Drake Lake or Drake Shake?
The Drake Passage is famous for its fierce storms and harsh weather but in between, there can be almost calm seas. When you start the crossing, you never know if you will get the Shake or the Lake. We had a bit of both.
Bark EUROPA departed Ushuaia on January 30th and proceeded out of the Beagle Channel during the night anchoring near the exit to allow for voyage crew orientation. Once finished with climbing instruction, we motored out into the Drake Passage and headed southwest.
The first day was largely motoring with some staysails up to help with stability. The winds were light though and we pitched and rolled quite a bit. The second day was not much better and the plan of the day declared conditions were right for the “Drake Lake. We steered south but held onto the west side of the passage in hopes the winds (which were largely from the south) would turn to our favour. On the third day, we awoke to see that all of the sails that were set the previous day had been furled. The light southerly winds and heavy swells on our beam led to churning seas that made every task difficult.
On the morning of February 3rd, Europa crewmember Sarah burst into the Salon at 03:40 and announced, “It’s happening!” The voyage crew on watch quickly dressed and we were out on deck to set all of the square sails. Wind was coming! It rose up to 25 knots and soon the ship was cruising forward at 7-8 knots.
It was great sailing and everyone was smiling. This is what we were waiting for. We wanted to earn our trip to Antarctica and we certainly did.
On the morning of February 4th, at 08:19, the first iceberg was sighted with the towering peaks of the South Shetland Islands following shortly after. By the evening, we had all sails set and were drifting in Discovery Bay gazing at the glaciers in all directions. We had arrived. This adventure has only gotten started and everyone is looking forward to our first landing on Greenwich Island tomorrow morning.
