Just after dawn we approached Horn island from the east, having exited the Beagle Channel overnight at its eastern end. The morning was heavily overcast, temperature 5C and the wind a gale gusting to 70 knots. At 7.30 am the Captain announced that we would not be passing around the south of Horn Island and then returning westward as planned. Because of the winds we would be sheltering on the lee side of Horn Island for 45 minutes. Even in the shelter of the island's hills the wind was still so strong that the upper decks were closed. I did manage to get a couple of pics as we approached from Deck 11, but it was very difficult to hold camera steady. No worry, as the ship did a 360 degree circle close to the island, letting all of us get a good look from our own balcony or window. So technically we didn't get to actually sail "around the Horn". But we were at the meeting point of the three oceans: Pacific, Atlantic and Southern.
So at 56 degrees latitude, we were at the bottom of the American continents and less than 300km from the Antarctic Peninsula. Cape Horn is some distance inland from the island's southern extremity, and stands clearly sentinel over the landmass. Believe it or not, nearer to the point, there is a manned lighthouse. A family lives there for a year tending the light. I suspect these days that supplies are probably delivered by helicopter, if not from Puerto Williams, then from deck of a supply ship. There is a large statue of a white albatross near the lighthouse -- could see it even without binoculars.
We then headed into the Atlantic for the Falkland Islands with the wind behind us, so making for fairly smooth sailing. I took in two morning lectures in the Stardust Theatre. First was from our destinations guide, a talk on Port Stanley and the Falklands war. More on that tomorrow. Then a most interesting illustrated talk by one of the two Chilean pilots who have been onboard since we left Valparaiso. He talked about the Pilot Service, and the ins and outs of navigating the many channels around Chile. One question asked in the Q&A section was about why pilots are still required given modern GPS navigation, ship auto piloting etc. He gave as example last night in the Beagle Channel. At one stage the current was running at more than 10 knots and the autopilot could not take that into account -- so they had to go to manual steering with the human pilot judging turns earlier than the computer would have indicated. Good to know that computers can't really replace us (just yet!).
My corridor here is almost 200 metres long; today I have Ben up and down it 5 times, so have walked at least 2 km. However, I decided I still should go to the gym and do my 30 minutes on the treadmill. While there we were passing Staten Island, so had hopes of seeing some bird life at least. All I managed to spy were a few cormorants and geese skimming the waves in search of fish: no albatross or sea lions. For first time on this trip too I noticed rubbish floating by: not a lot, but I suspect it is a taste of a pretty big problem in our oceans today.
Dinner in the buffet, and then to the theatre for the early Burt Bacharach musical "Taste of Love". The costumes (there were many rapid changes in the 45 minute performance) were sparkling and the dance routines very enjoyable. But here comes grumpy old man: the singing was shouting, and all of it off key. Why can't performers sing what the composer wrote? Why can't they produce a melody instead of their own mucked up version of what originally was beautiful tuneful music? Ah well.
I am still waiting for the ship's carpenter to visit me. Today when I opened the door onto my balcony at Cape Horn, a blast of wind swept into the cabin and lifted the ceiling tiles. They haven't fallen back into place and need an expert hand to get them to fit together again. Not somehting I anticipated happening!
Took lots of repetitive photos this morning, so have selected the best for you to see. Here.
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