Rounding Cape Horn 2-19-09

Cape horn is at 55 degrees 59' S, 67 degrees 16' W. When we were here a month ago we did not get this close to "The Horn". It was a fabulous day. Clear skies, calm seas (like a lake), a little wind but not much at all. The temperature was 49 degrees!!! We experienced something most people do not.
Cape Horn is the southern most tip of South America. The waters here are normally ROUGH! Where the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean collide, is usually the recipe for disasters. Many ships never made it around The Horn and this area is their graveyard! For sailors, rounding Cape Horn was seen as the equivalent of running a marathon for distance runners, or climbing Mt. Everest for mountain climbers. It was not an easy feat, back in the day. Traditionally, a sailor who had rounded the Horn was entitled to wear a gold hoop earring in the left ear, as this is the ear that had faced the Horn when they were sailing East. We were sailing west, so Nicky and Charles will have to have their right ears pierced!!! If a tattoo was of the liking, a simple tattoo of a full-rigged sailing ship meant that the sailor had rounded Cape Horn. Since it is one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world, getting around it back "in the day", was a feat that was well respected. I will have to keep Nicky and Charles out of the tattoo parlors in Singapore!! Our rounding of the Horn was like taking a pontoon ride on Lake Martin!! It did not seem right that we should have such an easy go of it when there are monuments there to remember all the sailors that lost their lives while trying to round the Horn. A shockingly beautiful day, to see one of God's most glorious sights. Knowing that you are seeing the very last peak of the Andes Mountains plunge down into the sea was something to behold. There are many stops left for us over the next few months...they keep getting better and better. Stay tuned....






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