Many tales are told of the Drake Passage, but they often pale in comparison to the dreams of those who cross it with hopes of viewing the ice vistas and penguin colonies that await in Antarctica. To venture south in such waters is to do so with courage and firm resolve.

Testing the design of the X-Bow of National Geographic Endurance, today’s winds howled more voraciously than the forecast presumed, and waves surrounded our vessel on its journey south. It is our luck that she is so well designed as she easily brought us into calmer seas in the afternoon.