Travel

Crossing The Drake Passage To Antarctica – What Is It Actually Like? – Hand Baggage Solely

March 22, 2023

After attending to Argentina (which you’ll be able to learn right here), we’re lastly off crusing the Drake Passage to Antarctica.

Reality be advised, it’s a part of the journey that we had been probably the most anxious about. Particularly as this crossing can take as much as 48 hours. I’ll clarify why.

Earlier than that, simply to shortly recap, to date we’d travelled from London to Buenos Aires and now to Ushuaia the place we’d be catching the Ocean Victory ship by Albatros Expeditions to take us to Antarctica.

It was such a mixture of feelings by this level. We had been tremendous excited (for apparent causes) but in addition kinda nervous because of the Drake’s Passage crossing we had been about to embark on.

The Drake Passage is probably the most highly effective sea convergence on this planet and probably the most treacherous sea voyage on this planet.

It is because that is the place three oceans meet – the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Ocean and the waves right here could be as much as 12 metres (40 ft excessive) so it’s rather a lot!

The movies we’d seen of the passage regarded terrifying when it was all stormy. 12m / 40ft excessive waves will do this to you.

Crossing The Drake Passage To Antarctica - What Is It Really Like?

The ships are constructed to have the ability to sail by way of this however not everybody’s abdomen is so our greatest fear was getting seasick. And as you may know, as soon as you’re feeling seasick, it’s so onerous to shake off.

Oh, and the crossing goes on for two days so the potential of two days of seasickness was positively enjoying on our minds.

However right here’s the factor about this crossing – it will probably both be actually rocky or simply actually calm.

This is the reason it’s often called both the ‘Drake Shake’ ( when it’s rocky) or the ‘Drake Lake’ (when it’s calm).

And it’s not seasonal both, it might occur on any day so there’s no higher month or time of the yr to go to to keep away from this. Belief me, I requested round rather a lot about this.

We did discover one thing quite helpful earlier than we left – an internet site known as passageweather.com.

This web site is a prediction of the winds, wave peak and floor stress you’ll be able to anticipate over the following week on the Drake Passage (and different passages on this planet).

We nonetheless haven’t any clue what to do with the floor stress info however the wind and wave peak info – these we understood.

That web site positively helped take our nervousness away. The prediction for our crusing was for the ‘Drake Lake’ and regardless that we all know the climate can change on the drop of a hat, it was sufficient to calm us down.

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

Truly, earlier than that – I virtually forgot about this half…. which ended up being probably the most mentally-stressful components – testing for you-know-what earlier than boarding the ship.

See, when you examined optimistic, you wouldn’t be allowed to board the ship. A coverage that makes a lot sense for everybody’s well being and well-being.

And don’t fear, even when you can’t go on that crusing – you would go on different sailings at a later date so your cash isn’t wasted.

In reality, if you find yourself testing optimistic and consequently miss half of the journey, you might be robotically entitled to a different journey to Antarctica on a unique crusing.

So for the take a look at, we confirmed as much as a gymnasium the place we had been examined in teams of 30 and it felt like we had been in Squid Video games.

Folks had been simply getting picked out at random and though you couldn’t actually hear what they had been saying to them after they left the group, their sobbing made it fairly clear what information they’d simply been advised.

We needed to wait round for half-hour for the all-clear and people half-hour had been simply traumatic. You don’t need anybody to say your identify and name you out of the group.

Throughout these half-hour, you had been mainly doing all of your finest to keep away from making eye contact with the woman choosing folks out of the group. Like that will have made a distinction.

And I don’t even know why we had been so nervous both, we’d actually completed a take a look at that morning and had examined detrimental so our nerves had no enterprise being that frayed.

I believe it should have been the entire auditorium factor giving off main Starvation Video games or Squid Video games vibes.

Oh, and by the way in which, that is the norm for each cruise ship, not only for ours or ships going to Antarctica, it’s the identical for each ship. You should take a look at earlier than you board.

Earlier than we left, there was a ship that had been lax with their testing and virtually half of the passengers ended up testing optimistic on arrival again to Argentina so the entire ship needed to quarantine for 10 days.

Anyway, so we examined detrimental and with big sighs of aid hopped on board the ship, the place we had been welcomed with cocktails, snacks and a light-weight lunch to have in our rooms.

And so off we set to Antarctica. The forecast, by the way in which, was right and for the 2 days of crossing the Drake’s Passage, the water was comparatively calm.

Some folks nonetheless received seasick however we’d began taking our sea illness remedy, Promethazine, earlier than we left the port.

One other nice sea illness remedy is Meclizine, however Promethazine is the one NASA apparently provides its astronauts to assist them keep away from sea illness in order that sounded ok for us.

We couldn’t get Promethazine over-the-counter within the UK however fortunately our ship’s pharmacy had it they usually gave it to us without cost.

We really then began off with Meclizine on the primary day earlier than switching to Promethazine. (No actual cause why – it’s simply what we got).

Each tablets do make you very drowsy although however I’d quite be drowsy from the remedy and seize a espresso to wake me up than seasick and but nonetheless drowsy and exhausted from sea illness.

I don’t know when you’ll discover this fascinating however that is apparently how the ocean illness tablets work.

So your eyes, your physique (like your ft on the bottom) and your internal ear normally inform you when your physique is in movement.

The primary two ship alerts to your mind saying you’re in movement and your internal ear corroborates that info and your mind is like “Okay, we’re transferring” and all superb.

Sea illness occurs nevertheless when your internal ear says that you just’re transferring (as a result of it will probably really feel it) however your eyes and physique say that you just’re not, which might occur when you’re in an space with no home windows or when you’re not continuously staring out of the window.

This distinction in info confuses your mind and makes you’re feeling nauseous.

So the medication work by silencing the alerts out of your internal ear so your mind doesn’t get confused and also you don’t really feel nauseous.

However yeah, the medication, coupled with a comparatively calm crossing meant that for these two days, we might simply chill out and revel in crusing throughout the Drake Passage.

The true enjoyable begins after you’re completed with the Drake Passage however that doesn’t imply you’re simply sitting round doing nothing, except, in fact, if you wish to.

When you’re crusing, you’ve received wildlife exterior (we had our first whale sightings on the Drake Passage), you’ve received lectures (which I promise you might be far more thrilling than it sounds and actually assist put into context what you’re about to see) and within the downtime, you’ve received so many motion pictures in your TV in your room as effectively.

In our downtime, we ended up watching a brand new present we simply found. It really not a brand new present per se. It’s new to us however there are like 5 seasons of it.

The present is known as Gomorrah and it’s in Italian. It’s set in Naples and is all concerning the drug cartels in Naples. Like an Italian Narcos, I assume.

It’s sort of primarily based on a real-life notorious housing property in Naples.

We initially came upon about this present whereas we had been travelling in Naples and noticed the property within the distance.

Our Italian buddy we had been travelling with regaled us with tales about it (like how they’d randomly discovered a tiger in there as soon as simply sat there as somebody’s pet) and advised us about how at one level even the police had been terrified to go to this housing property.

We’d been watching this earlier than we left the UK and simply downloaded it on the Sky Go app to take travelling with us, which turned out to be a superb plan, particularly seeing as we had been planning on isolating your entire time earlier than we boarded the ship anyway.

However yeah, earlier than I end off this vlog, I figured I ought to in all probability present you across the Ocean Victory ship, so let’s begin this fast tour with the bed room…

Then let’s transfer to the eating room. That is the place you have got all of your meals.

Breakfast has a buffet (it’s nonetheless desk service) with different gadgets you’ll be able to order off a menu (like omelettes and waffles).

Lunch and dinner are a-la-crate with a lot of completely different and quite scrumptious choices (so don’t fear when you’re vegetarian or vegan).

That is the library. It’s such a cute and calm house.

That is the lecture theatre.

This is among the bars. And there’s one other bar up right here within the statement lounge, which has among the finest views on the ship.

To be trustworthy, when you’re in Antarctica, there are nice views all over the place.

The recent tub and swimming pools are behind the ship. The spa is inside.

That is the primary viewing platform in entrance of the ship.

There’s additionally a store and a pair extra speciality eating places in addition to visitor lounges dotted throughout the ship.

There’s additionally a ‘mud room’ downstairs which is the place you, de-contaminate and will get the zodiac boats to take you on a cruise or over to land.

Catch you in the following submit once we lastly arrive in Antarctica!