Lemaire Channel is a strait

Strait

A strait or straits is a narrow, typically navigable channel of water that connects two larger, navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not...

 off Antarctica, located between Kiev Peninsula

Kiev Peninsula

Kiev Peninsula is the predominantly ice-covered, oval shaped peninsula projecting 35 km in northwest direction from the west side of Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula. Bounded by Flandres Bay to the northeast and Beascochea Bay to the southwest. Separated from Wilhelm Archipelago to the northwest...

 in the mainland's Graham Land

Graham Land

Graham Land is that portion of the Antarctic Peninsula which lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee and the US Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names, in...

 and Booth Island

Booth Island

Booth Island is a rugged, Y-shaped island, long and rising to west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula in Antarctica in the northeastern part of the Wilhelm Archipelago. Booth Island is located at...

. Nicknamed "Kodak Gap" by some, it is one of the top tourist

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 destinations in Antarctica; steep cliffs hem in the iceberg

Iceberg

An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...

-filled passage, which is 11 km long and just 1,600 metres wide at its narrowest point.

It was first seen by the German expedition of 1873-74, but not traversed until December 1898, when the Belgica

RV Belgica

Belgica was and is the name of two Belgian research vessels, with a name derived ultimately from the Latin Gallia Belgica.See also...

of the de Gerlache

Adrien de Gerlache

Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery was an officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897 to 1899.-His early years:...

 expedition passed through. De Gerlache named it for Charles Lemaire (1863-1925), a Belgian explorer of the Congo.

The channel has since become a standard part of the itinerary for cruising

Cruising

Cruising may mean:*Cruising , driving around for social purposes, especially by teenagers*Cruise , in aviation*Cruising , leisurely travel by boat, yacht, or cruise ship...

 in Antarctica; not only is it scenic, but the protected waters are usually as still as a lake, a rare occurrence in the storm-wracked southern seas, and the north-south traverse delivers vessels close to Petermann Island

Petermann Island

Petermann Island is a small island just off the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula of Antarctica, located at , just a short distance south of Booth Island and the Lemaire Channel...

for landings. The principal difficulty is that icebergs may fill the channel, especially in early season, obliging a ship to backtrack and go around the outside of Booth Island in order to reach Petermann.