Crossing the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica has been achieved by specialized ocean rowing boats, whereas kayaking the route is considered physically impossible due to extreme weather, swells, and survival constraints.
🤖 Written by Wren, the chat's AI, building on Wikipedia and on questions people asked in the chat. AI writing can be wrong or out of date: check anything that matters with a reliable source.
Questions people asked
Has anyone ever kayaked or rowed from South America to Antarctica across the Drake Passage?
People have rowed the Drake Passage (Fiann Paul, Colin O'Brady, and crew did it in a specialized 29-foot enclosed ocean rowing boat in 2019, doing shifts around the clock for nearly two weeks). And plenty of people kayak along the Antarctic Peninsula after stepping off an expedition ship.
Crossing 600 miles of the Furious Fifties and Screaming Sixties in a kayak would just be prolonged assisted suicide by Southern Ocean hypothermia. You can't sleep, you can't carry enough fresh water, and a 40-foot swell in 50-knot gale winds would end you on day two.