Drake Passage

After sailing through the rest of the Chilean fjords, taking in views of several impressive glaciers, we rounded the southern tip of South America and docked outside of Ushaia, Argentina. There our ship provided the necessary documents to the Argentinan government to continue our voyage. From there we started our long journey through the notorious Drake Passage. We attended an onboard itinerary briefing for the next day, and were given an idea of what to expect on this section of the trip. The waves were forecast to be pretty high for our journey down to Antarctica, mostly due to how early it was in the season. I hadn't done much research before the trip regarding this section, although I knew many people dreaded it. Once I found out what kind of waves we could be expected, I started to get a little anxious. I hadn't brought any sea sickness medications with me, but the ship offered prescription strength pills at no cost for anyone who was interested. We decided to pick some up and take them before bed as we would be entering the passage that night. Wow.. those pills gave us iron stomachs. The waves did indeed get high during our trip through the passage, but the combination of the seasickness meds, the large size of the ship, and the advanced stabilization tech onboard, what I had come to dread the night before actually became pretty fun. It was actually kind of relaxing rocking back and forth for the day and a half or so it took to reach our destination. During this time we watched lectures, played cards, read, wandered around deck, hung out in the sauna, and attended a mandatory lecture regarding how to behave once we were able to go on land in Antarctica. I ended up forgoing the seasickness med on the first part of the journey back through the drake passage several days later, and it made me realize how much they helped! I definitely recommend using seasickness meds during this part of the trip as long as it's an option for you.