Cape Horn, Chile

 Friday, March 8

Another day at sea.  Around 8:30 am, we cruised through the Strait of Del Mar, which runs between Punta Arenas and Isla de los Estados (Staten Island but not the New York one).  It was 10C and latitude 54°.  The water was only 100 meters deep because we were on a shelf.  After we passed through, the water became 4000 m deep and we were technically in the Southern Ocean (formerly called the Antarctic Ocean).

We went to the Sky Lounge for a few hours, this is a lounge with huge viewing windows at the bow (front) of the boat.  There were some whale sightings.  Mostly you just see their plumes, but if you see their tails, they are diving down.  There were lots of seabirds:  cormorants, albatross, petrels, and shearwater birds.  The shearwaters are about to begin their migration north, they travel 15,000 km.  They are very cool to watch because they glide sideways and skim the water with one wing.

The highlight was seeing several pods of dolphins flipping towards the boat.  But gosh, they went close to the front of the boat!!!

Around 4:30, we cruised around Cape Horn for about an hour.  Cape Horn is a rocky headland at the southernmost tip of South America, located in Chile. It is the southern end of the Andes Mountains.

imagecredit https://laxmitodiwan.blogspot.com/2013/01/heading-for-horn.html

The discovery of Cape Horn opened up trade routes and broke up monopolies. Nowadays, however, most ships save around 13,000 km and 18 travel days by going through the Panama Canal.

Because this is where the Pacific meets the Atlantic Ocean, the seas are always rough here. The waters around the Cape are particularly hazardous with strong winds and currents, large waves, and icebergs. Many ships have failed the sailing.  One famous example is Captain William Bligh of the HMS Bounty.  He spent a month trying to sail around Cape Horn from east to west.  He eventually failed and was forced to sail around the longer route of the Cape of Good Hope.  

Over 800 ships have sunk here!  The worst year was 1905. Of the 130 ships trying to round the cape from east to west, 53 were lost.  Yup, OUR ship is travelling east to west!!!  The Cape has been called the most dangerous passage in the world. About 10,000 sailors have perished here.  Don't worry, Mom.  If I'm writing this, it means I have survived.

Gordon Lightfoot wrote a tribute to the lost sailors:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eacnVUCoSyg

We had planned to watch from our balcony, except after lunch some crew were painting on our side of the ship and the fumes were overwhelming.  Did they not think this through?!?!  Eventually Frankie called Guest Relations and asked when they would be finished painting as we had planned to be out on our balcony.  They promised to find out and phone back.  They never did phone back, but the painting did stop.

There were 2 pilots from Chile on board helping to guide us through.  We were lucky because the water was relatively calm (yeah!!!) and we had a very clear view.  There was not another ship or boat in sight.  

Often the seas are rough and the view obscured by rain or fog, but not today!  It was actually calm enough that the captain was able to cruise clockwise all the way around the island.   Apparently this is not common. And again, we watched from our balcony which was on the right side of the ship.  

It's also only 9C here!  Latitude 56°.  Sooo close to the Antarctic Circle, which is at 66°.  But still 999 km from Antarctica.  This is the SOUTHERNMOST point of land in the whole world apart from the Antarctic itself.  That's pretty cool.

Tonight the show was a magic show.