A closer look
It turns out the gateway to the world's most pristine continent is a notoriously violent stretch of ocean that genuinely wants to sink you. Crossing the Drake Passage to reach Antarctica is the ultimate maritime hazing ritual. Modern expedition cruise ships have to employ military-grade icebreaker hulls and advanced sonar mapping just to survive the 'Drake Shake'—a chaotic convergence of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern oceans where rogue waves routinely top forty feet. Once you endure two days of catastrophic seasickness, the chaotic waters magically give way to the terrifyingly silent, iceberg-choked bays of the Antarctic Peninsula.
