- TikTokers are sharing videos of what it’s like to travel through the Drake Passage.
- Considered one of the roughest waterways in the world, waves can reach 40 feet high.
- Videos show crashing waves, broken plates, puke bags, and people sliding across the deck.
TikTokers are sharing harrowing footage from one of the most remote places on the planet — the Drake Passage — and turning it into a sort of viral and voyeuristic expeditioner’s summer camp.
The Drake Passage, which connects the southwestern bit of the Atlantic Ocean to the southeastern tip of the Pacific, is one of the roughest and most notoriously treacherous waterways on earth, as currents move unimpeded by landmasses in an “endless surge of raw power.” It’s also considered the “gateway” to Antarctica and a rite of passage for around 75,000 travelers a year hoping to make it to the coldest continent.
The general wisdom is that travelers will either face a calm day, referred to as Drake Lake, or the resonant, building-sized waves of “the roughest sea in the world,” known as the Drake Shake.
In videos of the experience (many uploaded from late November to early December), passengers recorded themselves sliding across the deck holding a wine glass aloft, walking at an unnatural lean through the hallways, or “holding on for dear life” to remain upright at breakfast. Many videos are set to the instrumental tune of Titanic’s “My Heart Will Go On.”
As passengers sip out of wine glasses at tables covered in elegant white tablecloths, the ship dips severely, lights flicker, and the sunset disappears as a wall of water rushes up. Chairs slide across the room, icy-blue waves smash against balcony doors, and, from what appears to be the vantage point of the ship’s kitchen staff, plates tip and smash against the ground, and pans of food slide out of the fridge. (Waves in the passage can reach a height of 40 feet).
Creators pan across measures taken to prevent or respond to seasickness as the ship lurches — puke bags lining the walls, close-ups of the anti-nausea medication Dramamine, and descriptions of fatigue and sickness.
Footage shows rough waters and tables bolted to the ground, and posters describe the “bitterly freezing” cold they’re feeling as the ship races toward the world’s least populated continent.
Much of the most popular Drake Passage content has been produced by relatively few passengers on the cruise — (you can see someone filming one of the most popular TikToks in the background of another of the most popular TikToks, as fellow travelers watch and laugh) — are reaching millions of views each.
The videos, which have the giddy breathlessness of an adventure — a dual sense of wonder and anticipation — have the feeling of an intrepid summer camp experience that we interlopers have stumbled onto by proxy — together.
“I need to know why the algorithm decided we all need to see nonstop Antarctica/drake passage content,” one TikToker commented.
“I was 48-hours-ago-old when I first ever heard of this Drake Passage. Now it’s all I see,” commented another.
“Antarctica TikTok” has made it possible for millions of people to peek into one of the most remote places on earth.
Antarctica TikToks, on the other side of the rough passage, show penguins jumping out of the water and swimming in the direction of the ship as sleet falls fast, majestic ice shelves rising out of the choppy water as heavy low-hanging clouds scatter sunlight onto the water. Early in the morning, the water is as still as glass. According to one poster, travel vlogger Natasha Alden (@theworldpursuit), a ten-day trip to the region ranges between $7,000-$12,000.
But, ultimately, watching the adventure from the comfortable distance of TikTok is as close as some Arctic-Tok viewers wish to get.
“My panic attack would have a panic attack,” wrote one user.
“I’d start looking for the violin group on the deck,” wrote another.
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