Antarctica - Day 2 - The Drake Passage

On the second day of our voyage we entered the infamous Drake Passage - the waterway with among the strongest winds and highest waves in the world. To get to Antarctica from Argentina, crossing the Drake passage is necessary and regarded as a rite of passage.
The weather forecast yesterday suggested that we were heading into a storm within the Drake Passage and once we left the Beagle Channel, we could certainly feel the change in how the vessels moved.

While I did not feel sea sick the entire day, sleeping last night was an impossible task.
Rocking in the waves I thought might put me to sleep, but the waves were too high and all over the place. Instead of the ship just going up and down, it felt like being in a washing machine with the ship tilting right to left, then front to back and all over the place. Yeah, sleeping was impossible, but all the seasickness medication certainly had done their job throughout the day - thank god. Other passengers were not so lucky.

Anyway, the second day was basically just a day on sea, or more specifically through the Drake Passage. Still, there were quite a few things going on. First of all, we got a safety briefing for the Zodicas and what and what not to do when being close to wildlife or once we set foot on Antarctica in a couple of days.
Then a couple of us passengers went to the bridge and learned quite a lot about navigation, the instruments, careers, etc which was highly interesting to me. We also stepped outside and played around with the leaning of the ship, always making sure we wouldn't be falling off the ship, as on some occasions, the ship was leaning towards one side quite heavily.

After lunch, though, I took the opportunity to have a little nap, as even though I did not feel sick, I certainly felt tired and maybe a bit drowsy. I was woken up by the Public Announcement to pick up our boots for the rest of the voyage and we had some of our gear that we would wear when stepping foot on Antarctica inspected for dirt, loose items/papers, etc.

Following another quick nap - certainly the most popular thing to do on the ship - I attended a Wildlife Photography introductory course (rather basic, I would say), before getting another briefing about mountaineering and dangers/safety of when traversing cravasses.

A delicious dinner basically concluded the day. While the Drake Passage, its waves and the movements of the ship were certainly not pleasant, it was better than I imagined and the fact that I did not feel sea sick so far was promising. Still, there is one full day left crossing the Drake before arriving on Antarctica and the weather forecast for the next day is for slightly worse conditions than today. In all honesty, I take 'slightly' worse!Read more