January 16 - Cape Horn

Cape Horn, the southern most tip of South America. I am excited to have made it here, however disappointed that it was the calmest the Captain "had ever seen". Again I was expecting some severe weather and heavy seas. Oh well, I guess I should count my blessings.

Pictures of Cape Horn

Arriving

The actual point looking North

OK, I want to know who is crazy enough to sail off Cape Horn and do you know who this is?

We picked up a Chilean pilot to take us through the Strait of Magellan. They transferred him from the Navy ship to ours via a RIB. I wouldn't want to fall off into those cold waters. The splash alone has got to be cold! Then the Navy ship was on its way.

Not a great Picture, but you get the idea.

 

Here are pictures of the lighthouse, monument and sea access of Cape Horn

  

 

There is a monument at Cape Horn. It is a large sculpture featuring the silhouette of an Albatross in honor of the approximate10,000 sailors who died while attempting to 'round the Horn'. It was erected in 1992 through the initiative of the Chilean section of the Cape Horn Captains Brotherhood.

 

Captain Stig then asked for a moment of silence and read this poem;

I am the albatross that waits for you at the end of the world. 

I am the forgotten souls of the dead mariners who passed Cape Horn from all the oceans of the earth.

But they did not die in the furious waves.

Today they sail on my wings toward eternity, in the last crack of Antarctic winds

Saying Good-Bye