Southern Oceans.

Ice Diving.

Sailing. 

When the fleet of four boats in the Portimão Global Ocean Race round Cape Horn over the next few days, it will mark the first rounding by a race of 40ft yachts and the first race rounding by a Chilean team. A truly momentous achievement for the seven yachstmen.

Debate continues over the original discovery of the world’s southernmost cape: did Francisco de Hoces - the Spanish commander of the caravel San Lesmes – first site the rocky outcrop in 1526 after being swept south while trying to navigate the eastern entrance of the Straits of Magellan? If so, he predates the 1578 rounding of Sir Francis Drake by a little over half a century. However, since the Amsterdam merchant, Willem Shouten, formally named the place in 1616, Cape Horn has been a craved destination and right of passage for offshore sailors: a prime objective in sailing aspirations, part maritime bogeyman, part Holy Grail.

The Horn marks the northern limit of Drake Passage, a fearsome stretch of water between South America and the Antarctic continent where the Southern Ocean is squeezed through a narrow and relatively shallow gap: a concentration of wind and waves that can produce monstrous seas. The cape’s legendary status and fearsome reputation has filled the pages of many books, but the 'Long Drag Shanty' conveys a true sense of dread that the area can inspire:

Round Cape Horn where the stiff wind blows,
Round Cape Horn where there’s sleet and snow.
I wish to God I’d never been born
To drag my carcass around Cape Horn

Cape Horn has wrecked countless ships and claimed the lives of many sailors attempting to round this barren, rocky, outcrop; the southernmost, drowned peak of the Andes Mountains chain. One survivor of a Horn gale was Charles Darwin during the voyage of exploration that formed his theories on evolution. This experience totally demoralised the brilliant naturalist: 'The necessary discomforts of the ship heavily pitching and the miseries of constant wet and cold, I have scarcely for an hour been quite free from seasickness. How long the bad weather may last, I know not; but my spirits, temper, and stomach, I am well assured, will not hold out much longer.'

Darwin’s ship, the Beagle, came within minutes of foundering during the gale due to the captain’s insistence that all the ports for deck drains should remain closed. Fortunately, the ship’s carpenter chose to remain on standby with a handspike and saved the Beagle. Darwin’s dairy entry of Sunday 13th January 1833 records this event, just 20 miles west of the cape:

'Our horizon was limited to a small compass by the spray carried by the wind; the sea looked ominous; there was so much foam, that it resembled a dreary plain covered by patches of drifted snow. At noon the storm was at its height; and we began to suffer; a great sea struck us and came onboard; the same sea filled our decks so deep, that if another had followed it is not difficult to guess the result. It is not easy to imagine what a state of confusion the decks were in from the great body of water. At last the ports were knocked open and she again rose buoyant to the sea.'

Although Darwin was clearly in a poor condition during the storm, he was still able make observations: 'Whilst we were heavily labouring, it was curious to see how the albatross with its widely expanded wings, glided right up the wind'. These solitary creatures symbolise the Southern Ocean. Their ability to harness the fierce winds raging at the bottom of the world coupled with a habit of following yachts and ships through remote sea areas has formed a mysterious bond between sailors and albatross: a connection that is highly evident at Cape Horn. There are only five manmade structures on treeless Horn Island.

At the southern tip of the island sits an unmanned lighthouse marking Cape Horn and a second light is located above Point Espocon on the eastern end of the island. Behind the second light is a single-storey dwelling housing the Chilean lighthouse keeper and his family. Alongside the accommodation hut is a tiny chapel: a simple building constructed in timber, housing six pews and a plain, unfussy altar. Upon closing this building’s double doors on the gale outside, the quiet within the chapel is entirely unnatural. This almost supernatural aspect increases with the final structure; a massive albatross statue dominating the plain above the island’s southern cliffs. This diamond shaped, iron artwork features a cut-out silhouette of an albatross in flight: aligned north-south, the prevailing westerly wind moans through the statue’s void producing a primal and highly disturbing sound. Carved on the concrete base of the statue is a sombre and melancholy poem in Spanish. It is very difficult to turn one’s back on the giant albatross:

I am the Albatross Waiting for You
At the End of the World
I am the Forgotten Soul of Dead Sailors
Those who Sailed Through Cape Horn
From All Oceans in the World.
But they have Not Died
In The Furious Waves,
In My Wings they Fly today
To The Eternity
In The Last Crevice
Of Antarctic Winds

Sara Vial. December 1992

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Cape Horn

Cape Horn Albatros Monument

Map of Cape Horn Area

A Monument to the navegators of the world who have rounded Cape Horn

Location: Horn Island (Isla Hornos), Cape Horn, Chile

The Cape Horn route became most popular following the California Gold Rush in 1849. This route was considered to be preferable to crossing the dangerous prairie of North America. After the opening of transcontinental railroad in 1869, passenger traffic around Cape Horn began to taper off in favor of the safer and quicker method of train travel to cross the continent. The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 further cut back travel around Cape Horn. Today, many sailors choose to travel the Cape Horn route simply for the challenge of it due to the hazards involved.

Yachts and cruise ships to Cape Horn

7 DAY CAPE HORN TOUR

(This may also be done along with the 7 day glaciers and fjords combination)

This itinerary is from Ushuaia or also it can be from Puerto Williams, Chile.

Day 1
You will board the sailboat at the Ushuaia Yacht Club (Club Afasyn), to start the trip. We will sail towards the east through the Beagle Channel, see its magellanic cormorants, imperial cormorants, giant petrels and sea wolves. The Light House Les Eclaireurs will indicate the changing of our course towards Port Williams, Chile, the world's most Southern town.

Docked at the Micalvi Yacht Club, we will spend our first night in the sailboat.
Life on board will allow us to learn the diverse tasks from the kitchen, the order, taking on water and knowing some marine knots. The spirit of collaboration always always present will help us to release the anxiety of not knowing what will happen the next day.

After this first night in Port Williams, where we will be able to make a long walk to visit Beavers and see the woods, then we will prepare ourselves to depart towards the Glaciers area, with West course through the Beagle Channel. We will be sailing this area for six days, which offers safe bays or creeks for the anchoring at night and allows landings, beautiful landscapes and long walks to enjoy.

Day 2
"Setting sail."  We will sail the length of the Beagle Channel, heading sailing towards the east, alongside Navarino Island coast to the fishing village of Puerto Toro where we will stay overnight,.

Day 3
Then after waiting for good weather, we will enter the sometimes stormy Nassau Bay, in the direction of the Wollaston islands and Port Martial, the marine fauna is extraordinary. We may experience Williwaw winds. And this is the moment, under good weather conditions to reach the mythical Cape Horn, passing by Picton and Lennox Islands, whose eastern flank holds hidden coves.  The coves are an essential shield of earth that shelters us from the almost always strong winds from the west.  By the 1900s, many expeditions found protection here, which let them complete their anthropological and geographic missions.
We will stay overnight in Maxwell cove.

Day 4
We will wait in Maxwell Cove for ideal conditions in which to round Cape Horn.  Just 15 miles separate us from the southernmost point in South America. 
The first opportunity will be taken - we will round Cape Horn.  If weather conditions permit, we will visit the personnel stationed at the Chilean Naval Station, who take care of the lighthouse in this solitary place.  In the small wind-beaten Chapel Stella Maris, we will remember the people of the sea, who in this desolate Cape, lost their lives fighting the hostile elements of nature.  At sunset, we will anchor ten miles north, in Martial Cove.

Day 5
After visiting  the Cape Horn we will head back for Puerto Williams and Ushuaia by the same route. Today's destination: Puerto Toro. One hundred years ago, Puerto Toro was considered the administrative center of the southernmost part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.  With gold fever over, Puerto Toro became the tranquil hamlet it is today.  Today, the local fishing fleet uses the port as a base in the archipelago.  With some luck, we will enjoy "centolla," the prized southern king crab.

Day 6
We will pass by a shipwrecked transport vessel, and along the length of the coast, isolated estates.   At sunset, Puerto Williams will receive us again.  In the Yacht Club Micalvi's bar, the new "Cape Horners" will toast with the traditional pisco sour for their successful crossing.

Day 7
Time to relax and re-pack luggage. One last stroll through the town, empanadas for lunch.  Our flight to Punta Arenas usually leaves after lunchtime.  Once again, we can admire an aerial view of our stops: Navarino Island, the Beagle Channel, and the Darwin Range. Alterativly we go back to the Club Alfasyn in Ushuaia.

Please be aware that the routes may change due to bad weather conditions.


On returning to Puerto Williams, the Chilean
Navy will make a certificate of "Rounding The
Horn" available to you for a small fee. The
natural phenomenon called "Williwas" which
sometimes exists in Tierra Del Fuego is a
strong wind up to 100 knots hat comes from a
sudden difference in atmospheric pressure and
can be a spectacle difficult to forget.

Cape Horn is the steep headland on Horn
Island, part of TIERRA DEL FUEGO, in southern
Chile. It is the southernmost point of South
America and extends into DRAKE PASSAGE.

After visiting Cape Horn, we backtrack to
Puerto Williams by the same route or by way of
Puerto Toro, visiting other points of interest.

Rounding it by ship in the old days of
sailing could be one of the stormiest and
most dangerous passages in the world.

Now we have weather forecasts, secluded routes
and protected coves to make it easier fort us.

The Cape was sighted by Sir Francis Drake in
1578, but it was named for the birthplace
(Hoorn) of the Dutch navigator Willem
Schouten, who first sailed around it in 1616.

The Strait of MAGELLAN lies to the North of
Cape Horn some 200 miles. It was discovered
in 1520 by Ferdinand Magellan is the
preferred route by all but the biggest boats.

False Cape Horn, located 56 km (35 mi)
northwest on Isla Hoste, another island of
the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, is
sometimes mistaken for Cape Horn that
has caused many a shipwreck.