Aboard M/Y Sherakhan · 4 – 11 December 2026. A two-hour flight from Punta Arenas replaces the Drake crossing, landing at King George Island where Sherakhan waits at anchor. Seven nights through the South Shetlands and the Gerlache Strait: inside the flooded volcano at Deception Island, landings on the continent itself at Orne and Neko, the working post office at Port Lockroy, and the Lemaire Channel south to Petermann Island.
Antarctica is the ultimate travel experience. Found at the bottom of the world, it is a remote wilderness, untrammeled and untamed: a coastline of mountains, fjords and islands under near-constant daylight, with no permanent human population at all.
Every voyage here is unique. The route is decided by weather and ice, and the itinerary stays flexible so the yacht can follow the best conditions of the day. Landings are made each day to visit wildlife colonies, historic sites or research stations.
Early December is the height of the penguin breeding season. Gentoo, chinstrap and Adelie colonies are loud with courtship and nest-building, the snow still lies clean and deep to the waterline, and humpback whales are arriving in the Gerlache Strait to feed.
The expedition opens with a two-hour charter flight from Punta Arenas over the Drake Passage to King George Island, where Zodiacs carry guests to Sherakhan at anchor. The first landing follows the same afternoon at Yankee Harbour and its gentoo colony. The next morning Sherakhan sails through Neptune's Bellows into the flooded caldera of Deception Island, an active volcano with a ruined whaling station on its black-sand shore, then crosses the Bransfield Strait to the iceberg fields of Cierva Cove.
Four days in the heart of the Peninsula. Zodiacs circle the 1915 wreck of the whaling ship Governoren at Enterprise Island, and the first landings on the Antarctic mainland itself come at Orne Harbour and Neko Harbour. Port Lockroy brings Base A, the museum and the southernmost public post office in the world, before the run through the Lemaire Channel to Petermann Island, the southernmost point of the voyage. The leg closes at Cuverville's great gentoo rookery and among the feeding humpbacks of Charlotte Bay.
The final full day threads the rock mazes of Spert Island by Zodiac, calls at Mikkelsen Harbour on Trinity Island, where gentoos breed around an old Argentine refuge hut, and finishes among the chinstrap colonies of Half Moon Island back in the South Shetlands. On the last morning Sherakhan returns to King George Island for the flight north to Punta Arenas.
Roughly 580 nautical miles by sea from King George Island down the Gerlache Strait to Petermann Island and back through the South Shetlands, with the charter flight from Punta Arenas at either end. Click any stop on the map to dive in.
"Every voyage to Antarctica is unique, with the route decided by the weather and ice conditions as you explore this last truly wild continent."
EYOS Expeditions · AntarcticaThe expedition begins with a two-hour charter flight from Punta Arenas across the Drake Passage, landing on the gravel airstrip at Chile's Presidente Eduardo Frei station. Zodiacs run guests the short distance to Sherakhan, waiting at anchor, for safety and landing briefings as the yacht gets underway.
The first landing comes the same afternoon: a sheltered harbour on Greenwich Island guarded by a long gravel spit, with a breeding colony of several thousand pairs of gentoo penguins just beginning their summer season. An old sealers' try-pot on the beach recalls the island's 19th-century history.
Sherakhan sails through Neptune's Bellows, the narrow break in the wall of a flooded volcanic caldera, and anchors inside an active volcano. Ashore at Whalers Bay: the rusting boilers and ruined hangar of an early-1900s whaling station, black volcanic sand, and geothermally warmed ground underfoot.
Across the Bransfield Strait to the Peninsula proper: a deep cove backed by an immense glacial face that calves regularly into the bay. Zodiacs weave through the resulting field of sculptural icebergs and brash ice, with leopard seals often hauled out on the floes.
On the edge of Wilhelmina Bay lies Foyn Harbour and the wreck of the Governoren, a Norwegian whaling factory ship deliberately run aground in 1915 when fire broke out aboard. All 85 crew survived. The rusted hull now shelters nesting Antarctic terns, and Zodiacs circle it slowly through still, protected water.
A small cove on the Antarctic mainland itself, and the voyage's first landing on the continent. A snow climb to the saddle above the water reaches a chinstrap penguin colony on the exposed rock of Spigot Peak, with the Gerlache Strait laid out below.
A mile-long island in the Errera Channel with gentoo colonies dotted up its snow slopes. The climb to the 180-metre summit earns one of the finest panoramas on the Peninsula, ringed by the peaks and glaciers of the Danco Coast.
A second continental landing, at the foot of an active glacier in Andvord Bay. Gentoo penguins breed on the rocky point, and the glacier face across the water calves with a sound like artillery. Time ashore is spent high on the viewpoint ridge, watching for the next fall of ice.
Britain's wartime Base A on tiny Goudier Island, now a living museum and the southernmost public post office in the world. Postcards mailed here travel out with the season's ships. Gentoos nest against the hut walls, indifferent to their fame.
The afternoon runs the Lemaire Channel, a mile-wide corridor beneath vertical rock and hanging ice, to Petermann Island, the southernmost point of the voyage. It holds one of the southernmost gentoo colonies in the world, sharing the island with Adelie penguins at the northern edge of their range on this coast: two species meeting at their limits.
At the mouth of the Errera Channel, Cuverville holds one of the largest gentoo penguin colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula, thousands of pairs strong, set against a shoreline of stranded icebergs and the mountains of Rongé Island.
A wide glacial bay off the Gerlache Strait whose still, ice-strewn water is a favoured feeding ground for humpback whales in early summer. The afternoon is spent cruising among the ice with engines low, letting the whales set the agenda.
Off the western tip of Trinity Island, Spert is a place few ships visit: a maze of narrow rock channels and collapsed sea arches that Zodiacs thread between walls of basalt, with grounded icebergs glowing blue in the shadows.
A small bay on the south side of Trinity Island. On tiny D'Hainaut Island at its centre, gentoo penguins breed around the remains of an Argentine refuge hut and old whalers' water boats, and Weddell seals haul out on the snow.
Back in the South Shetlands, a crescent of rock and shingle between Livingston and Greenwich Islands with a large chinstrap colony breeding on its ridges, attended by Antarctic terns, kelp gulls and skuas. The final landing of the expedition.
Sherakhan returns to Maxwell Bay overnight. Guests remain aboard until the aircraft is confirmed, then Zodiacs run ashore for the flight north across the Drake to Punta Arenas, arriving in time for onward travel the same afternoon.
Humpback whales arrive in the Gerlache Strait through December to feed on krill, and Charlotte Bay is among the most reliable places on the Peninsula to drift among them.
Whales · The Gerlache StraitM/Y Sherakhan is a 69.65-metre expedition yacht, extensively refitted in 2018, a go-anywhere world discovery vessel that pairs classic character with true expedition range.
She sleeps up to 26 guests in 13 staterooms with a crew of 19, so the full charter party travels together with room to spare.
Aboard: a dining atrium beneath seven-metre ceilings, an 18-person glass-bottomed Jacuzzi, a spa, sauna and fully equipped gym, and a fleet of tenders for the daily landings.
Ian Strachan is an expedition leader, nature photographer and logistician whose career has taken him from the icy frontiers of Antarctica to the coral-rich seas of the South Pacific. As Director of Expedition Development at EYOS, he designs and leads private and research voyages in some of the world's most remote environments.
Before joining EYOS, Ian spent more than a decade with leading expedition operators as a naturalist, photo instructor, cold water diver and UAV pilot. His field expertise spans all seven continents, with extensive work in the polar regions; whether operating a drone in a calving fjord or guiding a Zodiac through Antarctic ice, he pairs technical precision with a passion for discovery.
A National Geographic Explorer recognised in 2018 for documenting glacial activity in Southeast Alaska, Ian holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100 Ton Master's License and is a Senior Polar Guide with the Polar Tourism Guides Association.
Layers are everything. Antarctica in early December sits around freezing at sea level, with near-constant daylight and weather that swings from calm sun to wind and snow within the hour. Pack for wet Zodiac landings, snow underfoot ashore and long spells on deck. The operations team will confirm baggage allowances for the King George Island flight; soft bags travel best. Tick items off as you go: your progress is saved on this device.
Expect roughly −2°C – 4°C (28 – 39°F) at sea level, noticeably colder in wind and on the water. Dress in layers so you can adjust through the day. A typical dress for a landing:
Expedition Clothing
Equipment & Personal
Documents & Logistics
A short shelf for the flights and the evenings aboard. The first titles are the classics of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration; the rest bring the modern continent, and one tells the story of the very strait you will sail.
The definitive account of Shackleton's 1914 expedition: the ship crushed in the Weddell Sea ice, and the greatest survival story ever written. The essential Antarctic book.
The voyage of the Belgica, the first expedition to overwinter in the Antarctic ice, in 1898, with a young Roald Amundsen aboard. Its commander, Adrien de Gerlache, named the strait at the heart of this route.
The youngest member of Scott's last expedition wrote its finest book: the winter journey for emperor penguin eggs, and the search that found Scott's tent.
Shackleton's own account of the Endurance expedition, in his voice. Read it after Lansing for the view from inside the story.
Seven months travelling the continent with scientists and dreamers. Funny, humane and the best single book on what Antarctica is like now.
A science writer's portrait of the continent, from the bases to the deep ice cores. The ideas behind the landscapes you will be looking at.
Recommended Viewing
The polar regions filmed as only the BBC natural history unit can. The Antarctic episodes show the wildlife of this exact coastline.
The 2024 documentary pairing Shackleton's story with the expedition that found the wreck of Endurance three kilometres down in the Weddell Sea in 2022.
Herzog in Antarctica, interviewing the scientists and misfits who choose to live at the end of the map. Strange and wonderful.
The light, the wildlife and the ice make Antarctica one of the most rewarding places on earth to photograph, and your expedition leader is a professional nature photographer: ask him anything. A few things worth knowing before you fly south.
In the Field
For the camera and lenses you bring on deck and ashore.
On Your Phone
Tips for shooting on a phone.
The Antarctic Peninsula aboard M/Y Sherakhan, 4 – 11 December 2026. Your EYOS expedition team will be in touch before departure. Any questions in the meantime, we are glad to help.