Antarctica -- October-November 2010

Magdelena Island (Isla Magdelena in Spanish). This is in the Strait of Magellan.

This island is a preserve or sanctuary for penguins. They obtained some kind of special permit for us to land there (although there seemed to not be any people around to actually prevent people in boats from landing at the island). This was apparently the first time any of the expedition staff on the Fram had ever been on the island, so they were excited about this landing (and were unsure about what to expect -- for example, they apparently had not realized that allowed walking paths were set up and marked by rope lines; these show up in some later photos). Apparently, on most cruises they just cruise past this place, with passengers viewing it from the deck using binoculars (and take photos with zoom lenses and long lenses).

The capacity of the Fram is about 320 passengers (I've seen 318 written in one place, and a number somewhere in the 270s written in another place). There were, I beleive, 203 passengers aboard on this trip. However, a few passengers were not eligible to go on the landings (due to medical issues or physical limitations, apparently). Thus the maximum number of tourists who would be on land from the ship was under 200 (I think I heard 199). There are apparently some locations in Antarctica (more environmentally sensitive than othes) where only "small ships" (less than 200 passengers) are allowed to land passengers. Thus, (by chance) we could have landings at some places on this cruise that they normally cannot visit(Turret Point, near the end of the cruise, may have been one such location). This island is in Chile (not in the Anrarctic). Not sure if having less than 200 passengers was a factor in being allowed to land here.

(22 Nov 2010)

Magdelena Island. This is a Chilean wildlife preserve in the Strait of Magellan, just a few miles northeast of Punto Arenas.