MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

South Georgia another record year of cruise visits

South Georgia following on from last year's record will once again experience an increase in the number of cruise ship visits to the Island.

An estimated 76 cruise ships will be calling the island this summer, compared to 64 in the 2007-8 season, an increase of 19%, reports the South Georgia newsletter. With a cap now set at 500 for the maximum number of passengers per ship, just one larger vessel, the 800-passenger "Prinzendam"will visit this year. This ship had booked before the introduction of the new limit. However despite the increase in the number of calls the number of passengers is only predicted to rise 8% to about 8,700. The first cruise ship "National Geographic Endeavour"will arrive on October 23rd. Twenty yachts have booked to visit; many of these come early in the season, with ten expected in October. Two yachts have already arrived in September heralding an early start to another busy tourist season. The first yacht of the summer season was "Golden Fleece"and is on charter to the BBC having dropped two two-man film crews off, one at Bird Island and one at St Andrews Bay, to film for the next big BBC Wildlife series 'Frozen Planet'. The new eight-part documentary is scheduled for broadcasting in 2012 and is being billed as "the ultimate and most comprehensive portrait of the polar regions to date". The second yacht of the season "Tevakenui"arrived at King Edward Cove on September 27th with a family of three aboard who intend exploring the coast of the island for the next four months The increasing number of ships visiting South Georgia this season will have plenty of ice to deal with. The Fisheries patrol "Pharos SG"encountered a huge 25 mile-long iceberg to the north of the northern tip of the Island, whilst in Cumberland Bay and off-shore there are a lot of smaller icebergs this year.