A Michael Palin documentary a few years back saw him actually land and set foot on Cape Horn. For those who don't actually know, Cape Horn is, realistically the last point of "liveable" land on planet earth. Conditions further south are generally too cold, and this particular island is the southern most tip of South America.[]
It's owned by Chile, not Argentina and forms the southern point of the island area known as Tierra Del Fuego. I love the name actually - CAPE HORN. It has a certain inspired ring to it. I was hell bent on seeing it for real, and selfishly I wanted to step foot on it.
it's expensive to visit the Cape of Horn. For some reason Michael Palin didn't pay for it - it would all have been covered by a generous BBC budget for the purpose of filming. My trip was on a much lower budget and I managed to backpack my way to Antarctica - the trip to visit the Horn, even just to see it on the way back was such a bonus. However the Chilean marine authorities don't let ships close to it - they issue a proximity maximum of around 12 - 13 miles except in special circumstances.
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![]
Onboard the boat there was talk about whether we could go anywhere near Cape Horn on the way back to Argentina. There were clues onboard that this may happen. Screening an onboard documentary about Cape Horn was one, yet the crew were saying nothing!
However the map of the route onboard the ship was the giveaway as we had departed from Antarctica at Elephant Island and were changing direction rapidly, instead of heading directly north, there was a slight tilting to the north west, where Cape Horn sits.
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.
So we were all set to see Cape Horn in the flesh and get up close to it but this was also the final night on board our ship. This meant a late one in the bar up toasting to our amazing trip and watching the sunset on one side and rise on the other side of the boat almost simultaneously at 2 am. By 3am I was asleep and ready to be wakened up for the viewing of the magical Cape 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.
Once we were that close to Cape Horn everyone was busy staring out at it and taking photos. We got within 3 miles of it in the end and it was a magnificent moment. None of us landed on Cape Horn but we saw it with our own eyes!
It's owned by Chile, not Argentina and forms the southern point of the island area known as Tierra Del Fuego. I love the name actually - CAPE HORN. It has a certain inspired ring to it. I was hell bent on seeing it for real, and selfishly I wanted to step foot on it.
it's expensive to visit the Cape of Horn. For some reason Michael Palin didn't pay for it - it would all have been covered by a generous BBC budget for the purpose of filming. My trip was on a much lower budget and I managed to backpack my way to Antarctica - the trip to visit the Horn, even just to see it on the way back was such a bonus. However the Chilean marine authorities don't let ships close to it - they issue a proximity maximum of around 12 - 13 miles except in special circumstances.
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![]
Onboard the boat there was talk about whether we could go anywhere near Cape Horn on the way back to Argentina. There were clues onboard that this may happen. Screening an onboard documentary about Cape Horn was one, yet the crew were saying nothing!
However the map of the route onboard the ship was the giveaway as we had departed from Antarctica at Elephant Island and were changing direction rapidly, instead of heading directly north, there was a slight tilting to the north west, where Cape Horn sits.
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.
So we were all set to see Cape Horn in the flesh and get up close to it but this was also the final night on board our ship. This meant a late one in the bar up toasting to our amazing trip and watching the sunset on one side and rise on the other side of the boat almost simultaneously at 2 am. By 3am I was asleep and ready to be wakened up for the viewing of the magical Cape 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.
Once we were that close to Cape Horn everyone was busy staring out at it and taking photos. We got within 3 miles of it in the end and it was a magnificent moment. None of us landed on Cape Horn but we saw it with our own eyes!
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