The magic of Cape Horn - this is basically the last part of planet earth as you head to the South Pole that you can realistically live on! Any further south and it's just too cold to live. Michael Palin once managed to step foot here on a BBC Documentary a few years back and now it was time to make the trip to Cape Horn.[]
Chile owns Cape Horn - not Argentina and this is the southern tip of the series of islands known as Tierra Del Fuego. You have to love the sound of this place - Cape Horn - it has a certain charm in its very title! The idea was to see it for real, up close and personal.
Stepping foot on the cape of Horn is at a high cost, hence why Michael Palin was able to do it - being a posh English type on a rich BBC budget, I envy his adventures but cannot afford them. Chilean officials do not allow any boats that are not Chilean to go within 12 or 13 miles (can't remember which) of the Horn itself, without a strict permission.
Our boat, the MS Expedition was built in Denmark, registered in Liberia and sailing between Antarctica and Argentina. On the way down to Antarctica, we seemed to take a fast, steady direct route down the Drake Passage, and late at night, meaning we were all asleep when we crossed the place where Cape Horn was. Furthermore we were a few hundred kilometres too far east anyhow![]
Russell and I had talked about whether or not we would see Cape Horn on the way back. Indeed the day before they had shown us a Cape Horn documentary which had us wondering. I asked a few of the leaders and they were tight lipped about it.
On the way back up on the Drake Passage most of us noticed the ship had changed direction slightly and now appeared to be heading north west rather than directly north. As Cape Horn was north west of us, it became clear that we were indeed going to be passing by Cape Horn!
This meant we were obviously planning to sail within viewing distance of Cape Horn, which was then rumoured to be our final "surprise" on board. This was later confirmed at that day's "Recap and briefing" where we were told we would get an early morning wake up call on our approach to Cape Horn so none of us would miss out. We were told this would be around 5 am.
However it was also the last night on board the ship to celebrate the epic journey to Antarctica so we had all been in the onboard bar celebrating and toasting to the incredible trip. It was almost 3 am when I got to bed and that meant only a couple of hours sleep before the dream arrival at the horn!
I awoke at 5 am just a few hours later, and awoke Mark my cabin mate to say "It's 5 am, aren't we supposed to be near Cape Horn now?" I looked out the window and there was no sign of Cape Horn so we drifted back to sleep and waited on the wake up call. I awoke again at 6 am, still with no announcement from The Bridge about whether or not we had reached Cape Horn, but I decided to get up and shower and change anyway as I couldn't miss this chance.
Finally just before 7 am we had the announcement that we were on our approach to Cape Horn. We were also informed that the Captain had been in touch with the Chilean authorities and that we were able to breach the normal barrier of 12 - 13 miles within the Cape.
Everyone gathered on the very top deck laden with cameras and warm clothes. It was a joy just staring out at this remote piece of land on the south tip of Chile knowing we had seen the end of the civilised world. We didn't land on it, but we saw it.
Chile owns Cape Horn - not Argentina and this is the southern tip of the series of islands known as Tierra Del Fuego. You have to love the sound of this place - Cape Horn - it has a certain charm in its very title! The idea was to see it for real, up close and personal.
Stepping foot on the cape of Horn is at a high cost, hence why Michael Palin was able to do it - being a posh English type on a rich BBC budget, I envy his adventures but cannot afford them. Chilean officials do not allow any boats that are not Chilean to go within 12 or 13 miles (can't remember which) of the Horn itself, without a strict permission.
Our boat, the MS Expedition was built in Denmark, registered in Liberia and sailing between Antarctica and Argentina. On the way down to Antarctica, we seemed to take a fast, steady direct route down the Drake Passage, and late at night, meaning we were all asleep when we crossed the place where Cape Horn was. Furthermore we were a few hundred kilometres too far east anyhow![]
Russell and I had talked about whether or not we would see Cape Horn on the way back. Indeed the day before they had shown us a Cape Horn documentary which had us wondering. I asked a few of the leaders and they were tight lipped about it.
On the way back up on the Drake Passage most of us noticed the ship had changed direction slightly and now appeared to be heading north west rather than directly north. As Cape Horn was north west of us, it became clear that we were indeed going to be passing by Cape Horn!
This meant we were obviously planning to sail within viewing distance of Cape Horn, which was then rumoured to be our final "surprise" on board. This was later confirmed at that day's "Recap and briefing" where we were told we would get an early morning wake up call on our approach to Cape Horn so none of us would miss out. We were told this would be around 5 am.
However it was also the last night on board the ship to celebrate the epic journey to Antarctica so we had all been in the onboard bar celebrating and toasting to the incredible trip. It was almost 3 am when I got to bed and that meant only a couple of hours sleep before the dream arrival at the horn!
I awoke at 5 am just a few hours later, and awoke Mark my cabin mate to say "It's 5 am, aren't we supposed to be near Cape Horn now?" I looked out the window and there was no sign of Cape Horn so we drifted back to sleep and waited on the wake up call. I awoke again at 6 am, still with no announcement from The Bridge about whether or not we had reached Cape Horn, but I decided to get up and shower and change anyway as I couldn't miss this chance.
Finally just before 7 am we had the announcement that we were on our approach to Cape Horn. We were also informed that the Captain had been in touch with the Chilean authorities and that we were able to breach the normal barrier of 12 - 13 miles within the Cape.
Everyone gathered on the very top deck laden with cameras and warm clothes. It was a joy just staring out at this remote piece of land on the south tip of Chile knowing we had seen the end of the civilised world. We didn't land on it, but we saw it.
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