The Drake Passage has earned a place in history as having some of the roughest sea weather on the planet. The Drake Passage occurs where the fast flowing southern ocean waters are squeezed between the continental land masses of South America and Antarctica. Storms frequently whip the ocean into a dark grey turbulent, heaving mass of water, reknowned for sinking many a ship. Even with today's advances in ocean faring, storms in the Drake Passage can strand ships on either side.

Rounding Cape Horn after a long battle with the ocean was always a welcome relief for sailors. For us, sighting Cape Horn meant an end to the endlessly rolling ocean.

Hang on!
Drake Passage

Crossing the Drake Passage fills many passengers with dread! The Kapitan Dranitsyn was a working ice breaker and thus had a very shallow flat hull, which caused it to roll quite a bit in the open seas. If the seas were rough ('Drake Shake') the ship usually rolled between 20 and 35 degrees. Every now and then, a rogue wave would roll the ship up to 42 degrees! When it did, there was nothing to do but hang on! (And no, I never got sea sick...)

Calm waters ahead
Cape Horn, South America

Cape Horn has been welcomed by sailors since they first began sailing ships around the America's. The Pacific Ocean meets the Atlantic ocean in the Drake Passage and sailing from east to west was a battle for sailing ships throughout history. The Eendracht was the first ship to sail around Cape Horn in 1616 and Captain Wilhelm Schouten named it after his birth place in Holland. For us, Cape Horn meant shortly we would be turning east to Ushuaia and the endless rolling would end as we begun to sail before the prevailing winds...