Crossing The Drake Passage To Antarctica – What Is It Really Like? – Hand Luggage Only

So now we’re off sailing the Drake Passage to Antarctica and it’s the part of the trip that we were the most anxious about. Especially as this crossing can take up to 48 hours. I’ll explain why.

Before that, just to quickly recap, so far we’d travelled from London to Buenos Aires and now to Ushuaia where we would be catching the Ocean Victory ship by Albatros Expeditions to take us to Antarctica.

It was such a mix of emotions by this point. We were super excited (for obvious reasons) but also kinda nervous thanks to the Drake’s Passage crossing we were about to embark on.

The videos we’d seen of the passage looked terrifying when it’s all stormy. 12m / 40ft high waves will do that to you.

The ships are built to be able to sail through this but not everyone’s stomach is so our biggest worry was getting seasick. And as you might know, once you feel seasick, it’s so hard to shake off.

Oh, and the crossing goes on for 2 days so the potential of 2 days of seasickness was definitely playing on our minds.

But here’s the thing about this crossing – it can either be really rocky or just really calm.

This is why it’s known as either the ‘Drake Shake’ ( when it’s rocky) or the ‘Drake Lake’ (when it’s calm).

And it’s not seasonal either, it could happen on any day so there’s no better month or time of the year to visit to avoid this. Trust me, I asked around a lot about this.

We did find something rather useful before we left – a website called passageweather.com.

This website is a prediction of the winds, wave height and surface pressure you can expect over the next week on the Drake Passage (and other passages in the world).

We still have no clue what to do with the surface pressure information but the wind and wave height information – those we understood.

That website definitely helped take our nervousness away. The prediction for our sailing was for the ‘Drake Lake’ and even though we know the weather can change at the drop of a hat, it was enough to calm us down.

So yeah, with that – let’s get on board the ship, shall we?

Actually, before that – I almost forgot about this part…. which ended up being one of the most mentally-stressful parts – testing for you-know-what before boarding the ship.

See, if you tested positive, you wouldn’t be allowed to board the ship. A policy that makes so much sense for everyone’s health and…