Antarctic Voyage Days 1+2: The Drake Shake
I awoke to strong rocking and rolling of the ship and as I looked out of our porthole, I saw the strong swells and waves covering the view every 3-5 seconds. I quickly popped a Dramamine, knowing my susceptibility to seasickness. Seeing that my bunkmate, Kaysee, was deep asleep, I went to the next-door room to check on Zayan and Kenza. Kenza was stirring so I gave her some meds too. Zayan was out cold. I tried to go back to sleep and just kept feeling the boat go up, down, and side to side. I remembered one night when we were on our boat in the Galapagos where it had been rough, but we had been traveling closely with two other boats, so I hadn’t worried about anything other than managing the seasickness.
This time was different though. I was acutely aware that we had departed aboard the smallest vessel (holding only 50 passengers) at the Ushuaia Port and we weren’t traveling with any other ships. Having actually gotten into the enclosed metal lifeboats for a through safety drill, made the possibility of abandoning ship all the more real. Kaysee had already told me twice that he was afraid that we might sink, and in trying to allay his fears, I felt unconvinced about minimizing my own. Before we boarded, I said prayers aloud and presented confidence, though in my head, I was wondering if my anxiety was some sort of ominous prediction of danger to come.
That night, after checking on the kids, I lay back down in bed and tried to fall back asleep. I whispered prayers with every roll and with my mind unchecked, I suddenly felt extremely vulnerable. I walked into Kapil’s room (he was bunking with a nice gentleman two doors down) and woke him up. When in the corridor, thinking that someone gotten seasick, he asked if the kids were okay. I updated him and processed the decision to let the boys stay sleeping without medication. When he agreed and started heading back to his room, I held onto him and said that I was feeling really scared that something bad was going to happen. He came into mine and Kaysee’s room and lay down with me in the smaller-than-twin-size box bed! I felt much better, but just kept thinking that I should make beds on the floor of our tiny hallway of a room for Kenza and Zayan so that we were at least all together if we had to abandon ship. Seriously. These are the thoughts that float in my head when I am scared, that “at least if we are to die, I can offer some comfort as we all go down together.” Yikes.
Kapil was a great sport and slept like a sideways pencil the whole night as I clutched his arm with every roll. Somewhere about an hour later, I tried to imagine the schematic of the boat to gain a clearer position of the room/bed. I did this because I somehow convinced myself that “bobs” from the front and back of the ship were not a threat to our safety and that I should really be paying attention to the sideways “rolls” because we might capsize! As I paid attention, I could tell the difference between the bobs and rolls. I learned that every time there was a strong roll to one side the boat would self-correct and I could anticipate the roll leaning to the opposite side. This ability to predict the motions gave me just enough of pretense of “control” that I needed to start letting myself relax.
I don’t think I slept more than an hour that night and the morning offered no relief from the motion, but I did start eliminating the thoughts of capsizing in my head. My mind had now decided that if we were to sink, it would be from hitting an iceberg or something and the ship would take its time (like in the movie Titanic). The kids had different moments of seasickness that day, as we adjusted our Dramamine routine to get ahead of the nausea.
A few hours after breakfast, I went up to the Bridge Deck and got a firsthand view of how our boat was tackling the waves. To my surprise, despite the bumpiness, the boat was on auto-pilot and the crew was relatively unphased by the “Drake Shake” though this infamous Drake’s Passage. Luckily, as active as my imagination is with irrational fears, it is quick to adopt a new reality once there is evidence of new information.
The release of fear and adaptation to the Drake Shake, proved to be a needed win, as the bumpy conditions remained the same for 36 hours! The next night, I imagined that I was sleeping in a relaxation machine, and I literally “rolled” with the waves and into a deep sleep, without hesitation.
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69 Likes, 4 Comments - Franklin Street Globetrotters (@franklin_street_globetrotters) on Instagram: "Our Antarctic Voyage started in Ushuaia, Argentina, where we boarded the smallest boat at the dock,..."
Post-dinner and a few hours after dinner, the hallways were lined with seasickness bags. Our family ended up using a few of them!
