The Drake Passage is the stretch of water that runs between land at the end of South America all the way to Antarctica. Antarctica as a continent is deemed to be the land and water below 60° south.
The Drake is where multiple oceans collide, where the cold waters of the Southern Ocean meet the warmer waters of the Pacific, Atlantic & Indian oceans. It is notorious for getting a bit rough and very unpredictable.
From calm waters (often fondly referred to as Drake Lake), through to violent storms, huge waves and high winds (fondly referred to as Drake Shake).
Before i left home I checked the forecast and it seemed that our voyage would be somewhere between the two extremes - termed 'moderate'.
Within a couple of hours of leaving Ushuaia the winds were already whipping up and rain was setting in. There was a storm brewing somewhere further up the beagle channel- could we get ahead of it?
The short answer was no! By the time I went went to bed the boat was swaying. I lay in my bed with the sway running head to foot - felt a little bit like I was doing the caterpillar dance back to front. Then either we, or the storm changed direction and the sways changed left to right. I was rolling around my bed trying not to fall out. Everything sounded weird and creaky. Things in the bathroom fell over and I could hear my luggage under the bed rolling from one side to the other and back again. I got up and put my sea bands on, just in case. I don't normally get sea sick, but this clearly was no normal sea voyage.
Around 1am things got really fun. It was listing heavily to the extreme and felt like the front of the ship was lifting up at the same time.
Morning seemed to take forever to come!
I opened my curtains and all I could see was rain battering the windows and rough, grey seas. I wasn't hungry, so opted to skip breakfast and just take my time to get my 'sea legs' in my room.
I ventured out of my room to find out so many people were really unwell. I went out on deck to chat to people bird watching. The captain announced we were currently sailing through gale force 7 winds (the Beaufort scale of wind runs from 0, almost none, through to 12, hurricane force). So 7 was deemed moderate to rough. Clearly there was going to be no Drake Lake for us!
Force 7-8 was consistent throughout the day. It seemed to get a little calmer later, but compared to overnight everything seemed calmer!
In the evening I went down to the science centre to see the forecast for tomorrow, was looking like force 8 for most of the morning and early afternoon with winds calming a bit once we crossed into Antarctic waters.
Then I noticed this post of winds recorded by the state of the art instruments on the ship.
OMG! We sailed through 90 mile gusts, no wonder everyone was so ill and why I kept nearly rolling out of bed. That was definitely a full on 100% experience of the Drake Shake!
Met up at dinner with some other guests I've got friendly with, and they shared a photo that a fellow traveller took during the night and shared with them. An absolutely stunning photo and I take my hat off to the captain getting us through this!
After this the Dover to Calais ferry will forever be easy 😂
As promised by David (the Environmental Scientist on board who we've nicknamed The weather guy) and by the captain once we were below 60° south and in Antarctic waters the sea has calmed and the winds have dropped. We're nearly there- just a few hundred more miles to go!
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Loving following your journey so far Beth! Hopefully the worst bit is over with the storm and the rest will be smooth sailing!