The Drake Passage

I’m the type to get seasick. I found this out on my honeymoon while kayaking 17 miles of the beautiful Napali Coast, most of which was spent leaning off to one side, ‘feeding the fish.' One would think I would have learned my lesson and signing up for a voyage that crossed the most intense waterway in the world, not once, but twice, would not make my list of must do’s, but you’d be wrong. Hello, Drake Passage. I had heard the gamut of stories and I looked at the Drake passage weather logs daily leading up to my trip. I knew the only thing I could do was go prepared. I had it all, patches, pills (chewable of course), pressure point wristbands, and all sorts of gingery edibles.  Our onboard doc gave everyone on board a very thorough and candid briefing about how folks should expect the worst and prepare for such. The Drake is not the place you want to find out how your body reacts to seasickness.

 For those not as paranoid, I mean prepared, as I, he had all the medications in the infirmary. We were told the Drake shouldn’t be too bad, but there was no risk-taking for me. I slapped that patch on and didn’t look back. What we experienced for the next two days wasn’t quite the Drake shake, but it certainly wasn’t the lake either. People were getting sick, I believe there was also a cold going around (wash your hands, people!) so meals were never at full capacity. But it did seem the majority of folks were up and well enough to attend Drake passage lectures. The patch made me incredibly sleepy, which meant lots of naps. Franny and my cabin was on the very top floor of the Akademik Ioffe. Which A. Made for lots of stair climbing and B. Made for a tippy trip.
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On our return trip, the Drake was even better to us and this made for a perfect time to hang out with the new friends we had made during the voyage, and partake in fun activities like origami, a yoga class, and even touring the engine room.

Once we disembarked in Ushuaia, it took at least a day to get our land-legs back, we felt wobbly as we made our way up and down the streets of Ushuaia one last time. I’m not sure the next time I’ll be on a ship for 10 days straight, but even after just two days straight I can confirm that cabin fever is real!