Six hundred miles of the wildest water on Earth stand between South America and Antarctica. Here is what the crossing is really like, how to make it comfortable, and when it makes sense to fly over it instead.
The Drake Passage is the stretch of ocean between Cape Horn, the southernmost headland of South America, and the South Shetland Islands off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. It joins the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and it is the shortest crossing from any continent to Antarctica: roughly 500 to 600 miles of open water.
It takes its English name from Sir Francis Drake, whose ship was blown south in 1578 after he passed through the Strait of Magellan, revealing open sea below Tierra del Fuego. Spanish-speaking sailors know it as the Mar de Hoces, after Francisco de Hoces, who sighted it in 1525. For centuries, rounding the Horn through these waters was the most feared passage in sailing.
Today nearly every Antarctica expedition starts here: ships leave Ushuaia in Argentina or Puerto Williams in Chile, sail the Beagle Channel past Cape Horn, and turn south into the Drake.
The Drake Passage is famous for one reason: geography funnels the strongest ocean current and some of the steadiest winds on the planet through a single gap.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current flows west to east all the way around Antarctica, unbroken by land. It moves over a hundred times the flow of all the world’s rivers combined, and the Drake is its narrowest point.
Sailors named the westerly winds by latitude: the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, the Screaming Sixties. With no continent to break them, storms build across thousands of miles of open ocean before they reach the passage.
Midway across, cold Antarctic water sinks beneath warmer subantarctic water. The sea temperature drops several degrees within a few miles, fog forms, and the ocean visibly changes. Biologically, this is where Antarctica begins.
Crews have a name for each of the passage’s two moods. On the Drake Lake, the sea lies so flat you can watch albatrosses glide over their own reflections. On the Drake Shake, long swells roll the ship for a day or more, and the dining room fills a little more slowly.
Most crossings fall somewhere in between, and nobody can promise which you will get until a few days out. On a rough crossing, seas of 15 to 25 feet are possible. Captains watch the forecasts closely and will slow down, change course, or adjust departure times to ride out the worst of it.
Modern expedition ships are built for these waters, with stabilizers and ice-strengthened hulls. Some newer ships, including Lindblad’s NG Endurance and NG Resolution, have an inverted X-BOW® hull designed to slice through waves rather than slam into them.
Most people do fine with a little preparation. This is practical advice, not medical advice; talk to your own doctor before you travel.
Ask about a prescription scopolamine patch, or over-the-counter meclizine or dimenhydrinate. All work best started before the crossing, not after you feel ill.
Low and midship moves least. If the crossing worries you, tell us when you book and we will steer you to the steadiest cabins still open.
Watch the horizon from the bridge or an outer deck, eat light, dry crackers and ginger help, and lie down if it gets rough. The ship’s doctor carries remedies.
A two-hour flight replaces the crossing entirely, one way or both. How it works below.
Fly-cruises replace the sea crossing with a charter flight from Punta Arenas, Chile, to King George Island in the South Shetlands, where the ship is waiting offshore.
| Sail the Drake | Fly the Drake | |
|---|---|---|
| Crossing time | About 2 days each way | About 2 hours each way |
| Typical length | 12 nights (median) | 8 nights (median) |
| Fares from | $9,268 | $9,700 |
| Sailings on sale | 681 expedition voyages | 215 voyages |
| Seasickness risk | Real, but manageable | Minimal |
| Seabirds & Convergence | The full experience | Seen from the air, if at all |
| Weather risk | Rough seas, rarely delays | Flight delays possible |
| Best for | First-timers wanting the whole journey, best value | Short on time, prone to seasickness |
Live fares from the cruise lines’ own inventory. See all 215 fly-the-Drake voyages.
The Drake is one of the best seabird-watching passages in the world. Wandering albatrosses, with the largest wingspan of any living bird at up to 11 feet, can follow the ship for hours without a wingbeat. Watch too for black-browed and light-mantled albatrosses, southern giant petrels, Cape petrels in their chessboard plumage, prions skimming the swells, and, with luck, fin and humpback whales or hourglass dolphins riding the bow.
Also from Pavlus: All expedition cruises · White Desert fly-in camps (the South Pole & emperor penguins) · Ushuaia port guide · Punta Arenas port guide · South Georgia port guide · Live cruise ship tracker
Tell us the season, the line, or just how much ice you want to see. We’ll send your Pavlus price and the cabins still open, usually the same day. Antarctica sells early: the best cabins on the small ships go a year or more ahead.
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