Mon, Oct 23 – Cruising Cape Horn – It may be the most notorious ocean passage in the world, and for centuries it caused dread in the hearts of sailors. But those who survived a trip around Cape Horn, where the Atlantic and Pacific slosh violently into each other, had bragging rights for life. Along this passage, the Tierra del Fuego, or "land of fire," where Chile and Argentina converge at the bottom of the world, got its name from early sailors who saw the fires of the people who lived here burning on shore. 

Magellan and Drake left their mark and names here, as did Darwin. The great clipper ships of '49er lore later fought their way through fierce waves carrying gold between California and the East Coast in the era before the Panama Canal.  

Cape Horn is named after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands, it is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego in southern Chile, and is located on Isla Hornos in the Hermite Islands group.  

We were going around the cape around 6 a.m., so we were up and out with most of the ship.  It is cold, ugly and windy.  However, the seas are calm compared to what they could have been or have been.  We were told that there is a monument on the island that is a tribute to those that have lost their lives going around the horn; it was erected in 1992 and the plaque at the base reads:  "I am the albatross that waits for you at end of the earth. I am the forgotten soul of the dead sailors who crossed Cape Horn from all the seas of world. But they did not die in the furious waves. Today they fly in my wings to eternity in the last trough of the Antarctic wind." This translation is off of the internet, but from the papers we received on the ship and what we could find on the web, this seems to be the consensus of what the plaque says - it is in Spanish I believe.

Another quote that we were told about Cape Horn is "Below 40 degrees south there is no law, but below 50 degrees south there is no God".  After reading some of the stories and hearing from past cruisers about the ugly weather around the Horn, I am very pleased that we had a "good" day.  One of the passengers was complaining quite loud because we didn't have any "rough" seas.  Let him have his rough seas some place else thank you very much.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful as it was rather overcast and cold outside so we just huddled down inside and watched some movies.