When you leave things too long and don’t check your memories, you leave things out! Lesson learnt, I hope! How could I forget the Drake Passage and Cape Horn????
After Antarctica and before Ushuaia we had a day sailing the Bellinghausen Sea ( not the smoothest crossing ever, but could have been much worse!).
And then we headed for Cape Horn. I had no idea it was an island! And the captain’s skill made it possible for us to sail right around it. Initially, all we saw was the faint outline of what seemed like a hill – a rocky cliff in the ocean – and as we approached the shape gained colour and detail and we saw the Cape itself.
As we sailed around the Horn, the metal structure illustrating an albatross was pointed out to us. It is a memorial to all those seamen whose lives have been lost in the seas in this area, was made by the Chilean sculptor Jose Balcells, erected in 1992 through the initiative of the Chilean Section of the Cape Horn Captains Brotherhood. At the base of the sculpture is a poem by the Chilean writer Sara Vial. It reads:
I, the albatross that awaits you at the end of the world
I, the forgotten soul of the sailors lost
that crossed Cape Horn from the seas of the world.
But die they did not in the fierce waves,
for today towards eternity in my wings
they soar in the last crevice of the Antarctic winds.
And as we sailed on towards Ushuaia the skies cleared a little and we enjoyed safe passage through the notorious waters.
Living the Journey 