Ship captains usually avoid navigating under South America because it’s super dangerous! The waters around the southern tip, called Cape Horn, are known for strong winds, huge waves, and unpredictable weather. It’s basically like the wild west of the ocean, and even experienced sailors can struggle there. Plus, there’s a much safer and quicker route called the Panama Canal, where ships can pass through a man-made channel instead of going all the way around. The canal saves a lot of time and trouble. So, it’s no surprise that most captains prefer the easier and safer option! Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00There's a stretch of water that even the most experienced explorers fear.
00:04No matter what season you choose to cross it in, you risk meeting face-to-face with
00:09waves that can reach as tall as the Hollywood sign.
00:13I'm talking about the Drake Passage, the waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the
00:18Atlantic Ocean, stretching from Cape Horn at South America's southernmost tip to Antarctica's
00:24South Shetland Islands.
00:26It's about as wide as the distance from London to Berlin and takes up to 48 hours to cross.
00:33Some sailors compare getting on the other side to going to the moon.
00:37That's how challenging it is.
00:39Even the man who discovered it, Sir Francis Drake, never sailed these waters because they
00:43seemed too dangerous to him and opted for a calmer, although longer, Strait of Magellan.
00:50The passage took the lives of around 20,000 sailors and over 800 ships.
00:55Many who want to see Antarctica cross the Drake Passage on a regular basis, although
01:00it's still often called the world's most terrifying ocean crossing.
01:06The Antarctic Peninsula, where travelers go, isn't really part of Antarctica itself.
01:12It sticks out and points towards South America like two fingers almost touching it.
01:17The water gets squeezed between these two landmasses, making strong ocean currents.
01:22The passage is part of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the largest ocean current on Earth.
01:29The water rushes through the passage at a speed between 95 and 150 million cubic meters
01:35per second, which makes it rougher.
01:38And then there are winds that usually blow from west to east and are very strong between
01:4340 and 60 degrees latitude.
01:46That's why those areas are called the Roaring Forties, Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties.
01:53Land slows down winds, which is why storms hitting Ireland and the UK get weaker as they
01:58move east.
01:59But Drake's latitude is the only place where winds can blow all around the Earth without
02:04being stopped by land, so they keep getting faster.
02:09These strong winds turn into huge waves that can hit ships really hard, normally around
02:1513 to 16 feet tall.
02:17They're much higher than waves in the Atlantic.
02:21Drake Passage also has underwater mountains that you can't see.
02:25The huge current squeezes through this narrow passage and causes waves to crash against
02:30these mountains underwater.
02:33These internal waves create whirls that bring cold water up from the deep ocean.
02:38So it's not just rough on the surface, the water is wild all the way down.
02:44The first sailor managed to sail around Cape Horn and through the Drake Passage in 1616.
02:50It was a Dutch navigator, Willem Schouten, in 1616.
02:54But the most famous attempt to cross it was undertaken by Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
02:58on his ship named Endurance.
03:01He and 27 of his men set off from South Georgia, aiming to reach Vassal Bay in Antarctica.
03:08But things didn't go as planned.
03:10On January 19, 1915, their ship got stuck in the ice.
03:16And by October, it began to sink.
03:18They camped on floating ice for two months before sailing lifeboats to a remote, icy
03:24place called Elephant Island.
03:26Shackleton and five men made a risky journey to South Georgia to get help.
03:32It took them 15 days to cross Drake Passage with hurricane winds.
03:36Finally, they arrived safely and organized a rescue for the rest of their crew.
03:42Scientists found the shipwreck of Endurance only in 2022, 10,000 feet below the water.
03:49In December of 2019, six fearless athletes decided to cross the Drake Passage by rowing
03:56a boat for the first time in history.
03:59It took them 12 days of non-stop rowing with a 90-minute rotation of rowers.
04:05They managed to do it, and it was probably the hardest possible way to cross the passage.
04:10The athletes mentioned it was cold, wet, and dirty, and the waves hit them like walls.
04:16The weather in the Drake Passage changes a lot, but ship captains can always see it coming
04:21and change their path.
04:23They will move the departure time to have a safety margin and not to get stuck in the
04:27middle of the passage in the worst possible conditions.
04:31Sometimes the journey will be smooth and calm, and they call it Drake Lake.
04:35Other times, people on the ship will feel rough waves, which is called Drake Shake.
04:41Some experienced captains who often cross the passage say that the Drake Lake effect
04:46happens once in every ten crossings, and they see the Drake Shake once or twice in every
04:52ten journeys.
04:54A scooter or a kayak will probably not survive the journey among giant waves, but modest
04:59vessels and cruise ships have sturdy hulls and advanced stabilizing mechanisms.
05:04So the journey isn't that dangerous anymore, but still, it's quite an adventure, especially
05:10if you're seasick.
05:12If you don't feel like risking it but want to travel from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic
05:16Ocean by water the fast way, the Panama Canal is waiting for you!
05:21People first started thinking about making a water path across Panama in the 16th century.
05:26Back then, a Spanish explorer found out that only a thin piece of land separated the two
05:32oceans.
05:33But it seemed impossible to build it because of the mountains and thick jungle, so the
05:37idea had to wait a couple of centuries.
05:40Finally, in 1880, France, led by the man who built the Suez Canal in Egypt, tried to make
05:46the canal.
05:48But the people who started the construction soon found out it was much harder than it
05:52looked on a map.
05:54The land in Panama was one of the toughest and most dangerous places to dig a big waterway.
06:00Workers had to literally move huge mountains in a jungle full of snakes, where it was really
06:06hot and rainy.
06:08During the wet season, heavy rains turned rivers into wild rapids and soaked the workers.
06:13Sometimes, they didn't see the sun for two weeks, and their clothes stayed wet all the
06:18time.
06:19Big rocks were falling and tiny mosquitoes that carried malaria made people very sick.
06:25And then, an earthquake happened on top of everything.
06:28They were losing thousands of people.
06:30That's why France decided to abandon the project after seven years.
06:35Then the United States bought the French assets in the canal zone and finished it by 1914.
06:41It cost the US around $375 million.
06:46The 50-mile-long passage of water saves ships traveling between New York and San Francisco
06:517,872 miles.
06:55Around 14,000 ships use it every year and pay around $1.8 million in tolls.
07:02So it looks like it all paid off!
07:05Another challenging waterway in this part of the world is the Amazon River.
07:09It's around 4,300 miles long and flows through three countries with over 30 million people
07:15living in its basin.
07:17But there isn't a single bridge across it.
07:20The river has many marshes and soft soils, so engineers would need to build very long
07:25bridges and very deep foundations, which costs a lot of money.
07:30Building bridges over deep water is tough, but in other places in the world, engineers
07:35can use things like floating platforms to help.
07:38The river's path and water levels change a lot during the year.
07:42During the dry season from June to November, the river is usually two to six miles wide.
07:48But in the wet season from December to April, the river can become as wide as 30 miles,
07:54and the water level can rise by 50 feet.
07:57That's why they can't build floating bridges or pontoons.
08:01The riverbanks are made of soft dirt that moves and erodes with the seasons, and it
08:05makes things even harder.
08:08It would have to be an absolutely unique project to overcome all these challenges.
08:13Luckily, there's no pressing need for a bridge across the Amazon right now.
08:18The river mostly goes through areas that are sparsely populated, so there aren't so many
08:23major roads to be connected by bridges.