17TH - 22ND JANUARY

I had been woken up at various points throughout the night by the howling winds that whistled past our room and the rain that danced its way across our metal roof! This could only mean one thing! If the weather was like this here, what an earth would it be like the infamous Drake Passage? I was turning green just at the thought of it! Eventually I drifted back off to sleep and when the alarm woke us again at 8 a.m. the wind and the rain hadn’t abated. The weather was fierce and unrelenting, doing nothing to subdue my apprehension!

After a shower and breakfast we finished packing the last of our things and we were ready to head into town around 10 a.m. as we had a few last minute things we wanted to get. We also needed to pick up our rubber wellies, which we needed for the zodiac landings we were going to do! We did a last email and internet session and whilst we

were in the internet cafe we heard a lady asking her husband “how high did they say the waves get to last night?” His reply was between 30 to 40 feet!!! Gulp!!! After the shock of hearing the potential wave size we decided to have lunch out which also helped pass the time. Thankfully the sun was attempting to make an appearance but the wind was still as strong!

We got back to the hostel and chilled for an hour before it was time to call a taxi and head to the port! We also took our first batch of seasick tablets keeping everything crossed that they would work!!! We were both so looking forward to the trip but I was very nervous about the two days at sea - the Drake Passage being one of the roughest stretches of sea in the world. The Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet there and the cross currents and relatively narrow gap between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula make for some