Spring Moon of the Southern Cross
55 degrees 57 minutes S 67 degrees 9 minutes W heading 272 degrees speed 12 knots
Cape Horn. The fabled Cape Horn. One of the roughest passages on the world ocean. The seas throw up spin drift and an albatross sails the winds, heading west with us.
The Veendam has slowed some and will soon make a turn around the most remote of the islands in the Cape Horn cluster, Cabo De Hornos, Cape Horn.
We are down now to 1.1 knots, almost stopped. The captain just gave a long soliloquy on the Cape, but the speaker here combined with my single hearing ear left most of it garbled. He did point out that the southern tip of Tasmania and parts of South Africa are south of our current position. (Kate heard that much.)
Antarctica lies due south about 1000 kilometers.
The day is clear, the sun shining and just a few clouds in the sky. So this is what it looks like beyond the edge of the Americas. Winds here are 11 at the Beaufort Scale, 60 mph. We will not go around the Cape because the Captain feels the seas would be too upsetting for the passengers.
Oh, well.
Birds do not seem frightened. There are terns and sea gull like birds out here, soaring high and low searching for fish and scraps.
So, as mariners have often done in the history of seafaring around Cape Horn, we have chosen to follow the Drake Passage to the east and leave the Cape to another trip.
