Antarctica – Day 2 – The Drake Passage

I woke up on Day 2 to the ship rocking. We had entered the Drake Passage. I couldn’t tell if I was sea sick or hung over. As I don’t normally get sea sick, it was likely the later. The Drake passage is basically the body of water from the tip of South America to Antarctica. This screenshot, shows the position of our ship on that day. By the way, the internet on the ship, provided by Starlink, is included with your fare, and its excellent. It was fast and reliable. Apparently, the basic package is free but you need to pay more for the streaming package. However, when I connected, I was given the streaming package free. I dont know if this was because we upgraded our room. Anyway, the Seabourn app is also useful which you are on board. I would refer to it daily to find out where we were, get dining menus, and see daily activities.

Back to the Drake Passage. Its basically a meeting point for the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern Ocean. According to Wikipedia: “The Drake Passage is considered one of the most treacherous voyages for ships to make. Currents at its latitude meet no resistance from any landmass, and waves top 40 feet (12 m), giving it a reputation for being “the most powerful convergence of seas”. For me it was fun. However, I would say that for the majority of passengers I observed, it was not fun. Many were sea sick and many had resorted to patches other medication to numb the effects.

As I mentioned yesterday, I believe the panorama room, while not the biggest, has the best set up. One of the reasons is this amazing view when you wake up in the morning (a lot of the other rooms, the window is “flat” and to your left or right, not directly ahead):

Its hard to tell from this video, but I tried to capture some of the rough seas:

My first order of business this morning was to hit the gym. The ships gym is located in the spa. While its not great, it has enough equipment to get a decent workout in. There are cardio machines, a couple weight machines, two benches, and some free weights. It was hard to workout while the ship was rocking. When lifting weights, extra balance was needed. It was also my first time running while having to hold on to the sides of the machine with both hands. A little awkward. In calmer waters, the ship was very stable and I was able to do a “normal” workout. Here was the view from the treadmill.

After my workout, I headed back to the room to enjoy one of my favorite parts of the trip. ordering breakfast to the room. Normally, at home, I eat a small breakfast everyday which is the same. However, I was on a ship with unlimited options and I was going to make full use of the services!

In a later post, I will give you a tip about breakfast that will significantly improve your enjoyment of the cruise. After breakfast, I think we did the trivia games and had lunch. Later that evening, we watched some of the live music in one of the bars, and then had dinner.

When I was researching Seabourn, I noticed that they had a relationship with Thomas Keller, and I was excited about the food. However, when we got onboard, I was told that the relationship had ended which was disappointing. The food on board ranged in quality from good, to average, to mediocre. However, I was very impressed that they were able to execute the menus everyday. When you think about it, all the food they will be serving over the 12 day voyage needs to be on the ship from day one. How they kept things like lettuce crisp for that long is a mystery (I asked one of the servers and they had been trying to get the secret from the chef too). Anyway, more about the food in later posts. After dinner, we proceeded to a bar for more drinks, and then off to bed. Day 3 would be our first glimpse of wildlife and glaciers!…