Will we get seasick on an expedition charter or crossing the Drake Passage?

Daniel Asmus
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

It depends entirely on the region. Most expedition cruising happens in sheltered waters: the Galapagos channels, Norway’s fjords, Indonesian straits and Pacific lagoons are generally calm, with short hops and nights at anchor.

The real exception is the Drake Passage, the roughly two-day open-ocean crossing between South America and Antarctica, which can be genuinely rough. It is a rite of passage rather than a dealbreaker: larger yachts with stabilizers ride it far better, captains time the window, and modern seasickness medication handles most of it. Some itineraries even fly guests across to the peninsula to skip the Drake entirely.

If motion is a concern, tell us and we steer you toward stabilized vessels, calmer regions, or a fly-in Antarctic option. See Antarctica charters.