How the Drake Took Down an Overconfident Man

As I mentioned earlier, we had a relatively smooth crossing of the Drake on the way down, but no such luck on the way back. Again, the motion woke me up in the middle of the night as we left the protected waters near the continent, and entered a Drake that put our initial crossing to shame. While this was still far from some of the footage that you may have seen of ships crossing, it definitely felt quite a bit more intense as we navigated the waves heading back towards South America. 

As I mentioned before, I have never been a person that has been very susceptible to motion sickness, so even though the return trip made it more imperative to be mindful as you made your way around the ship I was still overall feeling alright. However, this also meant that I did not take many precautions to prevent getting ill such as some preventative medication and going easy on the wine.

One thing that I did not expect was how much the cumulative effect of having this strange motion would affect me, and after about 20 hours of this constant rocking and swaying my body decided that it had enough - quite suddenly! Thankfully I was in my cabin and able to make it to the bathroom in time, but it took most of the day (and medication with some ginger ale) to start feeling like myself again. This isn’t to say that you are going to have an atrocious time crossing the Drake if you are sensitive, but you definitely want to talk to your doctor beforehand and bring the remedies that you think will work best aboard. Almost all ships will also have medical professionals that can also give you medicine if needed, but this is definitely an area where you want to go the preventative route. Take it from a cocky guy with a “strong” stomach, who was bowled over while most of the more “sensitive” travelers were going about having a great time, all having done their due diligence.