHOO! It was a ‘Chinstrap’ penguin - the black line below the beak looked like a helmet chinstrap. And he was looking at us very curiously. Who were these guys? What on earth were they doing there?
All of us scrambled for our cameras and took a million photos of that penguin! Then we took selfies! Then we took photos of our ship in the harbour. Then we took photos of the penguin with the ship in the background. Then we took photos of the rusting junk of the whaling factories.
And that seemed to exhaust the potential of the place. What else is there to do?  Let me get back to my opening statement.
‘ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN…’
‘THEY ARE TAKING OFF THEIR CLOTHES!’
‘Eh? What?’ I turned around, and by Jove - people were stripping off and jumping into that cold water!
WTF?
‘IT’S POLAR PLUNGE TIME!’ one guy screamed and started running into that cold water.
Cold? Cold?
No - water in the shower is cold.
THIS WATER WAS FLIPPIN’ FREEZING!
​IT WAS JUST 2 DEGREES ABOVE ZERO!
And there I was - Stripping off in the Antarctic!
‘WHEEEEEEEEEEEE....’ I screamed as I ran into the water!
OOOOOO - IT WAS COLD! IT WAS COLD! IT WAS COLD! COLD COLD COLD
AAAAAAAARRRRGHHHHH! I screamed as the freezing waters hit crotch levels - but kept going till I was neck deep!
AHAHAHAHAHAH - I huffed and puffed with the shock of the cold water.
These North Americans and Canadians and Scandinavians must be used to it - I keep seeing videos of people cutting holes in frozen lakes and jumping into the waters below. Or possibly going ice-skating and falling through thin ice. Or going kayaking in icy waters and getting flipped over. Or getting buried under snow in an avalanche while skiing!
But I had come from warm tropical waters! Why was I doing this to myself?
But once the thermal shock was done, the body reacted in super quick time and warmed up, and I no longer felt that I was dying! It felt amazing! One of the most remarkable things is when you exit the water, the air feels warm, leaving you to feel revitalised as your skin tingles from the icy water.
WHAT A RUSH! WOOHOO!
We got back to the ship and left our boots and lifejacket in the mudroom and came back to our cabin to strip off the Antarctic gear.
‘Well - that’s one item off the list, guys!’ I said ‘Polar plunge … or rather, polar wading…done!’