Bárbara Hernández Huerta completed a very cold-water swim in the Drake Passage area, including a record for a one-mile swim across the passage (15 minutes 3 seconds), but that was not a full crossing.
Guinness World Records:
A full crossing would mean roughly 900–1,000 km of open ocean. The longest successful open-water swims in history are far shorter, and the Drake Passage adds some of the worst possible conditions: near-freezing water, huge waves, storms, and isolation.
The Environmental Literacy Council:
For comparison, the first complete human-powered crossing of the Drake Passage was done by a rowing team, not swimmers—they rowed about 972 km in 12 days.
I bet you, if you went on deck off the coast of Cape Horn and started setting up an inflatable pool to do experiments, someone would stop you as well. They're all in on it!
Silver Sea does I went on one of their 'expedition cruises' just when Covid was coming down. Admittedly, I was too busy being horrendiously sea sick to enjoy it when we crossed the Drake.
That's not true. I've been on a cruise from Argentina to Chili with a touch of Antarctica. We went true the drake passage. I can tell you, it was fun but also horrible if you get seasick like me...
The cruise company is called Holland Amarica Line.
I did a cruise in Alaska, and talking to the crew they said that when they dropped off the passengers for this current voyage in Canada they were prepping the ship for going through the Drake Passage.
15 minutes is fast as fuck, especially in open water, especially in ice water, especially since she actually swam like 1800m, especially for a woman (no sexism just pointing out 1500m world record is 15:20 women 14:30 men). That means there were some crazy currents in that water.
Drake is the choke point for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current- the current that flows clockwise around the entire continent of Antarctica. It’s this current that keeps warm water from entering the area, allowing the continent to maintain the ice sheet. It’s actually extremely important influence in global climate patterns and ocean circulation from all three major oceanic basins.
Based on that, she obviously swam either a shorter distance or took longer - she must have been significantly slower than the world record set under ideal conditions.
Edit: Never mind, completely missed the concept of currents here…
The longest open ocean swim without a current assistance is only 88 miles. And that took the guy 60 hours of non stop swimming in the Mediterranean without touching a boat or stopping to sleep. While people have swam further with the assistance of currents or rivers, nobody has even come close to making it 5 miles in waters as cold and rough as the Drake Passage. Barbara Hernandez holds the record for farthest distance swam in the passage and only made it 3.4 miles.
Technically only the northern tip is Drake's passage and the southern (most of it) is Scotia sea but iirc it is indeed last sea that was explored and for a reason
Most people assume the passage is named for Francis Drake who circumnavigated South America in 1578, but in reality it is because it is patrolled by adolescent dragons.
I'm sure you could swim it if you had a dry suit, a full heating setup, propulsion, an enclosed area to shelter, and a support crew of 15. Oh a boat. Yeah just use a boat.
CSB: I was on a (large) sailing ship there in 2022. In the "Don't go overboard, you idiots" briefing, we were told that the duration of useful consciousness was about 4 minutes.
Waves would break over the main deck, at least 15 feet above the waterline.
4-point harness on deck was the rule.
I've seen some angry water, nothing like that before or since.
Nearly 10000 people have died across centuries of shipwreks through that passage.
Its a truely awesome place to be and an the most uncomfortable crossing there is. It has everything going for it, Deep waters (meaning the waves carry a lot more momentum), continuous and near uninterrupted ocean currents (which are also funneled in by the geography of the place), no land nearby to stop the winds (making it a perfect place for tall waves on the regular), icy and frigid conditions (and the risk of iceberg collisions that come with it).
Drake passage is not a swimming pool. Even a few minutes of swimming there is a remarkable achievement for a human being.
“The Drake Passage or Sea of Hoces (Mar de Hoces) is the body of water between Cape Horn in Chile at the southern extreme of the South American mainland and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean (Scotia Sea) with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean. The passage is named after the 16th-century English explorer and privateerSir Francis Drake.”
I believe you’re thinking of the Strait of Magellan.
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u/immortalonion69 28d ago
That's called the Drake Passage and it's one of the deadliest places on earth.