THE SOUTHERN EXPEDITION

Offshore Leg:

Departing from Punta Arenas, we will sail along the Magellan Strait to the West, passing though Carlos III MPA and reaching the neritic portion of the Strait towards the northern limit of the proposed expansion of the Diego Ramírez Islands – Drake Passage MPA. We will traverse South over the slope of the platform to record sperm whales, orcas, and pilot whales, together with albatrosses, including the endangered Antipodean. We will approach Recalada and Noir Islands, where vast colonies of macaroni and rockhopper penguins exist.

Cape Horn Leg:

We will sail South from Punta Arenas to reach other biodiversity hotpots through the Cockburn Channel and offshore to reach Ildefonso Islands and try and update seabird colony censuses, and later towards the Wollaston Islands, which with a bit of luck and a window of good weather will allow diving among these islands, as well as perform other activities like seabird and marine mammal censuses, and cross the infamous Cape Horn (if feasible). We will then sail through Nassau Bay and reach Navarino Island (visiting Puerto Williams), to later survey the northern Beagle Channel with its astonishing hanging glaciers and fjords and return to Punta Arenas.