Surviving the Drake Passage

Passing the Drake Passage took an agonizing 2 and a half days. It was NOT a fun time for most of the passengers on board the Ocean Diamond.
The Drake Passage is the body of water between Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America) and the Shetland islands of Antarctica. This is the least enjoyable part about a trip to Antarctica.
In order to reach Antarctica, our ship had to plow through about 500 miles of rough seas. We endured grueling 20 foot waves.
After dinner on the first night, the excited passengers retired to their rooms for the night. Woody, the expedition leader, warned everyone over the intercom to place all valuables in places where they would not slide around.
"Seriously, how bad could it be?", I thought naively. 

As I laid in by bunk bed that first night, I was gently rocked back and forth all night. The gently rocking eventually turned more violent. By morning, it was difficult to even walk straight in the hallways. I was beginning to question the safety of the boat. The boat would bellow out low moans every time it was thrust upwards from the force of the massive waves. It was downright eerie. I learned that there were stabilization bars on the boat that helped keep the ship from tipping over. I also learned that these bars could break if the waves were too big. 
Loud creeks and squeaks filled the quiet boat. Everyone tried to hunker down for the 2 days. Most of the passengers slept through the horrific experience, day and night, mostly because they felt better when they laid down and because their motion sickness pills made them sleepy.
This is the price you must pay in order to see Antarctica. How badly do you want to see it? hahaha!

Both of my roommates took the motion sickness pills. They were both feeling pretty miserable for the entire 2 days. I, on the other hand, didn't take any medications. I felt fine. I even went to the gym while everyone was sick in bed. It was nice to be the only one there! Although it was a little difficult to run on a treadmill when you're being thrashed around.
Motion sickness has never bothered me. My Viking blood is strong!! This has made traveling a lot easier for me. I remember so many times being on a bus or boat somewhere in the far stretches of this world and hearing people throw up into bags as we zig-zag around curves. I really felt sorry for them, but couldn't relate by any means. Dinh is also cursed by the motion sickness gene. 
Throw me in a glass bottle and roll me down a mountain, bet you I won't get motion sickness :)

The ship turned into a ghost ship. The dining room, which was full the night before, was desolate at breakfast time. For most of the passengers, breakfast didn't sound too appeasing when their stomach felt like it was in a hurricane.
I ate my coconut waffles in silence.
It was frightening to think about what could all go wrong out there in the open sea. If you thought about it long enough, you could probably send yourself into a pretty good anxiety attack.
The only doctor on the ship was quite busy the first few days. Mostly, he was handing out motion sickness pills left and right. 
The motion sickness was a small price to pay for what we were about to witness. 

There was a bet on when we would see the first glacier. We all kept our eye peeled on the little round window of our room, hoping to spot that very first spectacular chuck of ice floating in the waters. 

I'll never forget that first glimpse I got of an iceberg in Antarctica. I had seen icebergs in Alaska, but NOTHING of this caliber. It was completely mind blowing. I was open-mouthed as I watched the beautiful mass of frozen water pass by our window.

Soon we would be cruising close to these monsters in our little zodiac boats. THAT will make you feel like an ant. 
We learned that these icebergs were quite old. 1000's of years old, in fact. 
I was astonished by the fact that what you see above water is only 1/10th of the size of the glacier. They are massive beasts!!

The captain and his trusty crew kept a careful watch, day and night, for icebergs floating in our path. 
It was hard to keep the Titanic scenario out of my head. I learned that it was back luck to say the word "TITANIC" on a ship. 
Soon, the iceberg sightings became more frequent and we were all well aware that we had entered Antarctica. The windows formed ice crystals around the edges and the hand railings outside morphed into gigantic icicles. 

The adventure had just begun. But all the passengers knew in the back of their minds that another miserable passing of the Drake Passage was required in order to return back to Argentina......