Wandering albatrosses, storm petrels and other seabirds will escort the vessel as you sail south across this famous passage named after Sir Francis Drake, the 16th-century English navigator. We will continue towards the Antarctic Convergence, a biological barrier where cold polar waters sink beneath the warmer waters of the more temperate zone. In 1819, the British explorer William Smith described the South Shetland Islands as "barren and covered with snow, with seals in abundance". Yet, mosses and lichens thrive during the short summer at the low-lying peninsulas of these rugged islands located directly adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula.
 
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