The Drake Passage is one of — if not the single most — anxiety-inducing journeys in the cruise world. There’s no land to break the swells of the world’s strongest current, creating some of the largest and roughest waves on earth.
It’s so notorious that one of the first things insiders ask people after they return from Antarctica is, “Did you get the Drake Shake or the Drake Lake?” Fellow travelers are always eager to swap Drake survival stories, like modern-day Ernest Shackletons.
Now, several cruise lines — including Antarctica 21, Aurora, Lindblad, Atlas Ocean Voyages, Silversea, and Quark Expeditions — offer options to skip the Drake Passage on sail-and-fly or fly-and-cruise itineraries, allowing guests to either sail the 650-mile passage between South America and Antarctica one way and fly back, or to fly both ways and meet the ship there.
For my first trip to Antarctica, I put sail and fly to the test aboard National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions’ ship National Geographic Explorer. I don’t typically get seasick, but in a lifetime of cruising it has certainly happened — and few things are worse when you’re at sea with no escape. At the welcome presentation, the on-board doctor stressed the importance of taking seasickness medication before any symptoms start, so we popped Dramamine like candy, wore the acupressure wrist bands, and hoped for the best.
It didn’t help that right before the trip, some videos of the Drake Passage went viral — showing waves pounding upper-deck windows, silverware and glasses flying across dining rooms, passengers fighting for their lives to walk down a hallway without careening into the walls.
It does happen.
Some of that thrill is part of the attraction. Crossing the Drake Passage is a badge of honor — one of the few modern-day opportunities to batten down the hatches and better understand what renowned polar explorers experienced.
Over dinner, as we watched for fin whales and orcas amid rising waves, the staff told stories of previous Drake Passage crossings with far-off looks in their eyes. Sometimes guests were sent to their rooms to order room service once too many plates had smashed across the dining room. Other times, the boat rocked so much that guests had to stay put for roughly 18 hours and avoid stairs and hallways entirely.
Daniela Harrison of Avenues of the World Travel experienced the Drake Shake both ways on her Antarctica voyage, encountering waves up to 39 feet. Still, with preparation, it’s not as bad as it sounds, and the Drake Passage is a bucket-list item for many of her clients. She is seeing more guests ask for the fly-and-cruise option to save time, but some want the roughest waves possible.
“Most of my Navy clients purposely book end-of-the-season voyages to get more motion than earlier in the season. Many of them have been to Antarctica before but never got to really experience it as a guest. They want to relive the good old ship days and the more turbulent, the better,” she said.
As it turns out, we couldn’t have been luckier on our sailing. We crossed the Drake Passage in about a day when it normally takes two. Expedition Director Michael Jackson said it was the fastest crossing in all his years at sea. The wind was behind the ship, pushing it from the normal 13 knots to 15 knots across all 650 miles.
The biggest wave the ship encountered was 11 feet — compared to a potential 80 feet, the biggest ever recorded there. We arrived so quickly that they cut the lecture schedule and scrambled to find a landing. Once cleared, everyone on board got 15 minutes’ notice to gear up and embark on the first expedition of the White Continent a day early.
The calm waters gave everyone a chance to hang around on deck, highlighting an underappreciated dimension of the Drake Passage: the wildlife living in that corridor between South America and Antarctica, before the waters get too cold for many species.
“There are far more birds, like albatrosses and petrels, and other sea birds from the Falklands and South America, and South Georgia. They’re not found on Antarctica, so this is a really important spot to see them,” said David Sibley, the ornithologist behind the famous Sibley Guide to Birds.
Albatrosses and petrels are easy to spot on these voyages, since they like to follow ships.
Expedition cruises to Antarctica typically run 10 days or more, so for travelers with limited vacation time, skipping the Drake can shorten the trip by two days each way. This makes Antarctica more accessible, though both travel advisors and operators remain wary of overtourism in such a fragile region.
National Geographic Lindblad’s sail-and-fly itinerary has regularly sold out since its introduction, with a 96 percent occupancy rate on all voyages to date, according to Kathi Riddle, senior vice president and chief sales officer for Lindblad Expeditions.
“Fly and Sail makes Antarctica more accessible for travelers with time constraints but also offers an entirely new and unique experience of landing a plane on ice on the southernmost part of the planet, which is particularly compelling to the self-proclaimed Av-geeks,” she said.
Sven Lindblad, founder of Lindblad Expeditions, has been traveling to Antarctica for decades.
“The Drake is absolutely a rite of passage and an important part of the adventure,” said Lindblad, who has experienced “nearly every kind” of Drake crossing and enjoys how the currents change the floating scenery in Antarctica.
The feedback Annette Stellhorn of Accent on Travel has gotten from clients is that while nobody has been particularly excited about the Drake Passage, only those who are really scared of seasickness have opted to fly — and those who ended up with delayed flights, a common issue due to unpredictable weather, said it caused significant stress.
The experience flying back was its own adventure. We piled into a zodiac in our regular clothes — the ones that hadn’t yet braved the Antarctic air — and disembarked at King George Island, then tottered a few minutes over to the Teniente Rodolfo Marsh Martin Airport, owned by Chile. The prefab building looked like a storage unit on the outside, but inside it had astroturf carpeting, string lights, and fake plants. A large speaker played dance music periodically while we waited for our flight, which was delayed two hours due to weather. It was the most unique airport I’d ever been in — it almost had the atmosphere of a college party, but with hot chocolate instead of alcohol. Once the plane arrived, it was a quick two-hour flight to Puerto Natales, Chile, with incredible glacier views from the window.
For many, the Drake Passage remains a must — providing a sense of transition between the continents, and for history buffs, a Shackleton-esque baptism by swell. But Antarctica travel is more customizable than ever. Flying offers efficiency, the Drake Passage offers drama, and sail-and-fly itineraries deliver both for travelers pressed for time.
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