2016-02-11 – At Sea Rounding Cape Horn / Drake Passage to Pacific Ocean

Thursday, February 11, 2016 – We awoke at 6:30 AM to a spectacular calm, albeit chilly, day. The sun shone with almost no clouds in the sky and the Cape clearly visible. We had been warned that most of the time it is all shrouded in clouds, very rough seas, high winds and visibility reduced to almost none. During the morning we passed by Nueva Iasland to the West and Lennox Island to the East then around Cape Horn (named after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands) to the Drake passage and through the Cockburn Channel to Hornos Island. This Island has a permanent Chilean Milatary settlement with one family living there for 6 months prior to being relieved by another family for 6 months. It is a very rugged outcrop and consists of a set of small islands. At the station on the largest of the islands, which is truly the last bit of land before the Shetland Islands and Antarctica there is also a lighthouse. As the weather was so favourable, the captain steered a course circumnavigating the Island twice – once starboard facing the island and once the port side, so all could take hundreds of pictures and admire the rugged place from all angles. We were entertained by one of the ships we saw yesterday in Ushuaia – Stella Australis (The Seabourn Quest being the other) on its way to Antarctica, moored offshore and transporting its passengers in rubber dinghies to the island. We could see the passengers going up the steep rock face and wandering around the island, very intrigued by us.

This is the spot where officially the South Atlantic Ocean meets the Pacific and being here is truly a great thrill – A big one off “The Bucket List”! The pictures, will probably be anti climatic to most as it shows an island with steep shear sides, a lighthouse and building and very little vegetation. However the experience of being “at the bottom of the world” and seeing this barren land for the first time in brilliant sun and calm seas is a memory to be seared in one’s memory for the rest of one’s days. After taking some 100+ photos of the same “rock”, we turned to more creative ways of picturing the same rock – some of which I will post separately, but only after major culling!!!

As we proceeded from the island we were entertained with a cooking demonstration by the Executive Chef, Chef de Cuisine from the Cafeteria and Pastry Chef (140 chefs plus 80 assistants prepare some 15,000 meals a day) demonstrating South American cuisine. By this time, the seas started to get rougher and I for one, started feeling somewhat queezy so retired for the rest of the day. The others followed, although not to the same extent, and the seas became quite rough – Rocking and Rolling away! Tonight we head up the Western side of Tierra del Fuego, South America, up the Chilean coast into the Magellan Strait to Punta Arenas, Chile – our next port of call.

The important part of the day, though was that the morning was brilliant as we rounded the Cape. Folklore dictated that sailors who sail around the Cape can wear an earring and eat with one foot on the table!! Today, it’s difficult to keep both feet on the ground and not falling to the floor with feet in the air!!