Lemaire Channel

FjordsAntarctic Peninsula,Antarctica

An eleven-kilometre Antarctic strait narrowing to 600 metres between cliffs a thousand metres high, its sheltered water often mirror-still among grounded icebergs.

September·Closed

Apr–Oct

No expedition ship sails the Antarctic Peninsula from April to October: winter sea ice locks the strait shut and daylight shrinks to roughly three dim hours near midwinter. There is no other way in — the channel simply waits out the dark.

Year-round The cliff-walled Antarctic strait — 'Kodak Alley' — is passable only in the polar summer, November to March, when the ice clears; whales gather most in February and March.

The Lemaire Channel is a strait on the Antarctic Peninsula, eleven kilometres long and narrowing to 600 metres, between cliffs of rock and ice a thousand metres high, and its sheltered water is so often mirror-still among grounded icebergs that it is the most photographed passage in Antarctica. The channel runs between the mainland and Booth Island, and the ships that cruise the peninsula slow to almost nothing to thread it; on the outer deck the engines drop away and you hear the hull pushing brash ice aside, a sound like gravel running under the bow, with the walls closing in on either side and the twin Una Peaks, basalt towers capped with ice, standing at the northern gate. Humpback, minke and orca gather in the calm water, most reliably in February and March, and seals bask on the floes close enough to the deck to be heard breathing. The channel was first threaded by the Belgica in 1898, a ship that sailed on into the pack and could not get out again for more than a year. The channel has nowhere to land, but its southern exit opens onto Petermann Island, where zodiacs put you onto rock that gentoo penguins are already nesting on, with Adélies among them and the cliffs of the channel standing behind; from the island's high point the whole strait lies in view with the icebergs stopped in it. Zodiacs nose in among the floes, close enough to see the old scars on a seal's hide and to hear the ice creak, and the water between the bergs is so still that the cliffs stand upside down in it. The channel can also be full: when the ice packs in, the ships turn back, and the passage is made when the sea allows. The Lemaire is the narrow point of the peninsula voyages, the hour when everyone is on deck, and the reason is that for eleven kilometres Antarctica is close enough to touch.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Ships run only from November to March — early season brings the thickest, most dramatic ice and a channel that often blocks; by February and March the ice opens and passage comes easier.
Bring two lenses and keep them ready — a telephoto for seals and whales on the floes, a wide lens for the mirrored cliffs, with the calmest reflections on windless mornings.
Dress in full polar layers before the call comes — the best of the passage can pass in twenty minutes of open deck, and the ship slips through with little warning.
Keep eyes on the ice, not just the sea — seals sleep on the drifting floes and are easy to miss, while whales usually show first as a distant blow against the dark cliffs.

Things to do

1
Ride the outer deck through the narrows
On deck the engines drop to almost nothing and you hear the hull pushing brash ice aside, a sound like gravel running under the bow. The cliffs stand close enough on both sides that you find yourself looking up rather than out. If the ship runs it late in the day the light never really goes: the sun slides along behind the peaks instead of setting, and the shore ice holds a slow blue-and-amber glow for hours rather than minutes.
2
Step ashore at Petermann, just beyond the narrows
The channel has nowhere to land, but its southern exit opens onto Petermann Island, where zodiacs put you onto rock that Gentoo penguins are already nesting on. Crouch low and keep still and the birds carry on within a few metres, treating a quiet visitor as part of the landscape.
3
Cruise by zodiac among the floes
Zodiacs nose in among the floes, close enough to hear a seal breathe and to see the old scars on its hide. With the outboards cut you drift, and the ice is what you hear: floes grinding against each other and meltwater running off the grounded bergs.